The concept that an ape can have greater intelligence than a human being is both unexpected and exciting. Who’d have guessed such an ape existed in the first place? There was a whole tribe of them, not just one.
However, in the eyes of Flash, there is only one such intelligent monkey that causes havoc like no other villain. Gorilla Grodd, an evil yet incredibly intelligent gorilla, uses all of his scientific and technological expertise to bring civilization to its knees.
In fact, he despises humans so much that he went back in time to wipe out their entire existence before they ever existed. In this video, we’ll learn about Gorilla Grodd’s beginnings and what he’s capable of. So, without further ado, let’s get started watching the video.
The first comic book appearance explored
Gorilla Grodd made his first appearance in the DC comic books in the pages of The Flash, Issue #106, which was published in May 1959. He was created by the dynamic duo of John Broome and Carmine Infantino.
The Flash: Menace of the Super Gorilla begins with a surprise craft that whizzes through the sky near the African coast and in an instant vanishes deep inside the Atlantic ocean. The craft is seen arriving in Central City Park through underground pathways. It appears that a figure sits inside this mysterious craft, but we do not know what or who it is.
Now, backstage at the Central City Theatre, we meet Fred Pearson, who is sitting in the costume of a gorilla. As a featured actor, he has been playing the role of “The Great Gorilla” for the past three years. It looks like this is now affecting his mental state since there is an actual fearsome gorilla at large in Central City. He starts to question whether it is his alter ego, and if unknowingly he’s the one wreaking all that havoc?
In a state of desperation, he calls his most dear friend, Barry Allen for help. When Barry is leaving the scientific detection bureau at police headquarters, he hears a woman screaming about seeing a gorilla. Assuming it to be the same mystery gorilla who has been terrorizing the town, Barry Allen uses the ring that releases a pressed rapidly expanding uniform and transforms himself into the Flash.
He goes in the direction where the woman came from but feels something strange. It looked like something passed by him with a gush of heavy wind, but he could not see anything. It could not have been a tornado since its top speed is 500 miles per hour. The wind he felt was even faster than that. He then runs at full speed to match the windblast through which he can now see an object but not precisely.
And right when he was almost at par with it, without the slightest pause, it reversed its direction giving Flash no time to turn around and catch up with it. After losing its trail, the scarlet speedster then goes to meet Fred Pearson. Fred informs Barry of an incident that happened at the theatre the other day, right before his gorilla performance. Apparently, something struck him hard and he heard a voice in his head, like a message from someone’s mind. The thought that appeared in his brain was, “Must hide out for a couple of hours… have an idea.”
And then he was knocked out cold. After a while, people came up to him to congratulate him for a successful performance, but he was sure of the fact that he was out cold in the dressing room throughout the entire duration of his performance. So, who was the gorilla on the stage? And could it actually have been Fred’s alter ego?
In the meantime, at Central City Park, we once again see the strange craft hidden behind trees. First, just a hand and then the whole body, a gorilla named Grodd appears before us for the first time. He has come from the secret Gorilla City deep inside Africa and he is searching for another one of his kind who supposedly has the most extraordinary mind in the world. Grodd goes into a nearby circus and finds his friend named Solovar, another gorilla, inside a cage, who apparently has an intelligent brain.
Grodd uses his telepathic powers on Solovar to find out the secret through which he can control the entire world. By probing into Solovar’s mind, he acquires the power of force of mind and leaves for Gorilla City. This is when Solovar realises the danger Grodd poses to both his own kind and the humans. He breaks out of his cage to go search for the Flash.
Upon reaching his house, he tells flash about Grodd, the evil gorilla who must be stopped for the sake of both their races. Solovar tells Flash the secret location of his city and they reach Africa in half a second. On the other hand, Grodd has successfully used the force of mind to control the gorilla soldiers and dreams of soon becoming Grodd, the master of Earth.
His imagination is soon interrupted by the arrival of the Flash. Flash uses superhuman speed so that Grodd would be unable to use his telepathic powers to overwhelm him. And with a burst of speed, Flash attacks Grodd by catching him in a whirlpool of rotating air. He spins Grodd at the highest possible speed, which not only stops him from thinking but also jolts him, and he loses the force of mind power. As a result, Grodd is no longer in possession of those powers.
The issue concludes with Flash promising Solovar that he will never reveal the location of their secret Gorilla City and telling Fred Pearson that he can now rest his mind because he was never the terrorizing gorilla on the streets.
Exploring the origins of the cunning Gorilla!
In the 19th century, a meteor crashed deep inside a place in Africa that has always been surrounded and hidden by the neighboring mountains. The crash took place where a tribe of gorillas lived. And as a result of this crash, all the gorillas of that tribe gained hyper-intelligence along with certain telepathic powers. They built an advanced society and named it Gorilla City through this new and improved version of themselves.
Surprisingly, their knowledge of science surpasses even that of human beings. That is why they have continued to keep their presence hidden from the human world. This is the place where Grodd, the evil gorilla, also resides. Solovar, whom we met earlier in the video, is the leader of their tribe, and he was captured by humans when he was away from home. He was then brought to a circus in Central City, where he acted dumb in order to hide his advanced intelligence.
Naturally, the people assumed he was just a normal gorilla. That is the time when Grodd eventually arrived in Central City to look for Solovar. But as we know, he did not come to rescue him; instead, he used him for his own evil purposes.
Gorilla Grodd in the Arrowverse
Grodd is an interesting character in DC, so it is obvious that you will find him in the Arrowverse. However, his story here is quite different from what we just explored. Initially, he was just a normal silverback gorilla who was used as a test subject in S.T.A.R. Labs. While kept as a captive, Dr. Harrison Wells, whom we also know as Eobard Thawne, would conduct countless experiments on him.
Now, when the particle accelerator exploded, Grodd escaped his cell and obtained immense strength and intelligence along with extraordinary psychic powers. After spending quite some time in hiding, he was found and raised under the control of the Reverse-Flash and eventually became an unbeatable enemy of the Flash.
At one point, he also kidnapped Joe West and almost forced him to kill himself by using his telepathic powers. However, Barry Allen was able to stop him. Now, Caitlin Snow had previously taken care of Grodd when he was kept as a test subject at S.T.A.R. Labs. Upon seeing him so distraught and lonely, she felt compassionate towards him since he was the only meta gorilla.
So, she came up with a plan along with Team Flash to take him to Gorilla City so that he could live with other gorillas of his kind. But, call him greedy or an evil soul; Grodd clearly does not deserve Caitlin’s compassion since the only thing he desired was power. He wanted to gain more power so that he could overthrow Solovar and take control of Central City with the help of a gorilla army.
Although later on, his plan failed miserably, and he was locked up by A.R.G.U.S., a research group of the US government who are responsible for taking down terrorist threats in secret. But this was still not the end of the troubles that Grodd would eventually cause in Barry Allen’s life. A series of back and forth battles took place between the two and usually ended with Grodd being sent back to A.R.G.U.S.
His presence in the DC Animated universe
Gorilla Grodd’s character was introduced to us in a variety of animated shows, starting with Challenge of the Super Friends. In this version, he is a member of Lex Luthor’s Legion of Doom and creates a time travel device for their purpose. He is voiced by Stanley Ralph Ross.
Next, we see him in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, where he is voiced by John DiMaggio. In the series set in the DC Animated Universe, Gorilla Grodd is voiced by Powers Boothe. He appears in the Justice League, where he has escaped from Gorilla City and takes revenge on them before making an attempt to destroy the Justice League. He is also the creator of Giganta in this series.
In search of his newfound purpose, he and Giganta join the Secret Society with Killer Frost, Sinestro, Parasite, Shade, and Clayface. But they are eventually beaten and imprisoned by the Justice League. Later on, he appeared in the third season of Justice League Unlimited. Here, he has escaped from prison and taken over the Secret Society in order to influence the Society members to join him in his plan to convert every human on Earth into apes.
But when his plans failed, Lex Luthor captured him to overthrow him as the Society’s leader. However, soon the Society is divided into factions who are loyal to Luthor and those who are loyal to Grodd. Eventually, Luthor and Grodd square off against each other until Luthor turns Grodd’s powers against him and throws him out of the airlock.
What makes him so powerful?
As a gorilla, the technological knowledge of Grodd surpasses his kind and even those of humans. He comes from a tribe of intelligent gorillas who received their powers through a meteor crash. Due to his advanced scientific knowledge, he has also been seen creating different types of devices. As for his physiology, Grodd has superhuman strength and durability, which is far greater than that of an average gorilla.
He has an incredible telepathic ability through which he can enter the minds of people and actually control them, making them do whatever he wishes. He can also perform mind control on other gorillas from his tribe, which only indicates that his telepathic powers are superior to the rest. He has the capacity to perform mind transfer through which he can transfer his consciousness into other entities.
He is also able to produce psionic blasts and can execute molecular reconstruction, thereby transforming matter. Telekinesis is also what makes him so powerful, as he can project energy and create a force field. In some comic versions, we also come across an extremely disturbing fact about Gorilla Grodd. We can see him devouring the brains of many human beings and other creatures in order to fuel and enhance his own intellectual capacity because he believes he is absorbing the knowledge of those he feeds on.
Gorilla Grodd acts as a rather distinct villain of the Flash compared to the other villains we have seen him fight so far. He makes Barry Allen work for the win, which certainly adds a bit more entertainment to his story. Needless to say, he is a top-tier villain whose mind-controlling powers can turn even the most innocent beings into vicious ones.
Well, guys, that is all for today; we have come to the end of another origin video with Marvelous Videos. We hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Make sure to drop a like and hit that subscribe button on your way out so that you never miss out on more such videos. Also, comment down below and tell us what you liked most about this character. Until then, everyone, stay safe, take care, and see you in the next video. We hope you have a fantastic day!