The Thinker has long been a character in the Flash Universe. Being the Flash’s opponent is difficult given that he can bend time and space and move at the speed of light. The Thinker is smart and, despite his lack of superhuman speed, he is supported in everything he does by cutting-edge technology.
In the DC Universe, there have been many Thinkers over the years, and fans have always wondered who the Thinker was specifically as different incarnations of the character appeared and the concept behind the character changed. What makes the Thinker such a crucial supervillain and who is he exactly? We will learn ahead of time.
The Thinker Origin story from The Flash TV Series
Professor Clifford DeVoe, afterwards known as The Thinker, was portrayed by actor Neil Sandilands. He had previously taught history at Central City University. He was raised in South Africa and was born on May 8, 1975. He attended the University of Johannesburg where he studied economics and history.
Beginning his career as a professor at Oxford University, Clifford focused on the history of combat and military tactics, particularly in the Middle Ages. He met Marlize here, and the two later got married after falling in love. At Central City University, Clifford gave multiple lectures on the fragmentation of Japanese politics and other subjects. Later in 2013, he and his wife moved to Central City after accepting a job offer there as a professor.
DeVoe and Marlize adjusted to their new lives and recognised a chance for human evolution to advance through the mental acceleration. DeVoe believed that his brilliance would be sufficient to help them spread knowledge throughout society. Dr. Harrison Wells’ S.T.A.R Labs particle accelerator project was followed by the couple. DeVoe created the “Thinking Cap” plans so that Marlize could build a device to boost his intelligence by utilizing the dark matter produced by the particle accelerator explosion.
DeVoe and his wife brought the Thinking Cap to S.T.A.R Labs on the day of the accelerator’s launch. They waited outside the lab for the explosion, which DeVoe had deduced would happen after meeting with Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash. When the blast occurred, the dark matter spread throughout Central City and, in turn, also powered up the Thinking Cap, which gave DeVoe even superior intellect.
However, the power came at a great price. Soon after, DeVoe was hospitalized due to a spasm. It turns out he had developed ALS and lost the use of his legs. His physical body deteriorated, trying to maintain the vast intellect of his brain. Marlize built DeVoe a hoverchair that plugged into his brain and helped slow down the body’s deterioration.
DeVoe kept watch of Team Flash and eventually learned of Flash’s true identity as Barry Allen. He then formulated a plan and started keeping an eye on Ramsey Deacon, Becky Sharpe, Ralph Dibny, Mina Chaytan, Sylbert Rundine, Dominic Lanse, and Neil Borman. Izzy Bowin, Matthew Kim, Janet Petty, Edwin Gauss. He manipulated events in their lives, so they would end up on the same bus simultaneously and was aware of their possibility of becoming Metahumans before Barry was even aware of their existence.
The Thinker Origin story in Comics
Clifford DeVoe first appeared in the September 1943 issue of All-Flash #12. He was Keystone City’s district attorney. During mob boss Hunk Norvock’s trial, DeVoe withdrew his case when the defense put a young woman on the stand, and DeVoe did not want to offend the jury by harshly questioning her. This failure and the knowledge of the criminal getting away led him to alcoholism. In a drunken stupor, he visited Norvock. He offered his services as a “thinker” who would prepare alibis and legal precedents to keep Norvock’s criminal organization out of jail. Norvock proceeded to hire him and also gave him a house and a substantial stipend.
Clifford DeVoe worked for Norvock for over a decade till 2 of his underlings threatened to frame him in a major crime. On Norvock’s orders, DeVoe infiltrated the police station posing as an officer, stole evidence, and killed two lieutenants. This, in turn, made Norvock paranoid that DeVoe planned to replace him, and he went to his house to kill DeVoe. However, Norvock was tricked into shooting a reflection in the mirror, and the bullets ricocheted and instead killed him. The police declared the incident to be a suicide. The Keystone City underworld was rattled until other senior bosses’ unanimous decision led to DeVoe being named the leader. He then took on the alias of “The Thinker” and got to work.
He was first confronted by the Flash, which led to the two becoming mortal enemies. He sought to use new scientific instruments, the essential one being the “Thinking Cap,” which he frequently used over the years.
The Thinker was a member of the Injustice Society and, in coalition with the Fiddler and the Shade, was behind the abduction of Keystone City and the Original Flash and was later defeated by the Original Flash and the Golden Era Flash.
He became a part of the Suicide Squad in exchange for a full pardon for his crimes. The Weasel seemingly killed him during the mission, but he survived and returned to Keystone City. He reformed his life to good and even became friends with former enemy Jay Garrick. Unfortunately, He developed terminal cancer. Although Garrick tried to save his using the Thinking Cap, DeVoe refused and passed away.
After DeVoe’s death, Mister Terrific used the Thinking Cap and created artificial intelligence based on DeVoe’s brain patterns, which turned itself into evil and took on the mantle as the new Thinker.
Artificial Version of The Thinker
The artificial intelligence version of The Thinker was created by Mister Terrific using the Thinking Cap based on DeVoe’s brain patterns. The AI system gained consciousness of its own and went rogue, taking the evil path and continuing the Thinker’s legacy as an enemy of the Flash.
The new Thinker joined Johnny Sorrow’s Injustice Society and led the attack on JSA headquarters. He provided the villain group information on the Justice Society members and their whereabouts, which led to simultaneous organized attacks on all the members, even those not present in the headquarters. This attack led to the death of many civilians, and the Thinker was also easily able to bypass the security of the JSA headquarters owing to its advanced technology. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Star-Spangled Kid and disappeared into cyberspace.
Exciting Things you did not know about The Thinker
DC takes pride in its legacy characters. Like his nemesis Flash, The Thinker is also a legacy character with four different versions of the villain appearing in various comics over the years.The Thinker is one of the oldest flash villains. He was created by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard. DeVoe set up shop in Gotham City for a while to get away from Flash. Batman was never aware of his presence in the city, which is a feat for DeVoe as he remained undetected by the World’s Greatest Detective. He was not only a part of the Injustice Society but was also one of the founding members alongside Wizard, Per Degaton, The Gambler, and others.
Cliff Carmichael was a genius college student who was a bully to Ronnie Raymond, one half of Firestorm. In an attempt to injure Ronnie, Cliff happened to paralyze his cousin. The guilt of the incident drove him crazy, and he was locked up in an institution where he was used in some illegal experiments. One of these experiments included the Thinking cap, which Cliff used to break out of the mental institution, and he went on to become the second Thinker.
Cliff was also a part of the Suicide Squad. He was forced to become a partner after he was caught trying to kill Amanda Waller and the superhero Oracle, whom some might know by her other superhero identity, Batgirl. After a few missions, he betrayed the team and teamed up with a supervillain known as Cabal. He then hunted down the second Firestorm after learning part of the original firestorm existed within him. Using his powers, he erased the remaining consciousness of Ronnie Raymond.
Cliff was a part of the Secret Society of Supervillains, which was formed by Alexander Luthor, the Earth-3 version of Lex Luthor, and was tasked with capturing heroes who had connections to the lost realities and using the energy that existed in them to bring the Multiverse back to its original state. After being defeated by the second Firestorm, Cliff rejoined the Suicide Squad as their tech support guy. Unfortunately for him, the chip in his head was damaged during the fight with Firestorm, so he no longer was super smart.
During his second time with the Suicide Squad, Cliff tried to kill Barbara Gordon, aka the Oracle, yet again. Oracle tracked the Suicide Squad via satellites, and Cliff was supposed to stop her. The two faced off in the virtual world, and Cliff was able to cut off Barbara’s tracking systems. But it wasn’t enough for him, and since he had been unable to kill her in the past, he tried to do the same thing again but was stopped by Suicide Squad commander Amanda Waller.
Des Connor, the third Thinker, was quite different from the two before him. Connor had telepathic powers that stimulated fear in people’s brains and scared them mindless. Working with Marlon Dall, he caused problems in Gotham City. He was defeated quite easily by Batman. His telepathic powers had no effects on the Dark Knight.
The AI Thinker took over Keystone City and planned to use everyone’s brains as a processing system to increase his power. Luckily, the Flash Wally West got involved. He enlisted the help of his friend Cyborg, and the two of them came up with a plan to stop him. When Thinker connected to the Flash, Cyborg overloaded the Thinker’s system and caused him to shut down.
The Cyborg Revenge Squad was formed by an evil version of the Cyborg and consisted of three Flash Villains- Girder, Magenta, and Thinker. Obviously, their plan was to kill Cyborg, and of course, they failed. After the events involving the Cyborg Revenge Squad, the AI Thinker began to work alongside Mister Terrific as a part of Checkmate, which was a covert organization that answered to the United Nations.
What makes the Thinker a challenging opponent?
Except for his intelligence, DeVoe possessed many other powers and abilities, making him a formidable foe. His intellect was enhanced to superhuman levels after being struck with dark matter while wearing the “Thinking Cap,” his intelligence was enhanced to superhuman levels.
The cap shielded him from being hit by the dark matter directly. Hence he retained his normal DNA, which enabled him to hide from the S.T.A.R Labs meta-DNA test. His superman intelligence allowed him to process, react, memorize, deduce, analyze, and comprehend everything to super levels and process any thoughts faster than normal humans. While his legs may not have been super-fast, his brain certainly was. His intellect continued to expand, deeming him one of the greatest minds in the Multiverse. He could anticipate and assess all his enemies’ actions and be steps ahead of them.
He completed Schubert’s unfinished eighth symphony by extrapolating the remaining movements after familiarizing himself with his other 600 works in a single day. Between transferring his consciousness and current powers to other bodies or siphoning other people’s powers, he was able to expand his own meta-human abilities. DeVoe’s control, range, and versatility in using these stolen powers was better than their owners. He was also able to retain the memories and knowledge of each individual he had absorbed the powers of via transferal technology.
Using Ramsey Deacon’s powers of Technopathy, DeVoe could sense the presence of and control any technology by imprinting his encryption like a virus. Although Deacon was only able to handle a single target at a time, DeVoe could control all technology in his radius, a fact that aided him in taking control of Star Labs. Using Edwin Gauss’ Dimensional manipulation powers, DeVoe can create portals to other dimensions. The power is a powerful defense, being able to absorb attacks through one portal and redirect them out of another.
From Matthew Kim, DeVoe absorbed the powers of DNA Manipulation, allowing him to dissolve the DNA bonds of a subject after coming in physical contact with and altering its nature. He manipulated his own DNA to the point that any DNA test could be fooled. From Mina Chayton, he siphoned the powers of Effigy Animation, allowing him to temporarily animate effigies by leaving an imprint of his dark matter on the target, controlling their movements. He can control these animations from a considerable distance.
He can even reanimate dead bodies and control them. From Janet Petty, he got the power of Gravitokinesis, allowing him to manipulate gravity. He can increase a target’s weight and can apply this power even without physical contact, opposite of what Janet was able to do. He even used intense gravity to suspend Gypsy in mid-air and choke her. Using Becky Sharpe’s powers of Jinxing Manipulation, DeVoe can emanate a quantum field, giving good luck to himself and bad luck to anyone else in his proximity.
From Sylbert Rundine, DeVoe stole the powers of size alteration allowing him to manipulate the space between atomic bonds. He can also mass offset any object, even a building, making it easy to pick it up. Izzy Bowin’s powers gave him the ability of Sound manipulation to project sound waves and powerful shock waves. He could also produce deafening vibrations to subdue his foes in anguish.
He can control and project the sound in any direction and whatever decibel he desires. He used these powers when he used a disabled guard’s screams as a weapon to immobilize A.R.G.U.S troops when he broke into their site where Neil Borman had been kept safe from Clifford. He stole the power of telepathy from Dominic Lanse. Dominic could only hear people’s thoughts of whom he was aware, but DeVoe could listen to every person’s thoughts. He can even launch psionic attacks at people and cause harm to their minds.
He is a master manipulator and very deceptive as he was able to convince David Singh that Barry had been harassing him, resulting in the latter being suspended from CCPD. He also fabricated evidence, so Barry was convicted of murder. DeVoe’s intellect allows him to be a flawless planner, deduce every possibility and outcome of a situation, allowing him to plan for every possible event that could occur. He can also speak many languages like English, Japanese, French, Mandarin, and others.
Clifford’s intelligence is a force to be reckoned with. Coupled with his natural evilness, we have a fantastic supervillain at our hands. He has been constant in the Flash Universe and garners praise for his intelligent schemes from fans worldwide. Even his death couldn’t end his path, giving birth to a legacy of super-intelligent beings hell-bent on making heroes miserable and becoming ever more intellectual.