I know I promised another
editorial, but then I looked at what’s coming up in the next few weeks. Avenger’s Age of Ultron next week, “Grodd
Lives” on The Flash the following
week, I’ve got a lot of posts to do. And, honestly, the editorial I’m working
on is a little more dry and complex than I had initially envisioned. I’m trying
to educate and entertain, not bore you to tears. As such, my editorial will be
going on the back burner for a couple of weeks, while I give you the scoop on
some awesome characters and a movie review. Sound fair? Perfect. Let’s get to
it.
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| Grodd is not amused. |
Now, I’ve dealt with a lot of weird
characters, Mutants, Aliens, Gods, Alien Gods, Cosmic monsters, and Deadpool,
but to date this is going to be the weirdest. Imagine an intelligent Gorilla, a
creature several times stronger than man, but also equal in terms of intellect
and strategic thinking. Now give that Gorilla psychic powers, a mean streak, and
a penchant for cruelty, and you’ve got yourself a Gorilla Grodd. This is the simian
foe of the Flash whom we’re focusing on today. On with the show.
Gorilla Grodd began life as a
simple primate. No diabolical plans or evil speeches from the early Grodd, just
a lot of butt scratching, insect eating, and leaf chewing. Ignorance is bliss as they say.
Things changed drastically for Grodd and his troupe of gorilla’s when a meteor
crashes near their home in Africa. The radiation from the meteor imbued the
gorilla troupe with super intelligence, Grodd and another ape named Solovar
also developed Telepathic and Telekinetic powers as well. The now intelligent
gorillas built a super advanced city that they simply called Gorilla City. It
was cloaked from the outside to appear to be only a small mountain range. Gorilla City is basically those towns of the Future they talked about in the 50s. Big metal skyscrapers, flying crafts, laser guns, that sort of thing. Things
were good for the smart apes, except for Grodd. With intelligence came a thirst
for power that the once simple ape could not quench. His opportunity to seize
power came with mankind. A group of explores came to the area and captured
Solovar, who’d ruled Gorilla City up to that point. Solovar played dumb, to
protect Gorilla City, and was shipped to a circus in Central City. From king to sideshow attraction, oh how the mighty have fallen. Grodd
followed, not to free his leader, but to probe his mind and learn how to
dominate the minds of others through force of will. Sensing Grodd’s probe,
Solovar psionically reached out to local hero The Flash to stop Grodd’s plans. Unfortunately, The Flash was too late to stop Grodd from learning Solovar's technique. Grodd used
his new mental powers to turn the smart gorillas into his slaves and attacked Central
City. Why he didn't strike any town between the African city-state and the not-Metropolis, I'll never no. The Flash was able to outwit Grodd, free Solovar and see Grodd imprisoned
for his crimes.
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| Don't offer him banana's. That only makes him angrier. |
Since then, Grodd has escaped many
time, as villains tend to do, and his plans typically range from Conquering Gorilla
City, to Conquering the world, to Genocide of the Human race. Ideal hands, am I
right? After a few attempts at conquest, Grodd is imprisoned in Gorilla City
again. Instead of breaking out, he tries a new tactic, transferring his consciousness
to a new body, killing his original body and allowing him to do evil things
without anyone’s interference. Unfortunately for Grodd, he’s quickly discovered
and is rearrested, this time as a human. He's in jail and disgusted with himself, sucky. After this, Grodd forms the first iteration of the Rogues, the
collection of the Flash’s greatest foes. This first iteration was created
solely as a distraction for Grodd to escape his prison in a new Gorilla body. He
then setup some sort of machine to disable the Flash’s superspeed, but was
ultimately defeated by the mate of the gorilla he inhabited. Apparently she
understood English and was quiet upset when he mentioned taking Solovar’s mate
for himself. Apparently the “hell hath no fury” quote is trans-species. He’s
had a number of unusual schemes for conquest, including but not limited to
traveling back in time to wipe out early humans, crossing realities to one controlled
by intelligent animals, mutating himself into a pseudo-human to somehow augment
his powers, and, the most outlandish, plotting to have Solovar killed so he
could rule Gorilla City. I meant most outlandish for Grodd, not your average
wannabe dictator.
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| Do I need to explain why this is bad? No? Good. |
Grodd is a mix of brains and brawn.
He’s physically stronger than most gorillas, being able to easily toss large
vehicles and machines, he was even a near match for Kalibak (oldest son of
Darkseid) in hand to hand combat. He also has an immensely powerful mind,
capable of reading and controlling minds, creating illusions, and transferring his
consciousness between bodies. He’s also a scientific genius, creating many
advanced technologies in Gorilla City. He uses laser guns when either his
mental might or brute strength won’t do. No monkeying around with Grodd. Sorry,
couldn’t help myself.
Grodd has appeared a few times in
various DC franchises.
Grodd was a major villain in the Justice League, and Justice League: Unlimited. He’s introduced in the two part episode “The
Brave and the Bold.” He’s a fugitive tyrant from Gorilla City, playing stupid
gorilla at a STAR Lab in Central City. He builds a cloaking device in the
center of the city, turning the metropolis into a hidden base for him to plan
an assault on Gorilla City. He used a mind control helmet to make the citizens
of CC into his mindless slaves. While most of the League try to stop the nuke
he launched at Gorilla City, The Flash and Green Lantern aided Solovar in
trying to stop Grodd. Solovar in this version is the head of Gorilla City’s
security, rather than its ruler. Solovar provided Flash and Lantern with tech
headbands that block out Grodd’s mind control helmet. Grodd and his slaves
overwhelmed the trio, but Flash is able to turn Grodd’s helmet against him. The
Flash uses his speed to quickly pop open Grodd’s helmet and swap around some
wires. When he tried to use it again, Grodd fried his own mind. Grodd is shown
in a zoo style prison, pushing a tire swing with a zonked out look on his face.
The final few frames reveal he’s once again playing possum. Grodd returns in
the episode “Secret Society.” He uses the mind control powers he developed from
his damaged helmet and his own group of allies to destroy the league. His
Secret Society consisted of Giganta (Growth powers), Killer Frost (Ice powers),
Parasite (temporary power absorption), Sinestro (Yellow Lantern Ring), Shade
(Shadow manipulating powers), and Clayface (shapeshifting and other powers). He
was going to kill them all publically, but was foiled by the Martian Manhunter
whom had taken on Clayface’s form and replaced him.
 |
| Grodd and his original Secret Society. From left to right Sinestro, Giganta, Shade, Parasite, and Killer Frost. |
In the second season of Justice League: Unlimited, Grodd
returns. This time around he reorganizes the Secret Society into an expanded Anti-Justice
League. The basic idea is that any criminal can buy in, and for twenty five
percent of any loot or spoils they steal they can have the Secret Society back
them up. Over the course of the season, Grodd has the society steal a number of
ancient artifacts as part of a master world domination plan. This plan turns
out to be a plot to turn all humans into apes. Wow, so anticlimactic. Lex
Luthor feels the same, he deposes Grodd and takes over. Grodd is held captive
by his own former team as Lex goes to extreme lengths to reclaim the powers of
Brainiac he’d briefly held. Lex takes the Secret Society out into deep space to
the wreckage of Brainiac’s warship. Grodd is freed by Tala, the Society’s
sorceress that was pissed off at Lex being less than interested in her. Grodd
gets about half the Society to rebel alongside him. Grodd and Lex square off,
when Grodd attempts to use his psychic powers on Grodd, but Lex turns his
powers back on him. He forces Grodd to walk himself out the airlock and pop it
open. Death by space… not a pleasant way to go.
 |
| He sees your Justice League and raises you a Legion of Doom. Er, Expanded Secret Society. Think of a new name Grodd. |
Grodd will be appearing in The Flash. He was teased in the pilot of
The Flash, we see a cage with Grodd’s
name prominently displayed on it. We first see Grodd in a flashback at the end
of the episode “Plastique.” At the end of the episode we see General Eiling and
Dr. Harrison Wells arguing about what to do with an experiment. It’s made
pretty clear that Eiling has been abusing the simian Grodd during their
experimenting. When Eiling leaves, Wells goes to the cage and promises that he
has big plans for Grodd. We see Grodd again at the end of the episode “Crazy
for You.” In it, a pair of maintenance workers come across a wall in the
Central City sewers with the name Grodd scrawled all over. Grodd then appears
and then savagely murders them both. Grodd pops up again at the end of “Fallout.”
Wells, wanting to get the scheming Eiling out of the way, kidnaps the General
and brings him to the sewers. After revealing his id as the Reverse-Flash,
Grodd then appears and gets a little payback. He’ll most likely be the main villain
of the 21 episode, entitled “Grodd Lives.” Hope he’s worthy of the buildup.
Grodd is an ape that you don’t want
to get on the bad side of. He’s immensely intelligent and just as strong. As
far as bad guys go, he definitely falls under the weirdest of would be Tyrants,
but that does help him break away from the more stereotypical members of the
Tyrant subgroup. I might mix up the various Baron’s in charge of HYDRA from
time to time, but I’ll never confuse Grodd with anyone else. Being a megalomaniac
Gorilla will do that. He’s the Glorious Gorilla with a God-complex, Grodd. Next
time, I’ll be starting the Avengers 2 Theme week with none other than
Quicksilver, fastest man of Marvel.
http://braveandbold.wikia.com/wiki/Gorilla_Grodd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Grodd
http://theflash.wikia.com/wiki/File:285661-143579-gorilla-grodd_super.jpg
http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/File:Secret_Society.png
http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/File:Grodd%27s_Legion.png
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