Gorilla Grodd

"I am the future, Flash. AND YOU'RE JUST LUNCH!"

- Grodd to Flash

Gorilla Grodd is a villain from the DC universe and one of the main enemies of the Flash and arch enemy to Beast Boy - due to this he is often fighting the aforementioned superhero or members of the Justice League, as well as appearing in the comic books he has made several appearances in the cartoon adaptations of the Justice League as well as a two-part episode of Batman: The Brave And The Bold.

Overview
In the past, Gorilla Grodd was the leader of a group of gorillas that lived in a jungle. When the Logans visited the jungle to see a species, Grodd attacked them and bit Beast Boy, giving him green skin and shape-shifting powers. Grodd followed the blood trail and killed Beast Boy's parents. Ever since, Beast Boy has had an intense hatred for Grodd, even thinking of killing him when he gets the chance. Gorilla Grodd is a superhumanly knowledgeable gorilla capable of speech as well as being adept at both building and stealing advanced technology - which he uses to try and enslave the world, having great contempt for humanity but also seeing them as useful for his goals (at least until he can find suitable replacements) -. in Justice League: Unlimited, he founded the Secret Society and encouraged an organized villain association.

Personality
In the DCAU, he is quite a ladies man; whether he controlled them or they simply loved him. In "The Brave and the Bold", he has a scientist, Dr. Sarah Corwin, assist him in his takeover. Flash believed she was controlled by Grodd, but she reveals that she helped him out of love. Giganta was in love and loyal to him; revealing that she was once a gorilla, and Grodd turned her into human, but could grow to any size. Out of loyalty, she had tried to break him out of prison several times. Grodd betrayed their affair/friendship by sacrificing her and tried to fry her brain and when she was arrested, he did not try to break her out. She broke out and joined in the mutiny but on Luthor's side and tried to squeeze Grodd to death. His current love, Tala, freed him and knocked her out. When Giganta was imprisoned, Tala became his new love interest but became Luthor's interest when the gorilla was overthrown. Tala realized her mistake and freed him to stage his mutiny.

Goals and Ambitions
Gorilla Grodd is, in essence, a gorilla equivelent to a human warlord - he sees others as tools by which he can gain power and he shows signs of megalomania as he is never content with victory, always wanting more power and eager to show his strength and superiority over others at every chance he gets. His ultimate goal in life is to be the master of his own empire that would span the entire globe, with humans being enslaved to his will.

Challenge of the Superfriends
Gorilla Grodd was a member of the Legion of Doom in "Challenge of the Superfriends". He was banished from Gorilla City and joined the legion. He builds and operates several pieces of technologies and has led the legion in several missions. Unlike in the comics, he did not have mind control but have used technologies to control his enemies.

In "The Time Trap", he built a time conveyor and led members of the legion throughout time to steal treasures from ancient rulers and undiscovered areas. He and Solomon Grundy traveled to ancient Rome, stole Caesar's gold and trapped Batman and Robin in the past and left them to take the blame for the robbery. He then brought the legion to California 1849 to steal all the gold before the gold rush would occur. The superfriends reunited and traveled to 1849 and stopped the legion and retrieved all the treasures they stole. Grodd forsaw this and implanted an escape portal and the legion returned to the present day.

In "Revenge on Gorilla City", Grodd attempted to claim Gorilla City and conquer the world with an army of mind controlled gorillas. At first, he snuck into the city and released a gas that would make the gorillas see their worst fear and panic, giving Grodd easy access to the throne room. He found Solovar, the ruler of Gorilla city and tried to destroy him but Solovar knew of Grodd's attacks and had him transported back to the Legion of Doom headquarters. Brainiac invented a mind control helmet which would control humans within a 1000 mile radius. Grodd planned to reroute the helmet to have it work on gorillas convinced the legion to help him conquer Gorilla City with it. He enlisted Sinestro, Black Manta, Giganta and Toyman to help infiltrate the city's defenses. Grodd broke into the city's main laboratory and used the brainwaves to control every gorilla in the city, save for Solovar who escaped and went to the superfriends for help. The superfriends broke into the lab and destroyed the helmet and all the gorillas turned on the legion and imprisoned them. Grodd's plans were foiled again but the legion managed to escape again.

Justice League/ Justice League Unlimited
Grodd appeared as a recurring villain in both shows Justice League and ''Justice League Unlimited. ''He appeared in two episodes of Justice League, and in several episodes of season 3 of Justice League Unlimited, and was voiced by Powers Boothe in all his appearances. Like the Legion of Doom version, he was banished from Gorilla City and tried many attempts to conquer the city as well as the world. He first appeared in the two parter "The Brave and the Bold" where Grodd arrived to Central City and used his infamous mind control to overule its citizens and make a second Gorilla City. The Flash and Green Lantern teamed up with Solovar and stopped Grodd and imprisoned him in the city.

In season 2, he returned in "The Secret Society" with a small group of villains: Giganta, Sinestro, the Shade, Killer Frost, Parasite and a reluctant Clayface to take on the seven Justice League members. Grodd succeeded in capturing all of them and brought them to a stadium for a public execution, but thanks to J'onn J'onzz, the League triumphed over the society and defeated them.

Grodd did not return until season 3 of Unlimited where he helps Lex Luthor escape from prison and offering him a place in his new Secret Society/ Legion of Doom; this time consisting of 30-40 villains. Grodd gets the Legion to pay him for their duties which impresses Luthor, but not enough to convince him to join. Luthor joins when Grodd acquires the last piece of Brainiac's armor which could bring him back to life and the two could meld as the Luthor-Braniac team again. Grodd tested Luthor by having him steal historical artifacts for his office decor. In "Dead Reckoning", Grodd reveals his true plan: turning all humans, into apes. The Legion overrun Gorilla City and Grodd, Luthor, and Tala turn the world into apes. With help from the ghost of Deadman, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman destroy the transformation machine; forcing the Legion to retreat. Luthor, being fed up with Grodd's imcompetence, overthrows Grodd and takes control of the Legion.

In part one of the series finale, "Alive", Luthor brings the Hall of Doom into space to the location where Brainiac was destroyed in "Twilight". Tala, realizing that Lex has gone insane over Brainiac's resurrection, releases Grodd from his prison and stages a mutiny. The Legion goes to war with itself; half fighting for Grodd and half fighting for Luthor. Luthor and Grodd take on each other, with Grodd winning. He then attempts to control Luthor but the genius reroutes the control, making Grodd control himself. Luthor then makes Grodd walk aimlessly into the hangar bay, closing the door and trapping him. He then opens the big door, sucking Grodd into outer space. Grodd yells vengeance as he hopelessly floats and likely died from lack of oxygen. His mutiny led Tala to be killed by Luthor and his followers to be frozen by Killer Frost and killed by Darkseid-Brainiac when he blew up the Hall of Doom.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
In this series he is a super-intelligent gorilla criminal from Gorilla City. He has the strength of a normal gorilla, but he also wears a helmet that gives him psychic abilities. In "Terror on Dinosaur Island", he and his ape followers plotted to devolve the human race with an E-Ray from their headquarters on Dinosaur Island. They ran into conflicts with Batman and Plastic Man. With Batman devolved to an ape, Plastic Man helps the Ape-Batman fight Gorilla Grodd and his servants. When the E-Ray is activated, it evolved the humans (Batman put the E-Ray on reverse when Gorilla Grodd wasn't looking) back to their natural state. It even evolved Gorilla Grodd to a human who ended up incarcerated at Iron Heights in the end planning his revenge.

He was later shown in "Day of the Dark Knight!" escaping Iron Heights (still in human form) and attempting to attack Batman, but stopped by Green Arrow. The original Grodd (now a gorilla again) joins Owlman and other villains in "Game Over for Owlman!" Gorilla Grodd and the Question are caught by Equinox in the teaser for "Mystery in Space!". Batman rescues Question, but leaves Grodd hanging by the flames.

In "Legends of the Dark Mite!", he is brought by Bat-Mite to face Batman, apparently reading a magazine when he was transported though upon seeing Batman, attacks him without question as to what happened. He is then traded to Solomon Grundy just as he is about to strike him. In Bat-Mite's fantasy, Bat-Mite in the role of Batman prevented Gorilla Grodd from stealing a device that would amplify his mental powers.

In "The Last Bat on Earth!", Gorilla Grodd forced Professor Carter Nichols to send him into Kamandi's future in order to lead the highly-evolved gorillas after ursurping Ramjam against the other highly-evolved creatures. He uses a sonic cannon to disable the Tiger Men and uses a giant gorilla named Tiny to smash the gates. He is shocked to discover that Batman is here and sends the Gorilla Soldiers after him. Gorilla Grodd and his army faces off against Prince Tuftan and his assembled army of Lion Men, Bear Men, Snake Men, and Rat Men. Batman, Kamandi, and Dr. Canus then join the battle. With help from the Bat Men disarming the weapons, Batman faces off against Gorilla Grodd's army as he sics Tiny on them. Batman then faces against Gorilla Grodd who ends up trampled by the retreating Gorilla Men. Batman then returns with Gorilla Grodd to his own time.

In "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", he assists Black Manta and Clock King into obtaining a comm satellite about to be launched only for the Music Meister to use the rocket for his own plans. In "Gorillas In Our Midst!", he teamed up with Monsieur Mallah and Gorilla Boss to form G.A.S.P. (short for Gorillas and Apes Seizing Power) only to be defeated by Batman, Detective Chimp, B'wana Beast, and Vixen.

He briefly appears in "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!" where he was about to saw Batman in half, only for Flash to save Batman from the trap and knock out Grodd with one quick punch. In "Mitefall", Gorilla Grodd was an unknowing pawn in Bat-Mite's scheme to cancel the Brave and the Bold series.

DC Universe Online
Gorilla Grodd makes an appearance as one of the bosses in DC Universe Online.