- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Gorilla Grodd from the Arrowverse. The mainstream version can be found here: Gorilla Grodd.
| “ | I... am... GRODD! FEAR ME! | „ |
| ~ Grodd speaking while possessing General Eiling through his mental powers. |
| “ | You forget Flash. I am an animal. I am a gorilla. Kill or be killed. | „ |
| ~ Grodd's true nature. |
| “ | Gorilla City is the only place he felt happy. | „ |
| ~ Grodd |
Grodd is a recurring/major antagonist in the TV show The Flash and its spin-off series DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
Initially a gorilla experimented on by S.T.A.R. Labs, Grodd forms a strong relationship with both Harrison Wells and Caitlyn Snow. After the explosion of the particle accelerator, Grodd became the only known animal meta-human and gained the power of intelligence and mind-control. After being used by Eobard Thawne to fight the Flash, Grodd starts stealing chemicals with which he intends to create more sentient gorillas. After this plan is foiled by the Flash as well, Grodd is cast through a breach to Earth-2, where he arrives in Gorilla City. Craving to return home, Grodd plots against the city's leader Solovar, eventually usurping him and leading the gorilla army against Earth 1. His plan failed and the gorilla remained on Earth-1, while still posing a great threat to both Flash and humanity.
He is portrayed by Simon Burnett and voiced by David Sobolov.
Personality
As Grodd was raised in captivity and tortured since he was a youngling, all he saw was the worst of humanity and expected nothing less from the species. He refrained none of his strength from controlling or killing any humans he encountered. However, he is affectionate and trustworthy towards people who have showed him kindness before, such as Caitlin Snow or Eobard Thawne whom he considered his father.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Meta-gorilla physiology/Psychic serums enhancements: After Grodd was struck by the energy of the particle accelerator explosion but also due to all the drugs Eiling injected him with, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into well-beyond normal gorilla condition.
- Super agility: Grodd can scale a building and maneuver through sewers despite his large size with minimal effort. He can also move fairly quickly for his size. He was able to catch up with the Flash when he was goaded to chase him.
- Super durability: Grodd is durable enough to survive getting hit by a train as well as take several super speed enhanced physical attacks from Barry unfazed, showing himself even more resilient than Tony Woodward's metallic form. However, with enough velocity behind his strikes, Barry can inflict some damage on him.
- Super strength: Due to his unusually large size and modifications, Grodd has shown considerably high strength, far more than any other gorilla. With a single hand, he is able to easily lift a full-grown adult human male. As Barry attempted to perform a supersonic punch on Grodd, Grodd caught Barry's fist with relative ease and hurled him aside. His strikes can send people flying at great distances in the air, with enough force to make an impact with another surface fatal. Despite his mighty strength, he was not strong enough to defeat Solovar, or King Shark.
- Telepathy: With the power to send neurological signals beyond himself and into others, Grodd gained mental-manipulation powers. Grodd most commonly uses this as a means to talk to others. This can also allow him to sense when people are near, quickly alerting him of the Flash running at him at Mach 1 speed. He can also control humans that are near him like puppets and maintain the control for prolonged periods of time. For offensive purposes, Grodd can overwhelm the minds of his enemies with his own negative memories and severely disorient and cripple them. Such attacks also can be projected via those under mind-control. Likewise, he is able to link his mind with the puppet's, allowing him to see and hear what they do. It would appear that his range of influence is only on what he can physically perceive through his senses. Those who have been continually exposed to Grodd's power appear to develop a lasting physic bond with him. Grodd can also control someone's actions while leaving them conscious as he did with Joe. He kidnapped Caitlinover mind control and when Cisco was talking to Caitlin, she punches him under Grodd's control. He can also mentally attack through the victim's own negative and traumatizing memories, as he did to Flash to make him see and feel Grodd's memories of being experimented on as if he were experiencing it himself. Barry managed to use his memories of Iris to counter this and continue to fight.
- Mental detection: Being a telepath, Grodd can feel and detect the mind of others, as well as their intentions, emotions and mental states.
- Mental shield: Being a telepath, Grodd can telepathically shield himself and others from mental intrusions with enough effort, such as preventing other telepaths from scanning his mind.
- Psionic blasts: Being a telepath, Grodd can project a powerful "mental blast" than can hit the target mentally or leave them unconscious.
- Psychic illusion: Being a telepath, Grodd can project realistic illusions in other people's minds and make them experience things that not actually happening, such as when he forced Barry to see the former's memories of being experimented upon by Wade Eiling.
- Psychic translation: As a telepath, Grodd can psychically translate other languages; for example, he can translate human English and ape language.
Abilities
- Genius-level intellect/Expert tactician/Manipulator/Leader: Grodd's most noticeable and dangerous trait is his high intellect, making him a threat even to humanity and other meta-humans like the Flash. In 2015, after escaping S.T.A.R. Labs, Grodd went and lived in the sewers and started making math equations on the walls of his sewer home, with his intelligence rapidly expanding. Said intellect include changing the direction of Barry's sonic punch. Very calculating and methodical in every action he takes. He is able to plan for every plausible detail several steps ahead, a trait he learned from Eobard. By 2017, he was able to construct a plan in which helped him take control of Gorilla City and all of his other fellow Gorilla-kind. He also proved to be a strong leader of Gorilla City once Solovar lost his position.
- Hand-to-hand combatant: Grodd is a capable close-range combatant shown in his fight with Solovar, however, he has stated he was no match for the latter which was proven when they fought in Central City.
- Multilingual: Although he was using his telepathy, it can be assumed that Grodd is capable of fluently speaking English and animal languages. By 2017, he began speaking English fluently, through telepathy.
Weaknesses
- Consciousness: If Grodd is rendered unconscious, he's unable to use his powers, as mentioned when A.R.G.U.S. decided to put him in a medically-induced coma to keep him from posing any further threats.
- Power-dampening tech: Grodd's powers do not work while he is inside a power-dampening cell at A.R.G.U.S.'s headquarters.
- Non-sapient minds: Grodd is unable to control the minds of anything that does not have the same level of intelligence as humans. This made it difficult for him to control King Shark due to the fact that the latter has a more shark-like mind.
