TAGGED AS: Comic Book, DC Comics, Superheroes, The CW
The Flash’s two-parter concludes this week with Grodd leading his gorilla army to the Central City of Earth-One. Last week, Barry (Grant Gustin), Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), and Julian (Tom Felton) traveled to Earth-Two to rescue Harry (Tom Cavanagh) from Grodd. Barry defeated Grodd’s boss Solovar, but when Grodd took over Gorilla City, Barry and his friends escaped back to Earth-One.
This week’s The Flash picks up with Grodd taking the fight to Central City. As the gorilla army plunders the streets, Rotten Tomatoes asks, “Who is really king of the apes?” There’s a good case for either Solovar or Grodd. Let’s break down the strengths and weaknesses of each gorilla, and you can vote for the king of the apes before they make their last stand.
Grodd began life as a silverback gorilla — already one of nature’s most powerful creatures — before S.T.A.R. Labs’ experiment made him a meta-gorilla. Now psychic, he’s got brains as well as brawn.
Solovar is clearly the alpha. He can smack Grodd down in his tracks. Even Grodd knew he couldn’t defeat Solovar himself, so he enlisted Barry to do his dirty work.
Grodd’s psychic powers come in handy for controlling humans, like he did with Harry and Cisco. His whole scheme to make Barry beat Solovar to put Grodd in power was Machiavellian.
Solovar had some good battle tactics against Barry. Knowing speed was his asset, Solovar made him stumble and blocked the sonic waves he was generating. He didn’t see Grodd’s moves coming though.
Grodd just wanted to rule Gorilla City. He was happy with his kingdom as long as it was his. At least, that’s what he said before Barry ruined everything and took off back to Central City.
Solovar wanted to kill humans. In his defense, have you spent much time with a human lately? Still, when it comes down to lessers of two evils, oppression > genocide.
David Sobolov has been the voice of Grodd since season 1. He’s got that deep, raspy intimidation factor down.
Solovar is voiced by Keith David. His voice is legendary. That’s why he played Spawn in HBO’s animated series and narrated The Bible. In live-action, he fought Roddy Piper over a pair of sunglasses in They Live and played a menacing drug dealer in Requiem For A Dream. For a laugh, he was also Mary (Cameron Diaz)’s dad in There’s Something About Mary.
As a silverback, Grodd is mostly black fur and markings, with the hint of silver male gorillas of the species have. Quite intimidating.
On the other end of the color spectrum, Solovar is white with pink paws, nose, and mouth. Solovar is more of the white sheep in a herd of silverbacks. Maybe that’s why he’s risen to the top to dominate them.
The Flash airs Tuesday nights a 8 p.m. on The CW
