The DCU was bound to have a big bad overarching threat spanning across multiple narratives and mediums. While Gunn has said the DCU was not building to one specific thing, he also called it “the greatest story ever told”. However, he’s also said he doesn’t want moviegoers to have to “do their homework” for each movie. Of course, that doesn’t mean there won’t be an overarching threat. It may just be that there are less breadcrumbs to follow or that an audience member can understand who the big threat is by watching only the movie they are the biggest threat in. It seems like the first major villain to create a planetary emergency is going to be Gorilla Grodd.
Gorilla Grodd isn’t as well known as villains like Joker, Lex Luthor, or even Braniac, but, if you’ve done any DC comic reading, you probably know who he is. For those that don’t, Gorilla Grodd is an actual gorilla that is given human-like sentience, telepathic abilities, and a genius level intellect by comic book shenanigans when an alien spaceship crashes in a jungle. Grodd has mainly been a villain of the Flash since his first appearance in Flash #106 in 1959. He frequently uses mind control technology to enhance his telepathic abilities and is often a threat to the Justice League and the entire world. He’s worked with the likes of Lex Luthor, Braniac, Maxwell Lord, Joker, Vandal Savage and many other villains to try and take down the League.
Mild SPOILERS for episode four of Creature Commandos beyond this point.
In this week’s episode of Creature Commandos, which you can find my review of here, we actually see Gorilla Grodd, meaning he has already made his debut in the DCU. Princess Ilana, the princess that the Creature Commandos were tasked with protecting, was shown to Amanda Waller in a vision by Circe, to be standing next to Gorilla Grodd as she is seemingly taking over the United States and causing World War III. It’s entirely possible that Grodd is using mind control on her as he’s wearing some kind of headband that resembles his mind control device that he frequently uses in the comics. It may very well turn out that neither Circe, nor Princess Ilana are the true villains of the first season of Creature Commandos, and that it’s really Gorilla Grodd. It’s entirely possible that it goes a step beyond that and Grodd will not be apprehended by the end of the first season; his threat will be made known and he could be set up to be the DCU’s Thanos.
This theory is only given more credit by the newly released trailer for Superman. In a shot that I completely missed after watching the trailer several times, there is a newspaper from The Daily Planet with the headline “Hammer of Boravia Creates Havoc Downtown” and right underneath the headline is an image that looks exactly like Gorilla Grodd in Creature Commandos. Boravia is a fictional country similar to the one Princess Ilana rules over and that much of Creature Commandos takes place in. Is Gorilla Grodd attacking Boravia during the events of Superman? Maybe Creature Commandos plays into the movie way more than anyone previously imagined.
In my article about my disliking of most of the costumes in the Superman trailer, which you can find here, I noted that there is a lot of white on Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific’s costumes. For Terrific, it makes sense, as his costume usually sports a good bit of white. For Green Lantern and Hawkgirl though, it seemed like a strange choice. I theorized that they may all have similar color schemes to their outfits because they’re already part of a team, maybe an early version of the Justice League or the Justice Society. If this is the case, their purpose in the movie may be to try and get Superman to help with the ongoing conflict in Boravia. Lex Luthor may also be involved in a Boravian conflict potentially even funding it or working with Grodd. We currently know very little about the plot of Superman, but this could be it.
Of course, I am only speculating. There are certainly hints towards this, but we don’t know for sure and won’t know until Superman is much closer to release. Hopefully, if Creature Commandos really does lead into Superman in the way of a Boravian conflict with Gorilla Grodd, it does so in a way that does not make it necessary viewing. This would be unfortunate as I imagine the show has fairly low viewership, and Gunn has already said moviegoers won’t need to do their homework before watching a movie.
What do you think about Grodd in Superman? Do you think he’s being set up as the DCU’s Thanos? Let me know in the comments!