It was originally located on the planet Calor but was brought to Earth by Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) (without his knowledge; the gorillas needed a safer environment to live in, and attached their city to GL's energy tral as he left Calor after fighting the monstrous Dryg t

Gorilla City is a city in Africa inhabited by intelligent gorillas.

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History

It was originally located on the planet Calor but was brought to Earth by Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) (without his knowledge; the gorillas needed a safer environment to live in, and attached their city to GL's energy tral as he left Calor after fighting the monstrous Dryg there, oblivious to their presence).

The first known person to encounter Gorilla City on Earth was Flash (Barry Allen). When Barry Allen's friend, stage actor Fred Pearson (and star of the show "The Great Gorilla") fears that he may be the strange gorilla creature that stalks the city at night, he calls Barry for help. What in reality is going on proves to be even stranger: The night-stalking gorilla turns out to be a super-ape named Grodd, who has come to Central City from Gorilla City, located in a hidden place in Africa. He has come seeking the world's greatest mind so that he may learn the secret of Force of Mind and use it to control the armies of Gorilla City in order to take over the world.

Grodd finds it in Solovar, a member of his own race whom has been captured by humans and poses as an ordinary ape in order to keep Gorilla City a secret from the world of humans. Stealing the ability, Grodd then returns to Gorilla City to take it over.

Solovar frees himself and seeks out the Flash and asks for his help in stopping Grodd. The two then travel to Africa. Meanwhile in Gorilla City, Grodd has just taken over the army. Flash manages to battle Grodd and by spinning around Grodd really fast, manages to knock Grodd out and remove the knowledge of Force of Mind from his memories. Flash then turns Grodd over to Solovar for punishment, and promises not to reveal the secret of Gorilla City. Returning to Central City, as Barry, the Flash tells his friend Fred that he need not worry about the strange gorilla sightings anymore, and then takes Iris out on a date to the Zoo.

Soon after, Gorilla Grodd took over the city briefly using neo-magnetic radiation. Gorilla Grodd, occupying the human body of William Dawson, is released from prison. He travels to Gorilla City, where his human body devolves into his old gorilla form. There, he falls in love with Boka, the bride-to-be of his rival Solovar.

Determined to win Boka's affection, he uses a machine in his laboratory, which had remained undisturbed during his imprisonment, to cause his body to emit neo-magnetic radiation, causing anyone who looks at him to instantly take a liking to him. It works as planned, and soon he is crowned king of Gorilla City, with Boka as his wife.

Not content with merely controlling Gorilla City, Grodd flies to Central City, where he quickly wins the admiration of its citizens. Barry Allen, alarmed at everyone's positive reaction to Grodd's return, changes into the Flash to investigate. However, he also feels a great admiration for the gorilla when arriving in his presence. Leaving town to ponder the dilemma, he discovers that Grodd's radiation only has a hundred-mile radius. However, no matter how fast he goes, he cannot get back into the city without being affected by the neo-magnetic radiation. Meanwhile, the Statewide Party decides that Grodd would make the perfect candidate for governor. Grodd is ecstatic, planning to move from there to the presidency.

After several days have passed, the Flash has still been unable to get into the city without being affected by the radiation. However, he noticed that on a particular day, when solar flare activity was particularly high, the strength of the radiation was not as intense as normal. He vibrated at the same frequency as the solar flares, and was able to easily enter the city and apprehend Grodd.[1]

Under Solovar's guidance, Gorilla City was a technological utopia. Eventually, he decided his people could no longer use their science to hide from the human world. Believing that the world's ecological and political problems couldn't be solved by ignoring them, he opened his city's borders to the world and asked for membership in the United Nations. He advocated peace — among the gorillas and with humans — and was behind two diplomatic overtures to the human world.

The second tour of the U.S., sadly, was cut short by his assassination by a lethal car bomb.[2] While a mysterious group calling itself the Human Supremacy Movement took credit for the act, it was quickly made clear that Solovar's assassination at the hands of human racists was in fact a ruse concocted by the Simian Scarlet, a group of gorillas within Gorilla City seeking to overthrow the ruling council. The manipulators were themselves manipulated by Gorilla Grodd.





Points of Interest

Residents

Notes

The account of Gorilla City's alien origins is a retcon, introduced in DC Super-Stars #14. It also was never mentioned in any post-Crisis comics, and may not have been considered canon post-Crisis.





