Thinker (DC Comics)

This article is about DC Comics supervillains. For the Marvel Comics supervillain, see Mad Thinker.

The Thinker is the name of five supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.

The first incarnation, Clifford DeVoe, is an enemy of Jay Garrick. The second, Clifford Carmichael, is an enemy of Firestorm. The third, Desmond Carter, is an enemy of Batman. The fourth, an A.I. version of the Thinker, is an enemy of the Justice Society of America. An unidentified incarnation of Thinker, introduced in the New 52, is an enemy of the Suicide Squad.

The character has been adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including television series and feature films. The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of the Thinker made his live-action debut in the television series The Flash, portrayed primarily by Neil Sandilands. In the DC Extended Universe, a variation of the unidentified Thinker called Gaius Grieves appears in The Suicide Squad (2021), portrayed by Peter Capaldi.

Publication history

The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of Thinker first appeared in All-Flash #12 (Fall 1943) and was created by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard.

In October 1947, the Thinker was one of the six original members of the Injustice Society, who began battling the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics #37 (Oct 1947).

The Cliff Carmichael incarnation of Thinker first appeared in Firestorm #1 (1978) and was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom.

Conway recounted, "My original notion on Firestorm was to do a book that would be DC's complement to Spider-Man, in a sense. We would have a young adolescent male who gets superpowers and doesn't know quite what to do with them. My flip on it was that rather than being the science geek who was being picked upon by the jock, my hero would actually be the jock who was picked on by the geek, and that was going to be Cliff Carmichael's role."

In The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man #50, the strap on Ronnie Raymond's football helmet is cut, and in the following issues the cast members come to suspect Carmichael of the crime. Though Conway later said that he must have intended to ultimately reveal someone else as the culprit (commenting "Cliff was a jackass, but he wasn't a bloodthirsty maniac"), John Ostrander took over as the series' writer and had Carmichael confess to cutting the strap. In Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #99, Carmichael was transformed into the Thinker as part of the genre-wide trend in which civilian cast members were almost eliminated from superhero comics.

Fictional character biography

Clifford DeVoe

Thinker
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	All-Flash #12 (September 1943)
Created by	Gardner Fox Everett E. Hibbard
In-story information
Alter ego	Clifford DeVoe
Species	Human Cyborg
Team affiliations	Injustice Society Suicide Squad
Abilities	Technologically derived telekinesis and mind control

Clifford DeVoe is a failed lawyer who bitterly ended his career in 1933. Realizing that many of the criminals he encounter have the skills but not the brains to rule Gotham City's underworld, he starts a new career as the brain behind small-time villains. As the Thinker, DeVoe becomes an enemy of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and wields the "Thinking Cap", a metal hat that can project mental force. Furthermore, he joins the Injustice Society and spends decades in suspended animation, enabling him to survive into the modern day.

DeVoe later joins Task Force X in exchange for a full pardon. However, he dies from cancer caused by prolonged exposure to his Cap.

In the "DC Rebirth" continuity, DeVoe is a former district attorney.

Cliff Carmichael

Thinker
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	As Cliff Carmichael: Firestorm #1 (March 1978) As the Thinker: Firestorm (vol. 2) #99 (July 1990)
Created by	Gerry Conway Al Milgrom
In-story information
Alter ego	Cliff Carmichael
Species	Human Cyborg
Team affiliations	Suicide Squad Secret Society of Super Villains
Abilities	Technologically derived telekinesis and mind control

Clifford Carmichael is an intellectual bully and the rival of Ronnie Raymond (one half of Firestorm). After damaging his cousin Hugo Hammer's football helmet, leading him to be injured and paralyzed during a game, Cliff is guilt-ridden.

Cliff is admitted into a mental institution and used as a test subject for the original Thinker's Thinking Cap. After implanting microchip versions of the helmet into his brain, Cliff becomes a cyborg metahuman and joins the Suicide Squad. He battles the second Firestorm, Jason Rusch, who renders him comatose.

In Infinite Crisis, Cliff joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains. He is killed by King Faraday in Suicide Squad (vol. 3), but resurrected in The New 52 continuity reboot.

Des Connor

Thinker
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Batman: Shadow of the Bat #67 (October 1997)
Created by	Alan Grant Norm Breyfogle
In-story information
Alter ego	Desmond Connor
Species	Human Cyborg
Abilities	Telepathy Fear projection

The fourth Thinker is Des Connor, an enemy of Batman who can amplify the fears of others. He hypnotizes civilians into committing heists before being defeated by Batman, who is immune to his powers.

Artificial intelligence

Thinker
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	JSA #9 (April 2000)
Created by	David S. Goyer Geoff Johns Stephen Sadowski
In-story information
Species	Artificial intelligence
Team affiliations	Injustice Society Secret Society of Super Villains Checkmate Legion of Zoom
Notable aliases	White King's Bishop
Abilities	Binary intelligence capable of integrating into and controlling computerized and electronics systems

The fourth Thinker is a rogue artificial intelligence based on Clifford DeVoe's consciousness and created by Mister Terrific. As the new Thinker, it joins Johnny Sorrow's modern Injustice Society, provides the villains with information about the JSA members, and turns the heroes' own HQ against them. He is defeated by the second Star-Spangled Kid and disappears into cyberspace.

The Thinker A.I. later joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains and the Legion of Zoom and becomes the White King of Checkmate.

Unnamed Thinker

Thinker
The unidentified Thinker in Suicide Squad (vol. 4) #25 (January 2014). Art by Patrick Zircher.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Suicide Squad (vol. 4) #24 (December 2013)
Created by	Matt Kindt Patrick Zircher
In-story information
Species	Human Cyborg
Team affiliations	Secret Society of Super Villains
Abilities	Superintelligence

An unidentified Thinker is introduced in Forever Evil. Due to his powers gradually degrading his body, he takes over the body of OMAC before escaping Belle Reve.

Other versions

• The body of an unidentified alternate universe variant of the Thinker appears in JLA: The Nail #2. He was killed by a brainwashed Metamorpho on the orders of a mutated Jimmy Olsen, who sought to isolate Earth from the galaxy while he recreates Krypton.
• An unidentified alternate timeline variant of the Thinker appears in Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #3 as an inmate of Doom prison.

In other media

Television

Neil Sandilands as Clifford DeVoe / The Thinker in The Flash

• The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of the Thinker makes non-speaking cameo appearances in Justice League Unlimited as a member of Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society and the Flash's Rogues.
• The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of the Thinker makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Sword of the Atom!".
• The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of the Thinker appears in the fourth season of The Flash, portrayed primarily by Neil Sandilands, with Kendrick Sampson (Dominic Lanse / Brainstorm), Sugar Lyn Beard (Becky Sharpe / Hazard), Miranda MacDougall (Izzy Bowin / Fiddler), Arturo Del Puerto (Edwin Gauss / Folded Man), and Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man) also portraying the character in different host bodies. This version is a South African university professor who, with help from his engineer wife Marlize DeVoe, developed the "Thinking Cap" to increase his intelligence, only to become a metahuman with gifted intelligence and an advanced form of ALS. In an attempt to cure himself and remove technology from the world, Clifford became a wheelchair-bound cyborg and tricked the Flash into helping him create 12 metahumans so he can steal their powers, give himself a new body, and counter the Flash and his allies. While the speedster eventually succeeds in foiling Clifford's plans, the latter's "Enlightenment" satellite would go on to create more new metahumans and meta-technology that empowered individuals such as Cicada.
• The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of the Thinker, based on his Golden Age counterpart, makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in a photograph depicted in the Stargirl episode "Summer School: Chapter One".
• An unidentified incarnation of the Thinker, based on the Gaius Grieves incarnation (see below), appears in Suicide Squad Isekai, voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka in Japanese and Jay Hickman in English. This version is a rogue member of the Suicide Squad who, like the Clifford DeVoe incarnation, possesses the Thinking Cap. After escaping to another world, he joins forces with fellow rogue squad-mates Katana (revealing later to be the Joker), the Enchantress, the Ratcatcher, and Killer Croc to serve the Undead King and brainwash a population of elves, only to be defeated by Harley Quinn and decapitated by Katana, who steals his head and Thinking Cap in a failed attempt at continuing the Undead King's plot.

Film

The Thinker, based on the unidentified incarnation, appears in The Suicide Squad, portrayed by Peter Capaldi. This version is Dr. Gaius Grieves, a sociopathic, Scottish metahuman geneticist who was employed by Corto Maltese's dictatorship and the U.S. government for the secretive "Project Starfish". Over the course of 30 years, he studied and experimented on the alien Starro using enemies of the Corto Maltesean government within the local Nazi-era research facility Jötunheim. After an anti-American dictatorship takes over the Corto Maltesean government and kill his scientific staff with the intention of weaponizing Starro in the present, Grieves sides with them to save himself, claiming that only he can control the creature. However, he is captured by the Suicide Squad, whom Amanda Waller sent to destroy Project Starfish and bury its U.S. ties, and forced to help them infiltrate Jötunheim until they accidentally release Starro who kills Grieves in retaliation for experimenting on it.

External links

• The Flash TV Show season 4 Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine