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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. DeVoe made his live-action debut in The Flash, portrayed primarily by Neil Sandilands. In the DCEU, Peter Capaldi portrayed Gaius Grieves, an original variation of the Thinker in The Suicide Squad (2021)
The Clifford DeVoe incarnation of Thinker first appeared in All-Flash #12 (Fall 1943) and was created by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard.[1]
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).[2]
The Cliff Carmichael incarnation of Thinker first appeared in Firestorm #1 (1978) and was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom.[3]
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."[3]
In The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man #50, the strap on Ronnie Raymond's football helmet is cut, and in the following issues Carmichael is suspected of the crime. Though Conway later said that he must have intended to ultimately reveal someone else as the culprit, John Ostrander took over as the series' writer and had Carmichael confess to cutting the strap.[3] In Firestorm #99, Carmichael became the Thinker as part of a genre-wide trend in which civilian cast members were almost eliminated from superhero comics.[3]
Clifford DeVoe is a failed lawyer who bitterly ended his career in 1933. Realizing that many of the criminals he had 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, he is defeated by the original Flash/Jay Garrick, his most recurrent foe. DeVore wields the "Thinking Cap", a metal hat that can project mental force.
The Thinker is a member of the Injustice Society, leading an army of prison escapees like the other members.[4] In Plateau City, the police nab a shabbily dressed man who is trying to shoot the governor. They discover that this man is a dead ringer for the governor and also claims to be the real governor. The Flash arrives on the scene to overhear this, but moves on to confront the hoodlums attacking the city. The Thinker appears on the scene, firing a ray at the Crimson Comet, causing him to gain weight and crash through a roof. Recovering, the Flash speeds over to the governor's mansion, only to overhear the governor ordering all police forces to surrender. Flash enters his office and discovers the governor to be a dummy/machine, which flees through an open door. Flash attempts to warn the police that a phony governor put out the message, but the Thinker shows up and tells the Flash that he is speaking into a dead mic, then snares him with invisible wires.
The Thinker appears as a judge in the 'trial' of the JSA, but was revealed as Green Lantern in disguise, having captured the real Thinker after escaping Brain Wave. This led to the Injustice Society's defeat. Together with the Fiddler and the Shade, the Thinker is the man behind the decades-long "abduction" of Keystone City and the original Flash.[5] His "suspended animation-time" in Keystone kept the Thinker young over the years, and he continued his criminal career in modern times.
DeVoe later accepts a mission with Task Force X in exchange for a full pardon.[6] Although he is seemingly killed by Weasel during this mission, he turned up alive soon after, only to be dying from cancer due to the cap.[7]
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Thinker is depicted as a former district attorney.[8]
Clifford Carmichael is an intellectual bully and the rival of Ronnie Raymond (one half of Firestorm) at Bradley High and later at Vandemeer University. Cliff viewed Ronnie as a rival due to his popularity. He torments Ronnie throughout his high school career and later at Vandemeer University. It was at Vandemeer that Cliff's pranks turned sinister as he cut the helmet strap on Ronnie's football helmet, hoping to get him injured. Cliff's cousin Hugo Hammer accidentally takes Ronnie's helmet. During a football game, Hugo's neck is broken.[9]
Wracked with guilt after accidentally paralyzing Hugo, Cliff is admitted into a mental institution. He is used as a test subject for experiments with the original Thinker's Thinking Cap and uses the cap to analyze the device and improve on its design. Implanting microchip versions of the helmet into his brain, Cliff becomes a "cyberpunk maniac" with metahuman powers. As the new Thinker, he is drafted into the Suicide Squad after attempting to kill Amanda Waller.[10] After several missions, he betrays them for the villainous Cabal.[11]
The Thinker later appears as a foe of Jason Rusch, the second Firestorm. When Killer Frost discovers that the consciousness of Ronnie Raymond, the previous Firestorm, exists within the Firestorm matrix, Thinker exploits a new opportunity to antagonize an old foe.[12] Technologically dominating the minds of Multiplex and Typhoon, he battles Firestorm, ultimately destroying Ronnie's consciousness. Jason dissolves the enhancements in Carmichael's brain, leaving him comatose.
In Infinite Crisis, Cliff joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains.
With John Ostrander's revival of the Suicide Squad in a 2007-2008 miniseries, Cliff was once again associated with the Suicide Squad under Amanda Waller's direction.[13] It was revealed that although Firestorm had removed the enhancements in Cliff's brain, he made a full recovery and continued to serve as a technical support staffer and lackey to Waller in her operations of the Squad. Cliff betrays the Squad under the direction of the General, but is shot and killed by King Faraday.[14] Cliff is resurrected following The New 52 continuity reboot.[15]
Des Connor was a villain who also used the name "the Thinker" and faced Batman in Gotham City. Possessing telepathic abilities enabling him to amplify the fears of others, Connor began a partnership with hypnotist Marlon Dall. Their combined illusions caused the city's most prominent citizens to commit various criminal acts which they used as a distraction for their own heist. This Thinker is swiftly beaten by Batman, who is immune to his powers.[16]
When the re-formed JSA moved into the New York City building formerly owned by Wesley Dodds, Mister Terrific designs a computer system based on the original Thinker's "Thinking Cap" technology and modeled after his brain patterns. The system gains an artificial intelligence and a holographic body. As the Thinker, it joins Johnny Sorrow's modern Injustice Society, provides the villains with information about the JSA members, and turns the heroes' headquarters against them. The Thinker is defeated by the Star-Spangled Kid and disappears into cyberspace.[17]
The Thinker A.I. resurfaces in Keystone City to battle Wally West, in an attempt to control every brain in Keystone to increase his power. Defeated by Cyborg, he retreats to cyberspace again.[18] He has since appeared briefly in some other books, such as JSA Classified #5, joining the Injustice Society alongside former teammates.[19]
In the series Checkmate, Mister Terrific succeeds Alan Scott to become the second White King of Checkmate. He repairs the A.I. Thinker's corruption by creating preventative failsafes within his intelligence and promotes him to become the second White King's Bishop.[20]
In DC Rebirth, the Thinker appears as a member of the Legion of Zoom.
During the 2013–2014 Forever Evil storyline, which took place during "The New 52" era, an unidentified Thinker used his intellect to predict the arrival of the Crime Syndicate of America and is incarcerated in Belle Reve. Thinker's brain came at the price of draining energy from the rest of his body while also prematurely aging him. When the Crime Syndicate arrive, Thinker is among the villains who swear allegiance to them, intending to claim the body of OMAC (Kevin Kho) for himself.[21] He succeeds, only for Kevin to reclaim his body. As Thinker's original body is nowhere to be found, Amanda Waller suspects that Thinker is still out there.[22]
An original version of the unnamed Thinker appears in The Suicide Squad, portrayed by Peter Capaldi.[30][31] This version is Dr. Gaius Grieves, a Scottish, sociopathic 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 within the Nazi-era research facility Jötunheim, using the Corto Maltesean government's enemies as test subjects. After an anti-American dictatorship takes over the Corto Maltesean government and kills his scientific staff with the intention of weaponizing Starro in the present, Grieves sides with them to save himself by 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.
