Thinker

The Man: A Real Thinking Man's Criminal

Clifford Devoe was a failure as a lawyer, but when he noticed that criminals lacked an intelligent mind to properly lead them in their crimes, and found that a lot of money could be made from operating in the shadows. Devoe set out to become a success as the The Thinker. Devoe soon found himself in conflict with Jay Garrick , the first Flash, whom would foil his complicated schemes and escape his traps. Devoe was always looking out for new scientific devices to use in his criminal ventures, the most important and identifiable was his Thinking Cap which gave him minor telekinesis and mind control abilities, as well as enhancing his intellect. He was a founding member of the original incarnation of the Injustice Society.

His arguably greatest feat was suspending Keystone City in suspended animation for decades with the help of The Shade and The Fiddler. Everyone in Keystone was affected, even Jay Garrick. The city was restored with the help of Barry Allen in the "Flashes of Two Cities" story, the effects of the villain's plan leaving the Thinker young enough to operate in the modern era. Devoe accepted a mission with the Suicide Squad for a full pardon, but seemingly had his throat ripped out by the Weasel and his Thinking Cap stored away shortly after the mission. The Thinker made one final appearance where he was dying of of terminal brain cancer, brought about by his extended use of the Thinking Cap. Thinker by this point had made amends with his former arch enemy Jay Garrick, and had reformed from his criminal ways.

Jay tried to save him using the Cap in desperation, but Clifford merely removed the device, preferring to die on his terms. His final words to Garrick were "Learn to lose every once in a while. A little humility prepares you for what lies ahead.".

His remains are sealed in the morgue in the Hall of Justice.

His Thinking Cap technology would go to create the AI Thinker and be adapted by Cliff Carmichael as the new but short lived successor to the Thinker title.

The Machine: Artificial? Perhaps. Intelligent? Definitely

When the Justice Society moved to their new headquarters in New York, Mr. Terrific built a new state of the art security system out of the original Thinker's Thinking Cap technology. It gained sentience shortly thereafter and joined Johnny Sorrow's new Injustice Society. It fashioned itself a hologram form and locked down the mansion so no one could get in or out. He supplied the villain's with information on the JSAers and turned the mansion's security system against them. He tries to ambush Stargirl during her battle with Shiv, she apparently defeated him but he retreated to cyberspace to escape imprisonment or deletion. The AI makes a reappearance in Keystone City attempting to absorb the minds of every one in the city, including The Flash. He had been stirring around in Keystone's data networks building his power until he was strong enough to turn the city itself into a computer. Wally over-accelerates his program core with the help of Cyborg by outthinking him in pure raw brain power and burns him out. The AI shows as member of a later version of the Injustice Society bringing back Johnny Sorrow.

White King's Bishop

The Thinker A.I. is later shown to have been "stored away" by Mr. Terrific, incapable of completely removing his essence by his cyber security programs, and is ultimately drafted into Checkmate as his White Bishop, providing assistance to Terrific and acting as tech support on missions. He tried to takeover Checkmate system's but Carl Draper used a duplicate of his program to counter him, as nothing else could be potent enough to block his advances. The Thinker later appeared in Final Crisis: Resist as a part of the resistance group and would be the one to initiate the O.M.A.C. Program in millions of people in order to combat the mass mind control created by Darkseid's usage of the Anti Life Equation.

He winds up with the Cyborg Revenge Squad gathered by the mercenary Mr. Orr to kill Victor Stone, but is foiled.

Powers and Abilities

Thinker before his death was already a incredibly smart criminal, thinking of complicated schemes and plans that even Jay Garrick struggled to foil, as well as scientific discoveries like a time machine, dimensional teleportation devices, his Thinking Cap, as well as minor things like gases that induce different emotional responses. With the Thinking Cap, Thinker's IQ was not only raised to the level of genius, but he could also reanimate matter, use telekinesis, project images and objects into people's minds, hold people in place with telekinetic force, and used illusions to fool even people as fast as Jay himself.

While A.I. Thinker lacks the mental powers of his human counterpart, he more than makes up for that with insanely fast processing speeds (enough to keep up with speedsters across the planet) as well as highly potent skill in hacking and being able to control any form of technology and use it to his own devious ways, usually to attack other people. Thinker can also use technology to hijack people's minds and steal their electrical energy created in their brains to fuel his own processing speeds. This can be overtaxed, but only by the insanely fast processing speeds of a speedster like Wally West. Thinker is also highly intelligent, through this causes him to underestimate the human potential of his foes, and his literal way of thinking can cause him to be tricked rather easily.

Alternate Versions

Flashpoint

For more information see: Flashpoint

Thinker is a prisoner of The Hall of Doom, a flying prison for humans and Metas. He is enlisted by Heat Wave to pilot the Hall into Detroit, when he and the other prisoners try to make a break for it. Thinker's code is over powered by Cyborg but he is still able to crash the Hall into the bay.

Other Media

A man named DeVoe is mentioned infrequently near the end of Season 3 of "The Flash." He was noted by Abra Kadabra to be one of Barry's greatest foes, along with Thawne, Zoom, and Savitar.

DeVoe appears in Season 4 as the main antagonist. He is portrayed by Neil Sandilands.

A version of the Thinker appeared in the Suicide Squad movie. This version, instead of being Clifford DeVoe, was a man known as Gaius Grieves. He was a metahuman with high intellect. Grieves was a scientist at Jotunheim, working for the dictatorship of Corto Maltese in the Project Starfish.

The Suicide Squad's mission consisted in capturing him in a local known as La Gatita Amable, so they could use to get into Jotunheim and destroy Project Starfish.