THINKER I (Clifford DeVoe)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Gardner Fox and E. E. Hibbard

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Clifford DeVoe
Occupation: Formerly District Attorney of Keystone City, later professional criminal; also Bishop in Checkmate
Status: Deceased
Citizenship: American
Base of Operation: Originally Keystone City, KS, now mobile
Group Affiliation(s): Injustice Society of the World; Suicide Squad: Checkmate
Gender: Male
Height: 6'1" (now not applicable)
Weight: 173 lbs (now not applicable)
Eyes: Brown (now not applicable)
Hair: Brown, later grey, now none
First Appearance: All-Flash #12 (fall 1943)
Creators: Gardner Fox and E. E. Hibbard

HISTORY

Clifford DeVoe was a failure of a lawyer who bitterly ended his career in 1933.

Realizing that many of the criminals he had encountered had the skills but not the brains, he started a new career as the brain behind small-time villains. As the Thinker, he was defeated by the original Flash, of whom he soon became the most recurrent foe. Always seeking out new scientific devices he could use, the most important of them was the "Thinking Cap," a metal hat that could project mental force, and which he used repeatedly over the years.

The Thinker was a member of the Injustice Society of the World, and, together with the Fiddler and the Shade, he was the man behind the decades-long "abduction" of Keystone City and the original Flash, after which he was defeated by the Flashes of two eras. His "suspended animation-time" in Keystone kept the Thinker younger over the years, and he continued his criminal career in modern times.

In recent years, however, DeVoe accepted a mission with the Suicide Squad in exchange for a full pardon. Although he was seemingly killed by the Weasel during this mission, he turned up alive soon after, only to be dying from cancer. His former foe, the original Flash, attempted to save him with the Thinking Cap, but DeVoe refused, preferring to rest in peace.

The first Thinker is dead, but his legacy has lived on in Thinker II (who used his technology), and Thinker IV (who is based on his brain-patterns).

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The Thinker was a planner and a mastermind, well acquainted with police methods so as to be able to thwart their moves in trying to apprehend him or his gang. DeVoe was not above stealing technology that would aid him in his crimes, his favorite weapon was his Thinking Cap, which increased his intelligence and gave him telekinetic abilities. He would modify it over the years, finally using the tech to push his brainwave patterns into the World Wide Web and becoming a "cyberentity"

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Thinker in chronological order click here

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #23 (January 1987)