Glorious Godfrey

History

An orator with incredible powers of persuasion, Glorious Godfrey was sent to Earth by Darkseid to spread rhetoric and unrest that would pave the way for Darkseid’s coming. With the support of his travelling road show, Glorious Godfrey preached the wonders of the Anti-Life Equation, for which being Darkseid’s ultimate goal.

Those who opposed Godfrey’s position were hunted down and dealt with by members of Godfreys personal army called the Justifiers. These were generally Earthmen who had been swayed by Godfrey’s preaching, then completely mind-controlled by the speciall helmets they wore.

Before Glorious Godfrey could cause mass rioting throughout America, he and his forces were dealt a crushing blow by the super beings from New Genesis who called themselves Forever People. Glorious Godfrey has long harboured great jealousy over Darkseid’s obvious favouritism toward his master torturer, Desaad.

Major Story Arcs

Final Crisis

During the Final Crisis, Glorious Godfrey took the body of Reverend Good and appears in a TV news report. He is later seen trying to gain Darkseid a new body in Dan Turpin. Eventually, when Dan Turpin’s spirit was crushed, the body was open for Darkseid to take over. After Darkseid is defeated by an onslaught of superheroes, and finally, Superman, Godfrey’s whereabouts become unknown. With Darkseid’s defeat, he is left without a master, though Darkseid later returns in DC’s New 52 continuity.

Robin Rises

While Batman, teamed with Frankenstein, is battling Ra’s al Ghul over the corpse of Damian Wayne, they are interrupted by the surprise appearance of Glorious Godfrey and a battalion of Parademons, who appeared via boom tube. He has come to retrieve Darksied’s chaos shard, which somehow came into the possession of Ra’s al Ghul.

Learning that the shard was hidden inside the sarcophagus of Damian Wayne, Godfrey resolved to not only take back the shard and kill everyone at the scene, but to also take Damian’s sarcophagus, with Damian’s corpse still inside, back to Apokolips. Before he could kill Batman, the Justice League appeared in the nick of time, and fought back Godrey and his Parademons. Although he and his battalion were defeated, Godfrey still made off with the shard and Damian’s body.

Alternate Versions

Earth-12

Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution

Eventually, Derek Powers aka Blight makes a sudden return to Gotham and he has plans in store for Wayne Enterprises. Blight anonymously pays a random attorney to defend Paxton and the parole board was so convinced by the attorney’s presentation that they granted Paxton an early release. Blight’s next move was exercise his remaining connections in Wayne Enterprises in order to have Glen Godfrey (Glorious Godfrey reborn) appointed as Wayne Enterprises’ new union representative/ negociator. Godfrey orchestrates the immediate termination of the renewed union contract for Wayne Enterprises’ employees.

Godfrey’s interference in the negociations causes Wayne Enterprises employees to go on strike and start a riot outside Wayne Tower. Later on, Blight tries to kill Paxton by setting off an explosion in Paxton’s location but Godfrey reports back to Blight to inform him that Batman saved Paxton from the explosion. Godfrey also makes his New God heritage known by expressing his lack of concern for radiation when he approaches Blight.

Godfrey’s little play with Wayne Enterprises falls apart when Bruce Wayne buys a controlling interest in the company. Godfrey threatens Wayne that his stunt will not only agitate Derek Powers but his other employers as well (a reference to the New Gods on Apokolips). Bruce knows Godfrey has used finances, violent emotions and unrealistic labor demands to cause corporate unrest. However, Bruce managed to meet the salary demands, pension increases and utilized profit sharing even if it meant using every penny he had in his trust fund. Godfrey coudln’t believe it but Bruce ratified his demands with an additional ten percent across the board at the Gotham Stock Exchange. Godfrey admits his defeat and Bruce tells Godfrey to relay a meesage to “his employers” that Bruce Wayne is always prepared for a fight.

Other Media

Television

Justice League

In the Justice League animated series, “Glorious” Godfrey was merely an annoying but popular talk-show host who badmouthed the League, playing embarassing footage of the Flash (Wally West) to boost his ratings. When Flash then saved the world and was once again declared a hero, Godfrey’s show was switched to a timeslot just before the Sunday farm reports. He was voiced by Enrico Colantoni.

Smallville

Godfrey appears in four episodes of Smallville and is played by Michael Daingerfield. In “Supergirl”, Godfrey attempts to overthrow the so-called mutants or vigilantes. However, his body gets possessed by Darkseid and continues Godfrey’s vigilante hate and plans to possess Clark. This leads Supergirl to fight Darkseid since Clark wasn’t ready to fight his own darkness. Near the end of the episode “Abandoned”, Godfrey is shown alongside Desaad and Granny Goodness. He lastly appeared in the show’s series finale, enacting Darkseid’s plan along with Desaad and Granny Goodness. He failed and was vanquished by Green Arrow.

Young Justice

G. Gordon Godfrey appears in the season premier episode of Young Justice: Invasion titled “Happy New Year.” He is a television news anchor for GBS that is heavily concerned about the presence of aliens on earth; questioning the motives of the Justice League, and even going as far as to believe that they all may be aliens bent on bringing about the destruction of Earth. He is voiced by Tim Curry.