Clifford DeVoe

"And so now, the fire that burns down Team Flash will also light the path to the enlightenment."

- Clifford DeVoe

Clifford DeVoe (born May 8, 1975), nicknamed The Thinker by Cisco Ramon, is a former history professor at Central City University, and secretly a criminal mastermind and an extremely knowledgeable enemy of Barry Allen/The Flash. Before he lived in Central City he lived in South Africa. He works alongside Marlize DeVoe, his wife, and partner-in-crime, whom he met at the University of Oxford. Clifford eventually transferred his consciousness into Dominic Lanse and assumed his identity, leaving his original body for the dead to frame Barry Allen. He later transferred his mind into Becky Sharpe, then Izzy Bowin shortly afterwards, and continued looking for three more meta-humans with powers and bodies to steal. After invading S.T.A.R. Labs, Clifford managed to acquire the powers of four more meta-humans, transferring his consciousness into the bodies of Edwin Gauss and later Ralph Dibny, whose powers DeVoe used to revert to the appearance of his original body.

Studies and teaching
Clifford DeVoe was born on May 8, 1975. He was raised in South Africa. When he grew up, he studied history and econometrics at the University of Johannesburg, Clifford first took a teaching position at the University of Oxford, specializing in the history of warfare and military strategy, focusing largely on the early Middle Ages. On June 13, 1997, he met Marlize, where the two fell in love and eventually married. Circa 2006, while at Oxford, DeVoe was a member of the debating society, debating the morality of Sun Tzu and the principles of Machiavelli. At that time, he also held a number of lectures in Central City University: on Japanese political fragmentation in the 15th century on June 13th; on the Menji Restoration of 1868 in September; on the Battle of Hakusukinoe in October. He would later accept an invitation to become a professor at CCU, moving to live in Central City, United States.

Birth of the Thinker
DeVoe and his wife, now living in Central City, worked on adapting to their new lives and saw progress for human development through the acceleration of mind, with DeVoe thinking that his own genius was not enough to achieve their plan of "distributing knowledge" throughout society. Coincidentally, the couple followed the progresses of S.T.A.R. Labs under Dr. Harrison Wells, specifically his S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator project. Thawne, well aware of Clifford DeVoe and his future from his own timeline and it's results, wished him luck. Upon realizing that the particle accelerator would explode, the couple developed a machine to amplify DeVoe's intelligence by using the dark matter from the particle accelerator explosion to power his "Thinking Cap" device. While the experiment was a success, DeVoe began to suffer from degeneration in his body, slowly paralyzing him and causing him seizures and pain. With his body trying to maintain the vast intellect, the rest of his body was not receiving the energy it needs. DeVoe's wife has thus built a machine that plugs into his brain to slow down his deteriorating body.

DeVoe kept watch over Team Flash's exploits, eventually learning all about The Flash's identity as Barry Allen, as well as their foes and the multiverse. He then formulated a plan and started to watch over 12 individuals that he marked as potential meta-humans. He manipulated the events in all of their lives to ensure that they would all be on the same bus, at the point of time that he would need them to be. In October 2017, DeVoe and Marlize built a samurai droid to force the Flash to make his return to Central City, causing dark matter to spill out and transform a busload of 12 people into meta-humans. After the samurai robot was defeated, DeVoe used it to anonymously welcome the Flash back. After rebuilding another Samuroid in his hideout, he mused on how everything was going according to plan with the Flash's return and began to plan his next move.

Later, DeVoe got up early in the morning, researched all of Schubert's 600+ works and used this knowledge to finish his unfinished eighth symphony, playing it on a holographic piano. Marlize approached him, musing how she enjoyed the song as a child. DeVoe proceeded to ask her for an update on the meta-humans, to which she showed him she managed to locate Ramsey Deacon locked up at Iron Heights Prison. DeVoe then decided it was time to locate the others.

Shortly after, as DeVoe and his wife watched over an incarcerated Becky Sharpe, Marlize remarked on how Team Flash had found her significantly quicker than they'd anticipated, suggesting they were smarter than they had originally thought. DeVoe, however, was sure that he was smarter, revealing a live feed to S.T.A.R. Labs from the seemingly inert Samuroid head.

Having knowledge of Mayor Anthony Bellows having an affair, DeVoe asked Ralph Dibny to investigate him.

He tracked down a meta-human called "The Weeper" a week later, and told him that he went through a lot of trouble in creating him, and that he couldn't die until he completed the task he was created for.

When Marlize came to him, saying they needed to talk, he responded that it would end the only way it could, which was his victory. She seemed confused and he said that they would have to take the conversation the long way. She then alerted DeVoe to the fact that Team Flash were closer to discovering his identity earlier than they had anticipated. He assured her that everything was fine as he had calculated every possible variable, as well as all possible outcomes of their conversation and how it would end. When she asked how it would end, he repeated his earlier statement that it would all end with his victory. Not long after, they were visited by Joe West and Barry Allen, who asked to speak to Clifford, who appeared in simple clothes and in an electric wheelchair, away from his mechanized hovering chair. After letting Joe and Barry in their home for being questioned, he denied that he didn't know any of the meta-humans that were in the bus the day when Barry exited from the speed force, except for Mina Chaytan but he explained his earlier life and about how he met his wife Marlize at the last university he taught at. After a few questions, Joe and Barry decided to leave, in which Barry doesn't trust DeVoe and continued his investigation into him.

DeVoe was teaching at a classroom at the University when he saw Barry again. When the students were dismissed, Barry posed several questions to him on his whereabouts on January 7, 2014 (the date of the particle accelerator explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs). Clifford claimed that he had no clue where he was that night. Barry asked him if he took any public transportation and DeVoe said he only got rides from people he knew were "wheel-chair friendly.” DeVoe also asked Barry why he was inquiring such information. Barry told him he wasn’t at liberty to disclose why and handed him his contact card, while secretly super-quickly swiping Clifford’s mug to conduct a DNA test to determine if DeVoe was a meta-human.

Hours later, DeVoe filed a complaint against Barry to David Singh. He lied, claiming that Barry was harassing him and his wife, prompting Singh to force Barry into apologizing to Clifford and Marlize for prying them.

The day after Barry broke into DeVoe’s house and found that he was spying on Team Flash, Marlize went to Singh again to deal with Barry’s behavior. Barry was suspended from his work for two weeks, and the DeVoe’s acquired a restraining order against Allen from coming into further contact with them.

Later, Barry defied the order and sought out DeVoe one more time, asking him who he really was. DeVoe revealed to Barry that he knows his superhero identity, how the Flash was “born”, and that he, Clifford DeVoe is smarter than Allen and his friends combined. DeVoe specifically told Barry that while he may be the fastest man alive, he is the fastest mind alive. DeVoe promised to think about Barry as he left to begin a class.

DeVoe told Marlize about his encounter with Barry and talked about his friends until his seizures started again, due to not connecting to his hover-chair for a long period of time. Marlize takes off his wig, revealing his brain and connects him to his hover-chair. While watching live footage of Barry and Iris sitting on their sofa together, Marlize asked her husband if he's going to let them get married. DeVoe replies, "What is knowledge without love?".

Evolution of the Thinker
Some time after Barry and Iris's wedding, DeVoe attacks Barry using his hoverchair, he is able to capture Barry and takes him to his lair, where he put Barry in a speedster trap. He confronted Barry and told him that he is here to teach him and that the lesson was there are no such things as Happy Endings. When Joe West and Harrison Wells arrived to DeVoe's house, DeVoe met them, but showed no real hostility to them and allowed them to look through his house. He returned back to Barry, but found him gone, shocked that Barry could have escaped, he put down the trap, only to discover that Barry had not moved at all, but had stood still so very fast that the eye couldn't see. DeVoe tried to launch the trap back up, but was too slow and Barry escaped. Barry confronted DeVoe and DeVoe teleported the pair of them over the city. In the air, DeVoe attempted to use his mechanical arms to capture Barry but accidentally damaged his chair which sent him into the water. DeVoe though survived and when Dominic Lanse was brought to him by Marlize, he transferred his mind into Dominic's fully taking over his body. In Dominic's body, DeVoe attended Joe West's Christmas Party, in which he planted his previous body in Barry and Iris's apartment and stabbed him with a knife that Barry had held prior. He had the alarm go off in the apartment so that Barry would go there and contacted him and told him that he has taken over Dominic's body. He said his goodbye to the rest of Team Flash before being reunited with Marlize, they kissed and she put his ring on his finger. DeVoe then told her that the age of enlightenment is to begin and the pair leave in their car while Barry is arrested for DeVoe's "murder".

Devoe then used his chair to take the lives and powers of the Bus metas in Iron Heights, killing them. When Gregory Wolfe tried to stop him, Devoe killed him as well after taking the body of Becky Sharpe. He taunted the Flash about his failure to save Sharpe and teleported away.

Devoe then took the body of Izzy Bowin, or The Fiddler, with the help of his Sharpe Luck powers. During this incident, Fiddler placed the new STAR Labs Neural Inhibitor on Sharpe's forehead, but Devoe simply stated, "Call me Kilg%re." He burnt out the neural inhibitor and took Bowin's body, escaping after taunting Team Flash once more, especially Harry Wells, for his device's failure. Afterwards, he performs using Izzy's fiddle in his sanctuary with his wife applauding his work, and his wife asks him what the next step is, and DeVoe replies, stating there are three more metas to find.

He later tipped off Veronica Dale into bringing a nuclear bomb to destroy Central City.

While planning on catching the three remaining bus metas, he drugged Marlize numerous times to keep her by his side when he discovered that she saw Weeper's tears in her drink and revealed to her that she has been finding out about him using her over and over again.

Legacy
According to Abra Kadabra's future, DeVoe is regarded as one of the Flash's greatest enemies alongside the Reverse-Flash and Zoom; however, none were as bad as Savitar. At some point in the future, both Kadabra and Thawne, while studying Barry's past, became aware of DeVoe's role as one of the Flash's enemies, the latter claiming to be a fan of his "work".

Savitar remembered working on the Cerebral Inhibitor when he came back to 2017 and toured S.T.A.R. Labs.

Personality
Prior to his transformation, Clifford was a fairly ordinary but socially awkward man who genuinely craved knowledge and wanted to reach people so he could pass on his love of knowledge to others, becoming frustrated with how so few of his students seemed to actually respect or listen to what he was trying to teach them. Feeling that their minds had become too small whilst his own ability to convey information effectively was lacking, Clifford began his efforts to construct the "Thinking Cap" with his lover in the name of bringing forth an "age of enlightenment".
 * -|As a civilian=

Since becoming "the Thinker", Clifford's personality has changed; though still craving knowledge, he is now more ruthless and brutal in his willingness to hurt innocents to get what he wants. Clifford is a calculating and patient man, very much focused on his current objective all the time, not having much emotional reaction while doing so. He is very confident in his abilities and does not hesitate to emphasize just how thoroughly he has accounted for every possibility, and every outcome, even to his own wife.
 * -|As the Thinker=

Clifford's also possessed an ambitious nature even before his transformation, wishing to advance the human consciousness to instill change in humanity. Whether as a façade or not, he can be a nice person towards people, especially to his students, but he also takes advantage of this trait when he lied to David Singh about Barry harassing him and his wife in which the latter was actually investigating him.

However, even at his worst, Clifford is not without a romantic side; he feels the need to be the great man his wife needs despite his condition and noted that he would be nothing without her. He also allows Barry Allen and Iris West their wedding out of understanding of their love.

Clifford's superhuman intelligence has made him quite arrogant to the point of having a massive ego, this is evidenced by the fact that after Barry confronted him, as he wanted to know who he really is, he not only revealed to the latter that he knows he is the Flash, but Clifford also boasted that he has nothing to fear from Barry, this new-found intellect of his, also causes him to sometimes underestimate his opponents, like Barry. He is also not above killing and can even take pleasure in it, as he did to Gregory Wolfe, without any real reason.

It appears DeVoe's constant body change may be affecting his mind as theorized by Marlize. This is evident by the fact DeVoe seems to be cruel towards his wife especially when she points out potential flaws in him, something DeVoe in the past never did. His amoral and selfish nature has even reached the point of viewing his wife as nothing more than a tool for his needs, going so far as to repeatedly alter her memories to keep her docile. However he was shown to be even more cruel to his wife after she find out about him drugging her and erasing her memories and he comes out of nowhere to telling everything he’s done to her and when she was about to turn against him he uses his chair to shoot out one of the claws to stab her on the side of the neck drugging her and leaving his wife unconscious on the floor and later on she wakes up having her on his side as his partner.

DeVoe retains a polite edge despite his arrogance, even referring to his adversaries as “mr” and “mrs” though with various levels of condescension.

Powers
"There is not a decimal, a fraction, an infinitesimal variable beyond my thoughts... beyond my mind!"

- Clifford DeVoe


 * Meta-human physiology: After being struck by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator while wearing his "Thinking Cap", DeVoe's already high mental capacities were enhanced to superhuman levels. The Thinking Cap also shielded from being directly exposed to the gene-altering energy, which allowed Clifford to retain his normal human DNA despite his enhanced physiology.
 * Superhuman intelligence: The vastly augmented parameters of his mentality have pushed his ability to process, react, memorize, deduce, analyze, and simply comprehend to surreal levels, able access any thoughts far faster and more efficiently than normal human levels, even exceeding any speedster. Even more, his intellect is continuously expanding, quite possibly ranking him the greatest mind in the multiverse, even making the intellects of other recognized geniuses seeming pathetic in comparison. To his point he solved many mysteries with his intelligence including Riemann's hypothesis, one of Hilbert's problems, and Jack the Ripper's true identity. DeVoe claims he can calculate and deduce the answer to almost any question and anticipate any potential outcome, and to his credit has anticipated ever action his enemies have taken several steps ahead of him as if being clairvoyant. He is even able to condition his thought patterns and general brain activity to mimic others, enabling him to perform feats like completing Schubert's unfinished eighth symphony by extrapolating the remaining movements after he familiarized himself with the body of his other 600 works in a single morning.
 * Absorbed powers: Between transferring his consciousness and current powers into other bodies or siphoning other people's powers into his current body, DeVoe has gradually expanded the number of meta-abilities he possesses. Between the continued assimilation of extra dark matter and his heightened mental parameters, DeVoe's control, range, and versatility in using these stolen abilities greatly exceed their original owners.
 * Dimensional manipulation: From Edwin Gauss, DeVoe is able to create portals to other pocket dimensions, essentially "folding" the boundaries between them. This action also acts as a powerful defense, able to absorb any attack through one portal and then redirect through another portal.
 * DNA manipulation: From Matthew Kim, DeVoe can alter the nature of a person's DNA upon physical contact with them..
 * Power transferal: DeVoe can use the DNA manipulating to siphon and transfer the powers of one person to another host, even into himself.
 * Effigy animation: From Mina Chaytan, DeVoe can temporarily animate effigies, controlling their movements as if genuinely alive.
 * Elasticity: From Ralph Dibny, Devoe is able to stretch and reshape his molecules in a near-endless myriad of choices. The sheer resilience of this power on his body allows him to even withstand the ravages caused from other powers.
 * Shapeshifting: Should he desire, DeVoe's stolen elastic powers enable him to take the physical likeness of whatever he desires and even perfectly replicate the person's voice, as he chose to make his new body of Dibny's take the form of his original body, in its healthy pre-meta state, and make it his default.
 * Gravity manipulation: From Janet Petty, DeVoe can manipulate gravity. While Petty could only remove one's natural gravity to make them weightless, DeVoe can also apply this power in the opposite nature, increasing a target's weight. He is also able to apply this power without direct contact. Also, he seems able to control the direction of gravity, as he was able to freeze Dibny in place.
 * Jinxing: From Becky Sharpe, DeVoe can spread bad luck on people whilst giving himself good luck after he.
 * Psychoactive fluids: From The Weeper, DeVoe is able to produce a psychoactive solution, which he used repeatedly on Marlize as her loyalty towards him began to waver.
 * Size alteration: From Sylbert Rundine, DeVoe can alter the size of any target by manipulating the space between their atomic bonds.
 * Sound projection: From Izzy Bowin, DeVoe can project sound waves, able to focus them as powerful shockwaves or deafening vibrations that subdue foes in anguish.
 * Technopathy: DeVoe was able to absorb Ramsey Deacon's ability to control any form of technology. When doing so, his eyes and all lightings affected by his powers glow purple. Whereas Deacon could only control a single target at a time and within the immediate vicinity, DeVoe can control all technology in the area, as he took control of all of S.T.A.R. Labs's technology.
 * Telepathy: From Dominic Lanse, DeVoe gained telepathic powers. Whereas Dominic could only hear the thoughts of people he was aware of, Devoe can detect the presence of all, as he immediately became aware of Cisco Ramon "vibing" him. He can also delve into their mind, allowing him to alter people's memories and even launch psionic blasts at people.

Abilities

 * Expert historian: Even before gaining his augmented intellect, DeVoe was an accomplished and well-known professor of history in all its forms.
 * Master of deception: DeVoe can be very deceptive, effectively convincing David Singh that Barry was harassing him; resulting in the latter being (unfairly/wrongfully) suspended from the CCPD. His ability to fabricate evidence led to Barry being convicted for his murder. He was able to fool Ralph that he was defeated long enough to take him by surprise and subdue him.
 * Master tactician: DeVoe's intelligence makes him a near-flawless planner, able to assess and account for the numerous variables, both natural events and people's instinctual reaction, and from this effectively manipulate the situation to unfold as he sees fit. His talent for planning enables him to prepare dozens of steps ahead, as shown from anticipating when Team Flash would discover his identity. Clifford is also a masterful chess player, as he regularly plays on his hover chair.
 * Multilingual: DeVoe is capable of fluently speaking English, Japanese, French, Italian, Mandarin and several other languages.
 * Musical ability: By conditioning his brain activity to replicate Schubert's, DeVoe is a skilled pianist and after transferring his mind to Izzy Bowin, a skilled violist as well.
 * Polymath: In addition to history, DeVoe has demonstrated to be expert in various other subjects such as mathematics and engineering; this has become even notable since attaining his superhuman intellect. As an engineer, DeVoe was able to create the schematics of the designs of the samurai robots and the "Thinking Cap". Despite his growing knowledge and skillset, he openly acknowledges his wife as still being a superior engineer.

Weaknesses

 * Cerebral inhibitor: Harry built the Cerebral inhibitor. Savitar had mentioned that Team Flash would use a version of the device against DeVoe at some point in the future. However, Savitar never said the device would be successful in taking him down. When Bowin attached it to DeVoe's forehead, it appeared to have affected him, but DeVoe used Kilg%re's powers to neutralize the device.
 * Mental instability: As a consequence from the excess dark matter absorbed from the various and his continually growing intellect, DeVoe has become increasingly arrogant, erratic, cruel, and unstable. Believing himself of such a higher clarity compared to the rest of the word and so committed to the "Enlightenment", he has abandoned all form of restraint and morality with not the slightest hesitation or regret. Even his love for his wife, once his defining redeeming quality, has devolved into a possessive and controlling attitude where he tells his wife outright that she is nothing without him. In addition to this, he has also become increasingly impatient and a perfectionist, becoming so absolutely confident in his perception that that takes no further caution beyond his initial plans and becomes very unhinged should something happen beyond his expectations.
 * Power-dampening tech: Like all meta-humans, if DeVoe is exposed to power-dampening technology, he'll be unable to use his powers. However, if he was already accessing Kilg%re's powers, the dampening effects will ultimately prove useless against him.

Former weaknesses

 * Body degeneration: While DeVoe's intellect was boosted to levels surpassing a group of geniuses and continues to grow, his body began to deteriorate from all the energy in it being directed to his brain, leaving his body without enough to properly function. This caused an advanced form of ALS, making his nerves and muscles to start deteriorating, which resulted in Clifford's paralysis and can eventually be fatal. His hovering chair is designed to stop this fatal deterioration, though it ultimately only a temporary slowed down the problem. This weakness has since grown more deadly as the dark matter in his cells has grown more intense from absorbing other meta-powers, forcing him to regularly take new bodies. It can be accelerated with sonic blasts. After obtaining gaining Dibny's elastic powers, DeVoe no longer has the need to continually switch bodies he is now capable of handling excess dark matter in his body and ever-expanding mind.
 * Exposed brain: For his cybernetics to work, DeVoe's brain has to be exposed, with the upper half of his skull removed. This is no longer a weakness after transferring his consciousness into a new body.
 * High frequencies: DeVoe seems to be severely weakened by high frequencies. This was shown when Izzy Bowin used her powers and knocked him down during their first encounter. Later, he was shown when Ralph Dibny used the Soniceptor, a tuning fork designed by Harry. After obtaining Dibny's exceptionally resilience from his elastic powers, DeVoe is no longer vulnerable to this.
 * Limited mental transference: DeVoe is able to transfer his consciousness and absorb the powers of others a set number of times. This was revealed when DeVoe could have stolen the powers of all the meta-humans in Iron Heights, but he did not, instead only going after the "Bus Metas". After elasticizing the cells of his host body through Dibny's powers, he claims there is now no limit to the number of powers he can contain at once.

Equipment

 * Hovering chair: DeVoe uses a mechanical chair, connected with wires to his hideout's computer system. The chair is also able to hover in mid-air and has offensive capabilities in form of blasters. The chair also has teleportation capabilities, which explains how DeVoe captured the Weeper without attracting a lot of attention. It also has extendable robotic tentacles capable of grabbing and stunning any victim without any difficulties as implied when Barry Allen tried to attack DeVoe before getting grabbed and stunned by them. In addition, the chair has the ability to transfer the essence of DeVoe into that of another body. This is how he transferred his essence into Dominic Lanse, and later Becky Sharpe; and then later on into Izzy Bowin; it is still unknown what happened to their own essences. It has been revealed to also have the ability to steal powers from other meta-humans. DeVoe also secretly added a syringe filled with the Weeper's tears, which was altered by Dominic's powers, on one of the chair's tentacles in order to not only put his wife in a drugged trance, but to also brainwash her if ever she finds out about his secret and turns against him for his evil acts.
 * Retractable essence transference ring: DeVoe managed to create a portable ring device that allows him to easily transfer his essence to any victim he subdues without the use of his wheelchair.

Former equipment

 * Thinking Cap: In 2013, just before the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator explosion DeVoe designed the thinking cap to boost his own intelligence. He had his wife build it and he put it on his head during the explosion and it was struck by lightning, it is unknown what happened to the cap after that.
 * Wheelchair: Due to his severe ALS, DeVoe used a wheelchair when he was required to appear as a civilian in public. After taking control of other meta-humans' bodies and faking his own murder, he no longer uses the wheelchair, since none of his new host bodies have a need for it.

The Flash
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Season 4
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Trivia

 * DeVoe's plan so far seems to be acquiring powers to further predict/manipulate people for his own goals.
 * Elongated Man would be the final body DeVoe would transfer to, as Ralph can mimic the appearances of other people.
 * The Thinker is the first main antagonist of The Flash who is not a speedster.
 * At the same time, he's the first main antagonist who didn't join Team Flash first.
 * Also unlike the previous main antagonists of The Flash, Clifford's identity as a villain was revealed to the audience very early in the season since his first appearance in the first episode of the fourth season and to Team Flash in the seventh episode of the fourth season, "Therefore I Am"). The identities of the other villains were revealed only near the end of their respective seasons;
 * Reverse-Flash's identity was revealed to the audience in the episode "Fallout" but on the twentieth episode of the first season, "The Trap" his identity was revealed truthfully to Team Flash (however, Team Flash suspected that he was Harrison Wells a few episodes before; he also revealed his identity to Cisco Ramon in an aborted timeline in the fifteenth episode "Out of Time").
 * Zoom's identity was revealed to the audience on the fifteenth episode of the second season, "King Shark" but it was officially revealed to Team Flash in the following episode, "Trajectory" and confirmed to the audience in the episode "Versus Zoom".
 * Savitar's identity was revealed to Barry and the audience during the twentieth episode of the third season, "I Know Who You Are" (However, he told the rest of the team only in the following episode, "Cause and Effect").
 * Like Damien Darhk, Clifford was mentioned twice, on the third season of his show, and became the main antagonist in the following season.
 * Clifford admits to his wife that in his many predicted future scenarios, one of Cisco's supervillain names for him would have been "The Teacher".
 * The Thinker seems to be aware of what Barry was up to in all of the show's previous seasons, which means that he knows everything about him; the enemies which he dealt with, his true identity and about his life as both as the Flash and a civilian. He also possesses great knowledge of everything which occurred in the previous seasons using his intelligence.
 * It is shown on the restraining order that DeVoe has against Barry in "The Trial of The Flash", that DeVoe's birthday is May 8, 1975.
 * DeVoe is very similar to Eobard Thawne, in which they are both scientific geniuses and they both take over certain individual's bodies for various reasons, such as Eobard taking over Harrison Wells's body and DeVoe taking over the bodies of Dominic Lanse, Becky Sharpe, Izzy Bowin, Edwin Gauss, and Ralph Dibny. Furthermore, Harry Wells and Cisco Ramon learned that DeVoe had been plotting his goals regarding the "Bus Metas" for three years before putting his plan into action, calling him "a planner; just like Thawne".
 * Unlike other metahumans whose DNA and physiology is altered to handle their new powers, when Clifford gained his powers he was not directly exposed to the Dark Matter. The Dark Matter powered the Thinking Cap which gave DeVoe his powers and as such did not alter his DNA or physiology to handle the power leading to his ALS as his body couldn't produce enough energy to handle the super brain and maintain his body. This makes him unique among metahumans as he gained his powers with no change to his body's genetic structure.
 * DeVoe is similar to Aggregor from Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, who took of the powers of 5 aliens to become a super-strong and extremely powerful villain to Ben and his team, similar to how DeVoe is taking the powers of the "Bus Metas" to become one of the hardest challenges to Team Flash.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics Clifford DeVoe was the first villain known as the Thinker, a genius inventor corrupted by Hunk Norvok and enemy of Jay Garrick, whose brain-boosting "Thinking Cap" invention went on to gain artificial intelligence and become an enemy of the Wally West Flash, using DeVoe's name after his demise, which was caused by the Cap's detrimental effects on his body over the years. Similarly, DeVoe's counterpart television series struggles to keep his body healthy with his overclocked mind slowly killing him.
 * While in the comics that he was a failed lawyer, in the series he is a history professor.
 * In the series, Clifford DeVoe has a wife name Marlize DeVoe and she helps him when ever he needs her and helped him make the thinking cap and he also used his hover chair to take over the body of Dominic Lanse, a.k.a. Brainstorm. The DC Comics versions of the Thinker and Brainstorm, specifically the Axel Storm and Fred Storm versions had costume designs very similar to one of DeVoe's costumes, with a purple suit with pauldrons and massive silver headgear used for amplifying their powers.
 * The functions of DeVoe's hover chair are reminiscent of the one used by Lex Luthor of the Justice League: Gods and Monsters continuity. Both have an assortment of gadgets and a teleportation like device. However, the key feature was to aid both geniuses in movement due to both of them having a form of ALS.
 * The chair is also very similar to the Mobius Chair created by Metron, which can teleport, create force fields or tractor beams, and act as life support to it's user. Additionally, the Thinker has incredibly high intelligence, mirroring the omniscience granted by the Mobius chair.