Marvel's Simian Super-Heroes
And Other Monkeyshines

We feel an odd kinship: Monkey See is beside itself over Marvel Apes.
Illustration: Lindsay Mangum, NPR/Marvel Comics

Apes. They are to comic books what guest-appearances by Charo are to television: A once-pervasive element of the form, now fallen into sad disuse. Cheesy? Yep. Nonsensical? Sure. Yet possessed of an essential grooviness that is self-evident.

Back in a more whimsical era, comic pages teemed with gorillas, chimps, monkeys and the bad puns that inevitably follow in their musky wake. The reason was decidedly unwhimsical: Putting a primate on the cover boosted sales.

But this gorilla glut didn't last forever, and today it's a fondly remembered period in the history of comics publishing that continues to inspire scholarship -- well, musing, anyway.

Tomorrow, however, Marvel Apes # 1 arrives in comic shops.

The Strange Allure of Apes in Capes, after the jump ...

The new mini-series belongs to a particular subgenre of superhero storytelling known as Apes-in-Capes. It's been around a while; mad scientists have been turning heroes into gorillas since before Lex Luthor stopped using creme rinse.

Back in 1999, DC Comics kicked the Justice League of America a few rungs down the evolutionary ladder, transforming them into super-gorillas for a summer event called -- wait for it -- JLApe

Marvel Apes dispenses with the process of transformation, instead positing an alternate, simian universe in which Spider-Monkey (geddit?) battles his foe, Doc Ook (hanh? hanh?) high above the streets of Monkhattan (wokka wokka!).

You can see where this is going: Page after page of monkeys in superhero costumes, plus cringeworthy puns.

...All of which I will be eating up.

...With a big ol' Aquaman First Appearance Commemorative Spoon.

Because: Page after page of monkeys! In superhero costumes! And cringeworthy puns!

Cuchi-cuchi, Marvel. Cuchi-cuchi, indeed.

-- Glen Weldon

9:35 AM ET | 09- 4-2008 | permalink

comments | | e-mail