Monkey Business: The Great Apes of DC Comics

For several months now, I've been educating the next generation of comic book fans with my Know Your Marvel Monsters feature, which provides a handy overview of the aliens and freaks of nature Marvel published before they switched to superheroes with The Fantastic Four.

Well, with the school year just about over, I feel it's imperative to add even more educational content to Comic Coverage to ensure quality learning takes place all summer long!  So, in this new series, I'll be giving equal time to Marvel rival DC Comics...no, not to their giant sci-fi monsters (which weren't really their thing), but to their multitudes of monkeys, gorillas, and apes (oh, my)!

You see, starting in 1951 with Strange Adventures #8, the editors of DC Comics began noticing that comics with gorillas on the cover seemed to sell better than others. In fact, editors began doing so many gorilla covers that their boss Irwin Donenfeld allegedly stepped in and declared that only one gorilla cover per month could appear in their line of comics. However, even with Donenfeld's limitations, gorillas and other primates continued popping up in DC Comics throughout the 1950's and 60's...so find a grooming partner, peel yourself a banana, and let's get to our first Monkey Business profile, shall we?

Name: The Bat-Ape

First Appearance: Batman #114 (1958)

Powers and Abilities: Super intelligent trained circus ape.

History: When a circus box office is robbed, an ape trainer named Arthur Harris is mistakenly arrested for the crime.

As a skeptical Batman investigates the robbery, Harris's super intelligent ape named "Mogo" befriends him and follows him back to the Batcave.

Donning a spare cowl, Mojo tags along with Batman and Robin as "Bat-Ape" and helps capture the real thieves.

Freed from police custody, Harris decides to return the favor by bringing Mogo back to his African homeland and setting the heroic ape free.

Comments

[Geoff]

"The Bat-Ape".
I love it. Now all we need is a Man-Bat equivalent, the "Ape-Bat"!

[Mark. Engblom]

You know, with all those DC apes running around, I wouldn't be surprised if there WAS an Ape-Bat among them.

Trust me, Bat-Ape is only the tip of a very, very large iceberg. Stay tuned for more in the coming months.

[xocai mlm]

This is very informative. Good point of The Great Apes of DC Comics.