Superman@70: Monkey Business

As part of my ongoing survey of The Great Apes of DC Comics, I thought Superman@70 month would be the perfect occasion to go on a Super-Simian Safari through the dense jungle of Superman history.

(click on the covers for a larger view)

Name: Kingorilla

First Appearance: Adventure Comics #196 (1954)

Powers and Abilities: Giant sized, super-strong gorilla.

History: When Lana Lang's parents were captured by jungle natives, Clark Kent and Lana saved them from being sacrificed to Kingorilla, a giant ape worshiped by the natives. After he chased off Kingorilla as Superboy, Clark helped the natives replace diamonds stolen from their idol.

Name: Bongo

First Appearance: Superboy #38 (1955)

Powers and Abilities: Highly trained TV chimp.

History: A television chimp named Bongo is abducted by criminals and trained to assist in their robberies. However, instead of following their instructions, Bongo always found a way to alert Superboy to the robberies.

Name: Chandu

First Appearance: Adventure Comics #219 (1955)

Powers and Abilities: X-Ray vision.

History: When an ex-con noticed that a captured gorilla named Chandu possessed x-ray vision, he and his gang stole the beast and used the x-rays to melt bank walls and start fires. The rays could also weaken Superboy, which revealed that Chandu's power may have came from Kryptonite-contaminated water (of course!). Shortly after Superboy defeated the criminals and Chandu, the gorilla's x-ray vision disapeared as the effects of the K-water wore off. 

Name: Super-Ape

First Appearance: Action Comics #218 (1956)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed the super powers of any Kryptonian creature under a yellow sun, as well as the ability to speak.

History: Believing Jor-El's warnings of Krypton's impending destruction, scientist Shir-Kan rocketed several of his apes into space to save them from the explosion. One of the apes made it to Earth and was raised by normal apes. Gaining superpowers and the ability to speak, Super-Ape eventually met Superman and helped him bring illegal trappers to justice. Learning Super-Ape's story, Superman tracked down the remaining Kryptonian apes and reunited them with the grateful Super-Ape.

Name: Jimmy Olsen,
       Gorilla Reporter

First Appearance: Jimmy Olsen #24 (1957); Reprinted in Jimmy Olsen #116 (1968)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed the human intelligence and "Superman's Pal" status of Jimmy Olsen.

History: Helping Professor Thorne with a device that could read the thoughts of animals, a malfunction caused Jimmy Olsen's mind to switch with that of a test gorilla. Unable to cure his Primate Pal, Superman built a pen to hold his gorilla-controlled human body while Gorilla Jimmy returned to work at the Daily Planet. Following some awkward newspaper assignments, Superman reversed the mind switch when he realized the signal watch he'd given Jimmy was responsible for the malfuction of Thorne's device.

Name: King Krypton,
      The Super-Gorilla

First Appearance: Action Comics #238 (1958)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed the super powers of any Kryptonian creature under a yellow sun, as well as the ability to speak.

History: Summoned to Africa by Jimmy Olsen, Superman learned of a super-powered gorilla the boy reporter had dubbed King Krypton. Weakened by the Kryptonite-tipped spearheads of a local tribe, both Superman and King Krypton were captured and forced to battle each other. Sacrificing his life to save Superman's, King Krypton suddenly assumed human form. Just before dying of Kryptonite poisoning, the ex-gorilla explained that he had actually been a devolved Kryptonian scientist who'd been launched into space for a cosmic ray cure (which obviously didn't do the trick).

Name:Titano,
     The Super-Ape

First Appearance: Superman #127 (1959)

Powers and Abilities: A 40 ft. tall mutated chimp with the ability to project Kryptonite rays from his eyes.

History: When a chimpanzee named Toto was launched into space aboard an experimental satellite, two meteors collided near the tiny capsule. One Uranium, the other pure Kryptonite, the radiation from the meteors caused Toto to grow at an alarming rate when he returned to Earth. Reaching a height of 40 ft. and earning the new name of Titano, the giant ape's rampage brought Superman to the scene. As Superman attempted to subdue him, Titano blasted Superman with a shocking new power...Kryptonite Vision! Assisted by Lois Lane (who'd befriended Titano when he was Toto), Superman tricked Titano into covering his eyes with giant lead spectacles and, once shielded, hurled Titano "back in time" to Earth's Mesozoic Era where he could battle beasts his own size.

Name: Beppo,
      The Super-Monkey

First Appearance: Superboy #76 (1959)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed the super powers of any Kryptonian creature under a yellow sun.

History: Initially a test animal used by Jor-El as he developed his spaceflight project, Beppo stowed away aboard Kal-El's rocket ship as it escaped Krypton's destruction. Upon landing on Earth, Beppo scurried away and lived in Africa for a time, then returned to Smallville to inflict some good-natured monkey mischief. Eventually tricked to leave Earth, Beppo returned years later and met Supergirl, who then introduced him to Krypto and Streaky the Super-Cat.

Name: Super(boy) Ape

First Appearance: Superboy #143 (1967)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed super powers identical to the human Superboy.

History: When Red Kryptonite transformed Superboy into a monkey, a "delayed secondary effect" turned him into a giant ape. After spying the transformed Superboy from his African home, a curious Beppo the Super-Monkey flew to Smallville...where he was promptly transformed by the same piece of Red-K into a double of Clark Kent! After a brief conflict, the two Kryptonians reverted back to their proper forms...but not before Beppo's stint as Clark Kent saved his secret identity from a suspicious Lana Lang.

Name: Bruna

First Appearance: Jimmy Olsen #98 (1966)

Powers and Abilities: Highly amorous jungle goddess.

History: When Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen visited a jungle movie location, a gorilla named Bruna fell in love with Jimmy and wanted to make him her mate. Trying not to offend the local natives, Superman suggested that Jimmy play along until a solution could be found (thanks, "pal"!). Taking matters into his own hands, Jimmy tricked Bruna into tossing him over a cliff, allowing him to escape from his involuntary inter-species marriage.

Name: Yango

First Appearance: Superboy #172 (1971)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed the super powers of any Kryptonian creature under a yellow sun.

History: Rocketed from Krypton by yet another scientist, a baby ape named Yango landed on Earth. Raised by a tribe of African apes, Yango used his enhanced intelligence and super-powers to lead and protect them. Superboy learned of Yango's presense on Earth and, after a brief conflict, became his friend and approved of the super-ape's protection of the animal kingdom.

Name: Supermonkey

First Appearance: JLA Annual #3 (1999)

Powers and Abilities: Possessed super powers identical to the human Superman.

History: When a "gorilla bomb" transformed the Justice League into gorillas, Supermonkey defended Metropolis from Grogamesh, a gigantic robot gorilla in Superman Annual #11 (pictured).

Comments

[John Nowak]

>Powers and Abilities: Possessed the human intelligence ... of Jimmy Olsen.

Dang. Talk about being short-changed.

[Pat Curley]

That first Titano cover is one of those covers that gives away the ending to the story. I have to admit, I did not realize that the ape story in Jimmy Olsen #116 was a reprint; I'd always assumed it was just a swipe.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Titano showed up in the last Animated Series, sans Kryptonite Vision. Titano (no former name) made friends with Lois when she was a child, and she knew how to quiet him down. I think he showed up again in one of the AS-based "Superman Adventures" comics. Yay, I know something!:)

Super(boy) Ape's story gives me a headache.

[Mark Engblom]

"Dang. Talk about being short-changed."

Well, I had added "such as it is" in parenthesis, then decided against it. Jimmy's been through so much over the years, I didn't feel right insulting his intellect.

"That first Titano cover is one of those covers that gives away the ending to the story."

Yeah, shocking twist endings weren't too high on the priority list back then, were they? I know over in the Julius Schwartz stable of titles, he was all about the "stunt cover" that would really grab your attention (which was usually echoed in a single panel on the inside story). Weisinger's titles seemed to be essentially straight-forward representations of the general direction of the story, with nothing really mindblowing

"Titano showed up in the last Animated Series, sans Kryptonite Vision. Titano (no former name) made friends with Lois when she was a child, and she knew how to quiet him down."

Yeah, I remember that episode. They did a good job of "translating" that old Silver Age story to a modern context.

"Super(boy) Ape's story gives me a headache."

It's truly one of the most surreal Silver Age stories I've ever read....and THAT'S saying something. It was one thing for Superboy to turn into a giant ape, but for Beppo to turn into not only a human, but Clark Kent specifically was enough to implode my frontal lobe. Deliciously loopy stuff.

[Pat Curley]

"Weisinger's titles seemed to be essentially straight-forward representations of the general direction of the story, with nothing really mindblowing."

Weisinger favored what I like to call the "Puzzle Cover", which can be summarized as "How can this possibly be happening?" The idea seemed to be that if you could get the kid in the store to actually pick up the comic to flip through and find out, you were halfway to a sale. So we'd see Superman with an ant-head, or Jimmy battling Supes or Lois as a baby, or a Legion of Super Heroes rejecting Superboy for having ordinary powers, or... you name it. Indeed, I often think that many Superman stories of the time seem constructed to justify the cover, rather than a key moment plucked from the story to be the cover.

But covers where the hero's salvation is given away are actually pretty rare; that's sort of an anti-puzzle cover. There are only a couple of those that I can think of offhand. Flash #150, for example:

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=18942&zoom=4

And that's exactly how the Flash beats Captain Cold in that issue.

I guess they thought that just having Superman getting the rays from Titano's eyes wasn't dramatic enough.

[John Nowak]

>"Dang. Talk about being short-changed."

>Well, I had added "such as it is" in parenthesis, then decided against it. Jimmy's been through so much over the years, I didn't feel right insulting his intellect.

There is that.

Still, I have in my hands the greatest comic event of 2007 -- the "Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen" reprint. On p69, Superman brings Jimmy and Lois a chest of medieval potions made by Merlin. In this chest, they find a werewolf potion. Jimmy's line is:

"They're just silly supersitions, Lois. I'll prove it by washing down my sanwich with this ... ha, ha ... this wolf-man potion!"

I'm trying to imagine a universe or context where that would be a good idea, but I can't.

I mean, even if Jimmy had the powers of Matter-Eater Lad, you'd think he'd want to preserve the stuff for historical research, right?

[Mark. Engblom]

You're right John....Jimmy *IS* a dunce! Beyond even the historical value, what idiot is going to drink a 500 year old vial of liquid?

[John Nowak]

To be fair, I think that moment was sort of a low point for Jimmy. Otherwise, he tends to be rash and accident prone, but not stupid.

He should also take a basic safety course (Do not put alien plants on the same table as your food, or you may accidentally bite the wrong thing and grow four more arms) but you can nail most superheroes on that; Tony Stark killed someone once because he never read the NRA's gun safety literature.