Monkey Business: Gorilla Witch!

 

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! As crazy as DC's penchant for ape, gorilla, and monkey covers could get, few covers surpassed the sheer insanity of an eyepatch-wearing gorilla stirring up a witch's brew of world domination! 

Name: Taro, the Gorilla Witch

First Appearance: Strange Adventures #186 (1966)

History: While he brewed a magic potion that would allow him to communicate with animals, a jungle explorer named Reed was suddenly attacked by a gorilla. During the attack, the potion's potent fumes turned Reed into a gorilla while giving Taro (the attacking gorilla) human intelligence. The newly-intelligent Taro put on Reed's clothes (including Reed's eyepatch!), mixed up some more gorilla potion, then set about making an army of intelligent apes to take over the world (ala The Planet of the Apes). Luckily for humanity, Reed's friend Bruce slipped a transformation-neutralizing antidote into the brew, causing Taro to lose his intelligence and Reed to regain his humanity.  Taro was then captured and shipped off to a zoo...while still wearing Reed's eyepatch! 

Powers and Abilities: As Gorilla Witch, the witch brew gave Taro the capability of making a vast army of intelligent apes with which to take over the world, which he imagined in the panel below (click to enlarge).

Taro's human intelligence gave him the ability to "impersonate" Reed....with the amusing exception of putting his eyepatch over the wrong eye, thereby sowing the seeds of his defeat.

 

For more DC Comics Monkey Business, click here.