DC's Ape-ril Special #1

DC's Ape-ril Special #1

Originally released in 2024

Written by John Layman et al.

Art by Karl Mostert et al.

I normally don't do themes for this blog, but this month is April - or should I say, Ape-ril?  I'm covering every kind of monkey from chimpan-ay to chimpanzee!  I might go absolutely bananas by the end of this month, but I won't let it make a monkey out of me!  (in all seriousness, I'll likely only be able to keep up this theme for a week at best - I just saw this comic on the DC Universe Infinite app and wanted to do something with it)

This anthology focuses on a trio of monkey-themed heroes - Sam Simeon (grandson of Gorilla Grodd), Detective Chimp (whose detective skills rival those of Batman), and Monkey Prince (a young man with the powers of the Monkey King from Journey To The West) - as they try to foil the malevolent machinations of Monsieur Mallah, who has gathered an alliance of several simian-themed supervillains. (though not Gorilla Grodd, oddly enough, who's imprisoned)

These stories are a lot of silly fun, which is exactly what I expected when I looked into a book called "DC's Ape-ril Special". (I'd be a little disappointed if it took itself completely seriously - even when the tone is serious, such as Detective Chimp encountering a man who's trying to cover up a recent murder, it's still funny to see a man holding a chimpanzee that's dressed like the popular depiction of Sherlock Holmes at gunpoint)

I'm interested to learn more about Monkey Prince in particular, who seems to take inspiration from the Billy Batson incarnation of Captain Marvel in that he transforms from an ordinary high school student to a demigod by saying a magic word.  I'm not sure if he has a series of his own or not, but I'll look into his other appearances.

The issue also comes with a cover gallery for comics from the 50s that had gorillas on the cover, as it was a proven fact at the time that putting a gorilla on a comic's cover resulted in an inexplicable boost in sales.  However, it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity - there's not a single cover of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in here, even though he switched bodies with a gorilla (and an ape - I have no idea how it happened more than once), married a gorilla, and teamed up with a gorilla, at the very least.

Also, it involves an ancient mystical book called the Monkeynomicon.  In other words, it was everything that I was hoping for and more.