Editor Julius Schwarz knew a few things that were bound to provide a spike in sales when they were featured on a comic book cover. One of those was the appearance of a gorilla, and darn if that wasn't true. All of DC's mainstays seemed to mix it up with gorillas at some point and I was always eager to read those stories. So it's no surprise that The Flash got a gorilla arch enemy to call his own. Grodd's appearances have always been fun and I really hope that he finds his way into the Flash TV show if it goes to series.
Awww, yeah! Now that's awesome! Can't go wrong with a gorilla!
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, though: I can't think of any gorillas in comics that are on the Good Guys' side. Grodd is the iconic gorilla villain, and there's also Monsieur Mallah... but the only gorilla superheroes I can think of are Gor from TV's Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys, and Dr. Silverback from the Champions RPG.
ReplyDeleteProbably, though, someone will post a short list of heroic gorillas that I've forgotten about.
Angel and the Ape, Monkeyman and O'Brien and Gorilla Man from Agents of Atlas spring to mind...
ReplyDeleteSee? I knew there was someone I'd forgotten about! (Angel and the Ape is the only one that I actually had any awareness of before now, though.)
ReplyDeleteNow we just need a cover with all of those gorilla heroes in an ad hoc group (though the two I cited may be a little hard to gather).
Congorilla is good guy aoe that is
ReplyDeleteI would have thought Gorilla Grodd and the Red *Ghost* would have made for a more natural pairing, given the Red Ghost's use of/association with the "Super-Apes." Love this one as well, though. Keep 'em coming!
ReplyDeleteIn a way almost all of the DC gorillas were on the good guys' side; they were, at least, advanced and peaceable citizens of Gorilla City, under the enlightened leadership of Solovar. I see from Wikipedia that Gorilla City is back in the nu52, though it's apparently a grimmer take, as usual.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960's, the Doom Patrol comic did serialized origins of the individual members as back-up stories. In the Beast Boy origin it ended with him as an orphaned toddler in Africa upsetting a plot by expatriot Nazis to train gorillas as an army. In forty plus years of reading comics, this cover is the ONLY thing that comes remotely close to that plot line.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of heroic gorillas in the comics, why not King Solovar, the frequent leader of Gorilla City, ally of the Flash, and regular nemesis of Gorilla Grodd?
ReplyDeleteSeeing Art Adams drawing a gorilla does my heart good. :)
ReplyDeleteThe grip you have on telling a story in one cover is amazing. The sheer irony of this one is exactly what the reader wants.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't there be something in there with acknowledgement to Marvel Comics as well if they are combining DC's Grodd with Marvel's Red Skull? Seems like this would be one of those cross-over things (except this one never happened).
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