{"id":32704,"date":"2025-04-26T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32704"},"modified":"2025-04-25T17:16:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T17:16:19","slug":"gorilla-man-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/04\/26\/gorilla-man-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorilla-Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Jeff Parker<\/strong>, Jason Aaron<\/strong>, Stan Lee<\/strong>, Larry Lieber<\/strong>, Giancarlo Caracuzzo<\/strong>, Jack Kirby<\/strong>, Bob Powell<\/strong>, Bob Q. Sale<\/strong>, Dick Ayers<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-4911-8 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apes have long fascinated comics audiences, and although Marvel never reached the giddy heights of DC\u2019s slavish and nigh ubiquitous exploitation of the Anthropoid X-factor, the House of Ideas also dabbled in monkey business over its many years of existence.<\/p>\n

This slim mixed-bag of a tome gathers newer adventures of happily hirsute occasional hero Ken Hale<\/em> – gregarious Gorilla-Man of resurrected 1950s super-group pioneers Agents of Atlas<\/strong> – culled from an eponymous 2010 3-issue miniseries and supplemented with pertinent material from Avengers vs. Atlas<\/strong> #4, X-Men First Class<\/strong> #8, plus a splendid grab bag of assorted earlier interpretations culled from the company\u2019s back catalogue of anthology horror and mystery titles: specifically Men\u2019s Adventures <\/strong>#26, Tales to Astonish<\/strong> #28 & 30 and Weird Wonder Tales<\/strong> #7.<\/p>\n

What you need to know<\/em>: the Agents of Atlas comprise rejuvenated 1950s super-spy Jimmy Woo<\/em> and similarly vintaged superhuman crusaders Namora<\/strong> (Sub-Mariner\u2019s cousin), spurious love-goddess Venus<\/strong>, a deeply disturbing, extremely unhuman Marvel Boy<\/strong> from Uranus, <\/em>primitive wonder-robot M11<\/strong> and the aforementioned anthropoid avenger. As the Atlas Foundation, these veterans surreptitiously fight for justice and a free world as the nominal leaders of a clandestine crime-cult which still thinks it\u2019s being patiently guided towards the overthrow of all governments. The real power behind the organisation however is a terrible mystical dragon named Lao<\/em>…<\/p>\n

The modern mainstream saga concentrates on \u2018Ken Hale, the Gorilla-Man: The Serpent and the Hawk\u2019<\/em> by Jeff Parker & Giancarlo Caracuzzo: exploring the anthropoid adventurer\u2019s origins following a particularly bizarre battle against spidery cyborg Borgia Omega<\/em>. In search of another action-packed mission, Hale spots a familiar face on an Atlas \u201cwanted poster\u201d and heads for Africa, flashbacking his past for us along the way.<\/p>\n

It all began in Missouri in 1930 as a visiting big-shot spots something in a poor orphan kid holding his own against seven bigger boys who picked the wrong dirt-grubber to bully…<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Avery Wolward<\/em> was a millionaire man-of-intrigue with interests all over the globe and for the next decade little Kenny became his companion and partner in a series of non-stop escapades that would make Indiana Jones green with envy. Ken learned a lot about life and loyalty, eventually discovering that Wolward owed much of his success to a mystical snake walking stick. Now that cane is in the hands of an African crime-lord calling himself Mustafa Kazun<\/em> who\u2019s well on the way to stealing an entire country and building an empire of blood…<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Each miniseries issue was augmented by comedic faux email conversations between Hale and his social networking fans, and here delightfully act to buffer transitions between modern menace and reprinted monkey mystery vignettes. The first of these is \u2018It Walks Erect!\u2019<\/em>, taken from 1974\u2019s Weird Wonder Tales<\/strong> #7 which itself rescued the yarn from pre-Comics Code Mystery Tales<\/strong> #21 (cover-dated September 1954).
    \n\"\"
    \nThe story – by an unknown author but illustrated by the magnificent Bob Powell – concerns compulsive rogue surgeon Arthur Nagan<\/em> whose obsession with brain transplants took a decidedly outr\u00e9 turn when his gorilla test subjects rebelled and wreaked a darkly ironic revenge upon him…<\/p>\n

    Slavish fanboys like me might remember Nagan as the eventual leader of arcane villain alliance The Headmen<\/em>… but probably not…<\/p>\n

    Hale\u2019s origin resumes as he and local agent Ji Banda<\/em> are attacked by Kazun\u2019s enslaved army, but that doesn\u2019t stop the suave simian superman describing how a clash with Wolward\u2019s arch rival Bastoc<\/em> to recover an ancient bird talisman in Polynesia led the then-full-grown soldier-of-fortune to split with his mentor and enlist in the US military just before Pearl Harbor…<\/p>\n

    By the time the war ended Wolward was gone and the magnate\u2019s daughter Lily<\/em> had inherited both the family business and the walking stick…<\/p>\n

    After another message-board break, the classic \u2018I Am the Gorilla Man\u2019<\/em> (Tales to Astonish<\/strong> #28, February 1962, by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) reveals how criminal genius Franz Radzik<\/em> developed a mind-swapping process so that he could use a mighty ape body to commit robberies. Sadly the big brain forgot that, with its personality in a human body, the anthropoid might have its own agenda and unbridled opportunity…<\/p>\n

    The conclusion of \u2018The Serpent and the Hawk\u2019<\/em> sees Hale unite with a gorilla clan to overturn Kazun\u2019s schemes and unlock the secret of the stick, even as his mind is firmly replaying his bad marriage to Lily, subsequent decline into drunken dissolution, recruitment by the arcane Mr. Lao<\/em>, and eventual confrontation with a previous Immortal Gorilla-Man.<\/p>\n

    The role is an inherited one and a curse. To kill the undying Gorilla is to become him, and the previous victim had by this time had more than enough. Even after Hale refused to end the creature\u2019s torment, it relentlessly followed him until it could trick the drunken mercenary into taking on the curse. However, after linking up with 1950s heroes such as Jimmy Woo and Venus, Hale found it truly liberating and grew to accept his new status…<\/p>\n

    Thus when Kazun\u2019s true identity is revealed and the weary adventurer is offered a permanent if Faustian cure, Gorilla-Man makes the only choice a true champion can…
    \n\"\"
    \nA final text presentation precedes Lee, Lieber, Kirby & Ayers\u2019 \u2018The Return of the Gorilla Man\u2019<\/em> (Tales to Astonish<\/strong> #30, April 1962) wherein Radzik – still locked in a gorilla\u2019s body – escapes captivity and frantically attempts to prove to scientists how smart he is.<\/p>\n

    Big mistake…<\/p>\n

    Fresh insight into Hale is provided by Jason Aaron & Caracuzzo\u2019s \u2018My Dinner with Gorilla-Man\u2019<\/em> from Avengers vs. Atlas<\/strong> #4, wherein a desperate man with nothing to lose hunts down the ageless anthropoid, intent on fulfilling the ageless equation: \u201cKill the Gorilla and live forever\u201d…
    \n\"\"
    \nThis is followed by a gleefully glorious romp from X-Men: First Class<\/strong> #8. \u2018Treasure Hunters\u2019<\/em> by Jeff Parker & Roger Cruz, finds the debut generation of Xavier<\/em>\u2019s mutants – Cyclops<\/strong>, Angel<\/strong>, Beast<\/strong>, Iceman<\/strong> & Marvel Girl<\/strong> – in the Congo and hunting for their missing teacher. Along the way they encounter a talking gorilla who becomes their guide, which inadvertently pulls reclusive hermit Hale out of a decades-long funk…<\/p>\n

    The collection concludes with the seminal supernatural suspense thriller that first introduced \u2018Gorilla Man\u2019<\/em> to the world. Again by an anonymous writer (possibly Hank Chapman) and limned by unique stylist Robert \u201cBob Q.\u201d Sale, this evocative chiller from Men\u2019s Adventures<\/strong> #26 (March 1954) offers a much grittier take on the origin, as a man terrified of dying and plagued by nightmares of fighting apes hears a crazy legend and heads for Kenya and an inescapable, horrific destiny…
    \n\"\"
    \nAlso included is a selection of 21st<\/sup> century covers by Dave Johnson, Leonard Kirk, Dave McCaig, Gabrielle Dell\u2019Otto, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado & Marko Djurdjevic, with the vintage frontages represented by Kirby, Lieber & Ayers.<\/p>\n

    Outrageous, over the top and never taking itself seriously, this is a riot of hairy scary fun-filled frolics and a perfect antidote to all those po-faced Costumed Dramas. I wonder if there\u2019s a movie in this stuff?
    \n\u00a9 1954, 2007, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Jeff Parker, Jason Aaron, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Giancarlo Caracuzzo, Jack Kirby, Bob Powell, Bob Q. Sale, Dick Ayers & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-0-7851-4911-8 (TPB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Apes have long fascinated comics audiences, and although Marvel never reached the giddy heights of DC\u2019s slavish and … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Gorilla-Man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,386,351,94,125,117,382,79,225,127,107,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-agents-of-atlas","category-apes-monkeys","category-avengers","category-humour","category-jack-kirby","category-marvel-monsters","category-marvel-superheroes","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-science-fiction","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8vu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32712,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32704\/revisions\/32712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}