6 Most Iconic Gorillas Across All Superhero Media
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Some of the wildest characters in comics share three things: they love bananas, tire swings, and kicking butt (whether those butts they kick are good or bad depends on which primate we're talking about). Gorillas have long made their presence known in superhero comics, teaming up with the heroes or, more often than not, against them to show off their powers and, on occasion, try to take over the world.
The blend of superheroes and gorillas goes back to the Silver Age, and the hairy brutes have become a standard in the decades that have followed. These days, super gorillas are usually looked at as a bit of a joke. And while there are plenty of gorillas running around the pages of Marvel and DC's books to this day, only a few have become truly iconic characters that have made a massive impact in the minds of readers. Not unlike the most famous gorilla of all — King Kong — these big apes have climbed to the top and, in some cases, suffered a great fall in popularity. But no fall is enough to keep them away from the comics for long. After all, who doesn't love a good gorilla tale?
Gorilla Grodd Is King
The most well-known comic book primate, Gorilla Grodd made his debut in The Flash #106 which, despite the numbering, was just the second issue of Barry Allen's original run. While Grodd has changed quite a bit since his first appearance, the most important elements of the character were there from page one.
Grodd hails from Gorilla City, a hidden metropolis that is home to super-intelligent apes. While most of the residents of Gorilla City are peaceful, Grodd dreams of world domination, and he uses his telepathic abilities to try and make those dreams come true. Of course, Grodd is consistently beaten — most of the time by Flash — but that never stops him from trying. What makes Grodd stand out from his peers is how well he can fit into any type of story. He can be a conniving beast who takes over the animals of a city to cause chaos, like in Flash (vol 2) #45-47. He can be a hulking brute who causes wanton destruction, like in Flash (vol 2) #178, or he can be a cunning intellectual who plots out world domination like in Flash (vol 4) #14-18.
But Grodd can also bring the laughs. His attempt to make sure Barack Obama never became president in Legends of Tomorrow is a favorite of Arrowverse fans, and with the DCU's The People vs. Gorilla Grodd, the famous Flash foe is bound to gain even more fans.
Monsieur Mallah Is All About Love
Just because someone is a supervillain, that doesn't mean they can't find true love. That is the element of Monsieur Mallah's story that makes this gorilla so special in the eyes of readers. A citizen of Gorilla City, Monsieur Mallah was captured by a very rude scientist who experimented on him, raising his already high IQ even higher. But when Niles Caulder, creator of the Doom Patrol and a rather rude scientist himself, gets jealous of his friend's experiment, he tries to kill his gorilla experimenting scientist.
Instead of dying, the scientist was saved by the gorilla he was experimenting on — Monsieur Mallah — and his brain is placed into a computerized jar. Together, Brain and Monsieur Mallah formed the Brotherhood of Evil and have spent decades battling it out with the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans. And, through the battles they had fought together, Monsieur Mallah fell in love with Brain. Tragically, Monsieur Mallah and Brain were both brutally killed at the hands of Grodd, with the Flash villain using Brain to beat Monsieur Mallah to death. But, this being comics, the two lovers returned from the dead. Sadly, they were not fated to live a life of happiness. Realizing that their romance was toxic, Mallah killed Brain once and for all.
Monsieur Mallah and Brain was one of the oddest and, at times, most touching love stories in the history of DC Comics. For many fans, seeing it end was hard, but it is also hard to argue that Monsieur Mallah was clearly a victim of Stockholm syndrome.
Marvel Has A Gorilla-Man Legacy
While DC Comics has a well-known history of simian characters, Marvel has plenty of their own. One of the oddest is Gorilla-Man, a name that has been used by three different characters, each with their own wild origins. The first Gorilla-Man, soldier of fortune Kenneth Hale, became the heroic primate after hunting down the mythical Ape=Man of Africa, who it was told would grant immortality to anyone that could kill it. Hale tracked down the Ape-Man and took its life. He did become immortal, but in a real Twilight Zone twist, he also turned into the Ape-Man. Over the years, Hale has been a member of the Agents of Atlas and S.H.I.E.L.D., and even flew in the legendary Bell X-1 with Chuck Yeager.
The second Ape-Man, Arthur Nagan, is a villain who conducted experiments that involved transplanting gorilla organs into humans. Tired of being his subjects, the gorillas turned against Nagan and transplanted his head onto the body of a gorilla. Since then, Nagan has been a big fan of both transplanting people's heads onto animal bodies and, for some reason, shrinking his foes (a list that includes Gerald Ford).
Franz Radzik is the third person to by the name Gorilla-Man. Radzik created a device that allowed him to switch bodies with other living beings. He first tested it by putting his mind into a cat before moving up to a gorilla at the zoo. What he hadn't anticipated was that the gorilla would like being in the body of a man and walked away, leaving Radzik trapped. Unable to talk, Radzik let the world know he was smarter than the average ape by writing a message, which then led to him spending a horrible life being experimented on by other scientists.
The Ultra-Humanite Wasn't Always An Ape
Every supervillain owes something to the Ultra-Humanite. The large white ape who wears spiked red suspenders and holds the brain of a human in his noggin may not be as well known as Joker or Lex Luthor, but without him, they may have never come into existence. But, while the Ultra-Humanite was the first supervillain to ever appear in comics, his original form wasn't that of a gorilla.
The Ultra-Humanite started off looking like a normal evil scientist from the Golden Age, but when his body was dying, he transplanted his brain into a beautiful movie star before once again switching things up by taking on the body of a gorilla. Aside from a brief appearance during the New 52 years, this match has pretty much suited the Ultra-Humanite ever since.
The Ultra-Humanite is not just a big white gorilla with the mind of a genius scientist, he also stands as evidence of how well comic book characters can change over the years. Despite only appearing a handful of times in the earliest Superman stories, Ultra-Humanite came roaring back in the 1980s with a new look that made him a better physical match for the heroes. This character just goes to show that any interesting idea that shows up in comics can always come back bigger, stronger, and in the body of a gorilla.
Titano Has Roots In Cinematic Gorilla History
Making his debut just months before Gorilla Grodd, Titano was the brainchild of DC editor Mort Weisinger, who often took ideas from movies and tossed them into Superman's world. In this case, Weisinger used King Kong as his inspiration when he handed writer Otto Binder the idea of Titano, a giant ape with the ability to shoot kryptonite rays from his eyes.
Leaving no question where the idea came from, the cover for Superman #127, which introduces the big ape, proudly proclaims, "More fantastic than King Kong!" And while artist Wayne Boring made Titano look like a gorilla on that cover, in the story itself he gave the superpowered primate the head of a chimpanzee. In the story itself, he starts off as Toto the chimpanzee before a trip to space turns him, for some reason, into a gorilla, and a mighty big one at that.
Titano is one of Superman's most iconic and tragic villains, if he can even be considered a villain. The ape has no desire to rule the world or destroy Metropolis, he is simply a simian who has been experimented on and turned into a massive creature of unbelievable power. But, like the gorilla he is based on, Titano's greatest weakness is a pretty woman, namely Lois Lane, who can get the big guy to do just about anything she says.
Red Ghost Created Miklho
When Soviet scientist Ivan Kragoff — aka the Red Ghost — first used simians for his cosmic radiation experiments, it didn't go well, leaving the evil inventor with hundreds of dead chimps, orangutans and apes. Another attempt proved successful, and the Super-Apes, including Miklho the gorilla, who became stronger than the normal ape.
Under the command of the Red Ghost, Miklho, along with Peotor, an orangutan with magnetic powers, and Igor, a baboon who can shapeshift, the Super-Apes became a real problem for The Fantastic Four until Invisible Woman figured out that they would just listen to anyone who fed them. Over the years, Miklho has become even stronger, and he and his primate pals broke free of Red Ghost's control.
For years, Miklho had long shown himself to be smarter than the average gorilla, often acting as Red Ghost's assistant in the villain's experiments, but the powerful gorilla only recently revealed the ability to speak, suggesting that he is far more intelligent than previously believed. Still, despite his enhanced intelligence, Miklho has the temperament of a gorilla, meaning he is quick to lash out when feeling angry or threatened.
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