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JLApe: Gorilla Warfare!
Synopsis
| Review
| Titles |
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"APES! You're all apes! What the screaming blue heck
is going on here?!" |
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ISSUES: |
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Eight DC 1999 annual issues. |
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WRITER(S): |
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Various. |
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ARTIST(S): |
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Various (covers by Art Adams). |
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MAJOR HEROES: |
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The JLA: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman,
Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter. |
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MAJOR VILLAIN: |
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Gorilla Grodd. |
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SUPPORTING CAST: |
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Animal Man, the denizens of Gorilla City. |
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THE PLOT: |
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The ruler of Gorilla City is assassinated when he
decides to make his hidden city known to the human world.
Blaming humans for his death, the Gorilla City army declares war
on humanity, unaware they're being manipulated by a master
schemer. |
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TRIVIA: |
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The back page of each annual sports stories from
"The Sword of Solovar," the "official news
dispatch of Gorilla City armed forces." Among its tidbits
of trivia: "Though they often claim we stink, humans
actually have a pathetic sense of smell! In fact, the average
human can't detect 80% of the pheromones his mate gives off. No
wonder their divorce rates are so high!" |
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RECOMMENDED READING: |
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Flash (first series) #106 (first app.
Gorilla Grodd and Gorilla City). |
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OTHER SITES: |
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The
Gorilla Age of Comics, a reminder of those wild and whacky
days when apes on the covers of comics meant big sales. |
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SOLOVAR, THE WISE AND BENEVOLENT ruler of
Gorilla City, decides his people can no longer use their science to hide
from the human world. Believing that the world's ecological and
political problems can't be solved by ignoring them, he opens his city's
borders to the world and asks for membership in the United Nations.
Tragically, his tour of the U.S. is cut short by a lethal car bomb.
While a mysterious group calling itself the "Human Supremacy
Movement" takes credit for the act, it's quickly made clear to the
reader that Solovar's assassination at the hands of human racists is in
fact a ruse concocted by the "Simian Scarlet," a group of
gorillas within Gorilla City seeking to overthrow the ruling council.
(The manipulators are themselves manipulated by Gorilla Grodd, a
super-intelligent gorilla who was one of the Flash's old-time
adversaries.)
With tensions between humans and gorillas rising, the JLA is invited
to Gorilla City to assist in a diplomatic mission, only to fall victim
to an ambush. In the heat of battle, the gorilla army tests its new
weapon on the heroes, a "gorillabomb" that transforms humans
into gorillas. While the JLA retreat to their moonbase to find a cure,
Solovar's heir, Prince Ulgo, appears before the United Nations to
formally declare war on the human race.
However, he promises, there will be no bloodshed in the battle, and
he makes his point by detonating a gorillabomb in the auditorium. With
the entire UN assembly transformed both mentally and physically into
gorillas, the JLA act swiftly to minimize damage and loss of life. Alas,
saving the delegates uses up their only chance to change back
themselves, and so our transformed heroes must remain in their simian
forms until they can find another way to return to normal.
Not that they're allowed much time to do that; as the Martian
Manhunter telepathically learns, the gorillas are strategically (or
stupidly, when you think about it) targeting several places around the
globe, including Themiscyra (Wonder Woman's homeland), Atlantis
(Aquaman's kingdom), Central City (Flash's hometown), Bludhaven (a
suburb of Batman's Gotham City), Metropolis (you really need help on
this one?), and low Earth orbit (Green Lantern's by process of
elimination). Engaging in that time-honored tradition of splitting up,
the heroes set out to neutralize the gorilla army, end the human-gorilla
war, and find a way to return to normal.
Mind you, an 800-pound baddie by the name of Grodd might have
something to say about our heroes' priorities...
WHEN A CERTAIN GENTLEMAN by the name of Grant
Morrison signed up as writer for DC's premier team-up book, the critics
used up every thesauri in their libraries when "simply
brilliant" didn't seem adequate to describe the results.
I have to confess, as much as I hate following the crowd on any
issue, this is one where I am one with the vox populi. At a time
when the marketing and creative decisions of the major publishers
suggested some sort of suicidal impulse at work, Mr. Morrison and
company created in JLA a solid hit by simply returning to the
heroes that which had been lost for some time.
I could start a masters thesis here explaining how, but what it
basically boiled down was a sense of fun. Excellent scripts, superior
artwork, and bang-on characterizations were all employed in the JLA
series to restore a sense of fun and semi-seriousness that most comics
of the 1990s -- drowning as they were in pointless violence, cheesecake
poses, and incompetent writing -- had somehow forgotten.
The "JLApe" storyline is a perfect example of that return
to fun times. I mean, how ridiculous can it sound? Our favorite heroes
transformed into gorillas? A city of advanced gorillas in the middle of
Africa? Hordes of Metropolis citizens developing a pronounced growth of
body hair? A giant mechanical gorilla, complete with missiles and
heat-ray eyes? It's completely silly, and that's the point. It's a
fabulous salute to the days when heroes went through these nutty
transformations all the time; hell, for a time in the '60s you couldn't
FIND a comic that didn't involve the hero undergoing some weird change
(heck, even Jimmy Olsen, the bow-tied weenie, got into the game by
turning into a rubber man, a porcupine man, and -- swear to Jesus -- a
giant rampaging turtle man).
Many modern comic fans, with all their insecurities and pretensions,
scoff at the "Silver Age" books as mere kids' stuff, not
worthy of acknowledging next to the (ahem) "art" of their
favorite titles. Their loss. "JLApe: Gorilla Warfare," like
the JLA series, is a wonderful throwback to a time when comics
were meant to be fun and ridiculous, and one of the rare bright spots of
the late 1990s.
Other highlights:
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Cover art by the criminally underutilized Art Adams.
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A two-page scene where the entire United Nations assembly, having
just been "gorillacized," goes... um, ape. |
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Green Lantern's initial reaction when he rejoins his newly
transmogrified teammates (see quote above). |
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The inside ad for Sony PlayStation's "Ape Escape" video
game, a classic example of targeted advertising if there ever was
one. |
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"Courting rituals for Wonder Woman's affections. Best not to
dwell on it." Oooooookay, then... |
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