Monkey Prince covers the mystical origin of teen Marcus and his true form as the Monkey Prince! Monkey Prince first showed up in the DC Universe in DC Festival of Heroes #1 (2021). It was by the same team as the new series, Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang. Yang had a graphic novel, American Born Chinese (2006) that had the Monkey King. Chang created variant covers of New Superman written by Yang. The story had Shazam captured by Doctor Sivana and his henchpeople. Shazam is in fact Monkey Prince who shapeshifted into his form. He battles the demon possessed Sivana. Monkey Prince has the help of his mentor, Shifu Pigsy. He defeats the demon, and transforms back to his young form as Marcus, a student at Fawcett High School. There was a digital #0 issue in October 2021 by the same creative team with Billy Tan as penciller and inker. This featured the Gods of China; from Jade Emperor to the Monkey King himself.
The first issue has a cover by Bernard Chang with the Monkey Prince saluting while on his Jingu Bang staff and Shifu Piggy reaching out on his cloud. There are some incredible variant covers including one by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau plus the best one has to be a lucky, gold foil red envelope cover. “Enter The Monkey Part 1” begins on a Gotham City night with lightning and thunder booming. Marcus’ mother, Laura, brings him a monkey doll to comfort him. He says the scientific definition of thunder and goes to sleep. His father, Winston, is also checking on him. A sound wakens him and he sees puddles of water in the hall. A splash page has Marcus stunned at Batman about to punch his father and his mother about to swing a lamp. A very detailed panel, my eye shifted to each character and action. Marcus can only whisper about his parents. Batman turns angry that the young Marcus is witnessing this battle. Batman leaves with a warning to their employer.
Marcus collapses with an “Eeee! Eeee!” It is like an anime expression of a panic attack. They move to Bludhaven, Opal City (home of Starman), and Keystone City all the way back to Gotham City. Marcus is at the pool for Sophomore Phys Ed, worried again about the water. He taps a fellow class member, The Riz, who throws him into the pool. Later, he is on a couch at the front office. The school janitor, Mr. Zhu has to mop up the pool water he brought in. He says he has a cure for Marcu’s problems. He tips his hat, his face looks a bit pig-like, to Laura. She notices the bullies and goes over to them. We get her afterwards at Gotham City lab, her husband asks about Marcus. He is in a top hat with tuxedo, the same as Laura’s uniform, and he is working on a machine. This is for his boss, the Penguin who says they worked for The Riddler, Intergang, and Captain Cold!
Penguin goes over the plan, to use the machine to relase a demon from a gourd and transform the tied up henchman, Mr. Lester. The machine zaps a golden demon that turns Penguin into a smokey form. The Bat villain is angry, but instead shoots Mr. Lester. At Gotham High, Mr. Zhu asks Marcus if he wants a can of Lower Fruit soda pop. Mr. Zhu finds it amusing that in Chinese, soda pop is Qi Shui, which he translates as “Life Force Water.” He gives out a burp that makes mini-clouds around them. Mr. Zhu says that Marcus has so many fears that he will find the cure past the water curtain. He shows him the school pool, Marcus sees school girls at the pool side, but Marcus refuses as the min-clouds stil surround him. He returns home admiring his shoe collection and his mother thinks the mini-clouds are from smoking! He turns on a fan as he goes to sleep.
The next day at Language Arts class, his fellow student Kaya gets Marcus’ attention to point out the tail from his behind! Marcus takes off, The Riz and his bullies have found him at the janitor’s room, and notes his mother got them a week in detention. He is struck several times with lacrosse bats. Marcus goes to the empty pool and a teacher checks on him. He sees a closeup of Mr. Zhu telling him to jump. He lets out his shriek and leaps into darkness. He finds himself past the Water Curtain, a waterfall, and into a cave. Very Shazam-ish. The best part is the horizonal page layouts. It has been some time since I’ve seen the switch to a different layout, but understandable since we shifted into another world. He is told by a shadowy form that he has found is true father’s home. There is a crowd of monkeys.
Outside and on a cliff’s edge he is told by Shifu Piggy that his father is Sun Wukong, The Monkey King! So he is raised by adopted parents similar to Superman. The Monkey King is a legendary figure from the 16th century novel, Journey to the West, this has been told many times including Journey to the West (2013), co-directed by Stephen Chow. Earlier there was a contemporary spin on the story, The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) which had Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Shifu Pigsy sends him back to confront the bullies. Monkey Prince bursts from the pool in a splash page as the teacher looks on. The clouds take him into the locker room where he finds The Riz and his fellow bullies. There is another student who sees the battle and contacts his father. He slams down the Riz and then takes on the others with martial arts style. At the end there is a meeting with a certain superhero duo. Monkey Prince has some fun with the novice superhero/demi-god with a dash of Chinese mythology and incredible art by Bernard Chang!
Four Cloud Somersaults out of Five!
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