This week, two Flash stories are reprinted in the DC Goes Ape collection.
DC Goes Ape
Written by Otto Binder, John Broome, Gardner Fox and others; Art by Carmine Infantino, Wayne Boring, George Papp, Ross Andru, C.C. Beck, Jim Starlin and others; Cover by Arthur Adams
You’ll go bananas for this new title collecting simian stories from Superboy #76, Superman #138, The Flash (vol.1) #127, Detective Comics #339 and 482, Hawkman #16, Wonder Woman #170, Strange Adventures #201, Shazam #9, Super Friends #30 and The Flash (vol.2) #151!
168pg. | Color | Softcover | $19.99 US
Notes: The two Flash stories are:
“Reign of the Super-Gorilla” (Flash v.1 #127, 1962), in which Gorilla Grodd imbues himself with “neo-magnetic radiation,” making everyone within a 100-mile radius think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everyone but the Flash, that is. He easily takes over Gorilla City, then moves on to Central City…where the citizens decide to run him for state governor.
“Territorealis” (Flash v.2 #151, 1999), a flashback told at the beginning of the Dark Flash Saga. Kid Flash mistakes another intelligent Gorilla for Grodd himself, then has to help him return to Gorilla City in order to prevent an invasion. In a way, it serves as a prologue to the “JLApe” storyline that ran through that summer’s annuals.
DC has a long tradition of using intelligent apes as characters (Grodd, Monsieur Mallah, Detective Chimp, etc.), but I have to wonder whether the timing of this collection might be influenced by the Marvel Apes miniseries currently in stores.