Mad Science Marches On- Strange Adventures #56

Part Two- "The Jungle Emperor".

So, what happened to the super-intelligent gorilla from the previous issue of Strange Adventures? Well, the whole world finds out as he delivers an ultimatum via television: "Hear this you humans! As the most intelligent and powerful being on Earth, I proclaim myself King Gorilla, the sole sovereign of this planet! Tomorrow morning my gorilla ambassadors will appear in each country to accept control of your governments! Unless my rule is unanimously accepted in 24 hours, I will strike with all the scientific powers at my command! You have been warned!" I love how every sentence ends with an exclamation point.

Poor Dr. Jonas Mills sits helplessly by, watching the threats of his accidental monster. Unable to make more "Mutaton" in the time left to him, he has only the antidote to mutaton on hand. Unfortunately, Dr. Mills has no idea of King Gorilla's whereabouts.

The next morning, each capital city of each nation receives an envoy from King Gorilla in the form of more intelligent gorillas who arrive in "super-scientific planes", equipped with shields of electric force.

Studying the newsreel footage of the gorillas' departures, Dr. Mills determines that the gorillas cannot be living creatures. Seems the G-forces created by the planes' acceleration would crush even a gorilla. To test his theory, Dr. Mills plants a fake news story that he has "developed a new weapon that will vanquish the gorilla hordes should they try to enforce their ultimatum!". He then sets up a thermocouple in his laboratory and waits. As he expected, the gorillas who come to kidnap him give off no body heat- they're robot gorillas!! (Does it get any better than robot gorillas? Really?)

The robot gorillas abduct Dr. Mills and take him via flying wing to King Gorilla's HQ in Africa. King Gorilla tells Mills he's the only Human the gorillas need fear and must be eliminated. Dr. Mills tells KG he's on to him and that he knows the other gorillas are robots. KG admits he was "too clever" to make other gorillas as smart as himself.

Searching for Mills' super-weapon, KG finds the bottle of antidote, which he confiscates. He then prepares to launch his attack, locking Mills in a cage. Mills starts a fire which cracks the bottle of antidote and vaporizes it's contents. The fumes dumb down King Gorilla, while Mills, safe behind a jury-rigged gas filter keeps his head.

The android armies of the King Gorilla stop in their tracks as their control console in Africa succumbs to the fire. The Earth is saved and the gorilla- 'droids are put on display as a reminder of how close the world came to conquest.

Dr. Mills reflects on his hard-earned lesson: "It's better for evolution to take it's own slow, natural course in this world!"

The similarities between 1955's King Gorilla and 1959's Gorilla Grodd are remarkable. Both want to conquer the world through the use of super-science, both are talking gorilla megalomaniacs, both have airplanes at their disposal... Of course, Grodd hails from a kingdom of intelligent gorillas and was not tampered with by human science. In that respect, KG bears a stronger resemblance to 1964's Monsieur Mallah.

I also love how comics and movies of the 50's and 60's refer to what is clearly technology as "science". I realize that the technological advances described are the direct result of breakthroughs in sciences like physics, but a ray-gun is no more a "super-science weapon" than a crossbow. A crossbow uses the science of Newtonian physics, but would never be considered a weapon of "science" in the same way as a laser. Same goes for a stone knife.

Dr. Jonas Mills- What Were You Thinking? -Strange Adventures #55-56

Part One: " The Gorilla Who Challenged The World"

Ah, the good old days. Back when science really got things done! None of that fooling around with control subjects, verifying findings, safety protocols or even a pretense of the scientific method. When men were men and gorillas were plentiful test subjects.

Dr. Jonas Mills isolates the element in the body which controls evolution- "mutaton". So, logically, the first thing he does with his mutaton is inject a small dose into a gorilla ( a gorilla he goes out of his way to explain to himself he purchased from a dealer in wild animals- natch, they don't carry them at Petland, you know. Peebles' Pet Shop, sure, but not Petland).

The gorilla immediately gains the ability to speak English. Just the way our hominid forbears did when they left the trees. Dr. Mills injects himself to make himself an even bigger genius. Unbeknownst to Dr. Mills, he gave the gorilla a much more effective dose than planned. The gorilla is now a super-genius who wishes to rule the Earth. Since he is now so much smarter, Mills realizes that a very smart gorilla is potentially dangerous and concocts an antidote.

Mills puts the antidote into the gorilla's drinking water, but the gorilla surreptitiously pours the water into Dr. Mills' water pitcher. When Doctor Mills drinks the water, he is temporarily addled by his sudden drop in IQ and the genius Gorilla imprisons the scientist.



Mr. Smarty-Primate disguises himself as a portly human and begins a crime spree, using his gorilla strength and agility to steal supplies for his scheme. A few days later, attempting to apprehend their prime suspect, the police uncover his secret, gorilla identity. It's too late, however, as the gorilla has now obtained all the chemicals he needs for his plan.

Researching all the gorillas bought and sold in recent months, the police finally track the gorilla to Dr. Mills' lab. The gorilla holds the cops at bay, threatening to make Dr. Mills a complete moron if they don't allow him to escape. The gorilla breaks a steam pipe to create a diversion and then hops a tramp freighter for Africa with all the ingredients he needs to make mutaton!!


End part one.

So far, we have learned that , A: you shouldn't monkey with evolution and B: Sy Barry draws a good gorilla.