GORILLA-MEN
Class: Parallel Earth (Earth-AD) animal mutants
Known Representatives: Chaaku, Golgan the Gorilla, Professor Hanuman, Ramjam, Sergeant Ugash, Trakka, Zuma
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Las Vegas, Nevada, Earth-AD
First Appearance: (cameo) Kamandi #1 (November, 1972), (full appearance) Kamandi #3 (February, 1973)
Powers: The Gorilla-Men were intelligent evolved apes. They were armed with firearms, gas shells, low explosives and whips.History: (Kamandi #3) - In the aftermath of the nuclear Great Disaster most of humanity perished, and the majority of survivors devolved into feral savages, while animals evolved intelligence. The Gorilla-Men set up a city in Las Vegas, and their society adopted rules of challenge, where any goods or positions could be challenged for in trial by combat. Trakka and a group of gorillas were intent on capturing a herd of wild humans to sell as slaves when they discovered Kamandi, the last boy on Earth. They were astounded by his intelligence and the fact that he fought back with a gun, but they nonetheless captured him, and hoped to make a fortune on such an oddity. On approaching their city, the mighty Chaaku challenged them for possession of Kamandi. Kamandi demanded he fight for his own freedom, and Trakka released him, realizing he was already causing too much trouble for them. Kamandi used a slingshot to stun Chaaku, and fled into the nearby underground Diggings. Chaaku was furious, and pursued him, only to encounter the Rock-Buster, an alien brought back to Earth by NASA ages ago. The alien slew the ape, and Kamandi retained his freedom.
(Kamandi #4) - Tuftan was the prince of the Tiger Empire, and his father Great Caesar sent him on a mission to infiltrate the gorilla city in Nevada. Tuftan and his men encountered Gorilla-Men soldiers, and he allowed himself to be captured. Kamandi, the last boy on Earth, was also a captive of the gorillas, and after escaping fled through side streets until he found a pipe that led to Tuftan's cell. Kamandi told him he could escape through the pipe, but Tuftan assured him he had his own plan. Great Caesar led an army against the gorillas, and the remaining guards left to join the fight. Tuftan smashed his way out of his cell, and told Kamandi he had his own business to attend to, but he thought Kamandi was interesting and almost considered him an equal. Kamandi shadowed him and discovered his aim in being captured. The prison was part of an old USAF base, and the Tiger Empire had reports of an intact bomber plane. Tuftan planned to claim the plane and reverse engineer it so Caesar would have a powerful new weapon of war. Kamandi didn't want to see weapons of the past used to repeat the destruction humans caused, so he used a flamethrower to explode the plane. Tuftan promised he'd pay for his treachery.
(Kamandi #5) - Tuftan helped Kamandi navigate his way through the gorilla-tiger battleground, telling him he'd serve as living proof to Caesar as to why he failed. Kamandi told him he had no intention of going before Great Caesar, and Tuftan threatened to crack his skull if he tried to leave his side. They ended up in a home housing human cattle, and Kamandi shot their gorilla guard, hoping to free them. Tiger soldiers arrived, announcing their victory over the gorillas, and took Tuftan with them. Kamandi freed the humans and fled, but was followed by Flower, a beautiful young woman. They were soon recaptured by the tigers, and Caesar staged a gladiatorial contest to celebrate his victory, choosing Kamandi as a combatant for foiling his plan to get aircraft technology. Tuftan pleaded for Kamandi's life, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Kamandi was pitted against a captured gorilla, and almost died before Tuftan jumped into the arena and saved him. Caesar was disgusted, but at that moment gorilla reinforcements attacked, and a negotiator demanded the tigers leave their land. Caesar's code of honor made surrender impossible, so Kamandi acted as a mediator. Both sides saw the intelligent human as a possible mystic creature, a voice of the spirits, and they agreed to listen to him. He found an old slot machine and suggested that the winner of a slots game would control the territory. Caesar lost, but both sides were grateful there'd be no more bloodshed that day. Caesar told Kamandi he brought him nothing but bad luck, and asked him to go away. Kamandi asked for a vehicle and Flower's freedom, and Caesar granted him his requests.
(Kamandi #7) - Sultin gave Flower a military funeral, and Kamandi was honored that his feelings were respected even though he was a mere human. The ceremony was interrupted by Gorilla-Men, who took Kamandi captive and tied him to a stake. The lions kept Tiny, a 100' ape at Sanctuary, and the gorillas fetishised him, seeing him as a way to destroy the lions. Tiny was kept in a former dam that was kept electrified, and the gorillas shot out the power source, offering up Kamandi as a sacrifice. They were displeased to find out that Tiny had a childlike mind and thought Kamandi was a toy for him to play with. The gorillas shot at Tiny to enrage him and get him to attack the lions, but he instead attacked his antagonists. After driving off the gorillas the lions knocked out Tiny with a huge sedative, and returned Kamandi to the city. Once Tiny woke, he rampaged through the city until he retrieved his toy. Tiny climbed a skyscraper with Kamandi in his grip, and Sultin made the hard decision to put Tiny down using biplanes, fearing Tiny would kill his citizens. Tiny was shot down, sad that he would no longer be able to play with Kamandi.
(Kamandi #11) - Slave trader Sacker sent his Leopard-Men pirates on an expedition, and they captured a number of feral humans, Wolf-Men, Lion-Men, Tiger-Men and Gorilla-Men to be sold at Sacker's Department Store.
(Kamandi #13, 14) - Tiger-Men, Lion-Men, Gorilla-Men, Wolf-Men, Bear-Men and Rat-Men all attended Sacker's Sweeps, a race pitting humans against each other where failure to win meant death. Kamandi was forced by Sacker to race Kliklak, a giant insect, who was wounded during the race. Kamandi tried to tend to his wounds, crying out for a doctor. The crowd taunted him, demanding action, and Kamandi cursed them for their cruelty. Kamandi's rival Bull Bantam, mounted on a gigantic buffalo, lassoed Kamandi. Prince Tuftan was in attendance, and shot the lasso, freeing Kamandi to the boos of the crowd. Kamandi beat Bull to a pulp, winning the race, and was presented with prizes by a group of women, and he realized he was being treated like a thoroughbred. Spirit embraced Kamandi saying she was his, but Kamandi was furious, telling her humans were neither animals nor prizes, and the Leopard-Men silenced him with a rifle butt to the head, and he was dragged away.
(Kamandi #15) - Sacker sent Kamandi, Prince Tuftan, Doctor Canus and Tuftan's Tiger-Men guards to Washington, DC to find the pre-Disaster relics the Watergate Tapes, which Sacker wanted in his possession. Carolina and Virginia were barren wastelands, and Washington appeared the same as they stopped at the ruins of the capitol. Gorilla-Men lived beneath the capitol, having developed a cult around the Watergate Tapes, and they kidnapped Tuftan and Canus. In their underground lair they prepared to execute the duo, accusing them of trying to take the voices of the spirits in the tapes away from them. Kamandi and the Tiger-Men soldiers fought their way to the lair, and the battle left the capitol in flames. The cultists were using the tapes, amplified through a machine to blast Tuftan and Canus with sonics, but Kamandi shot the machine, disabling it. The remaining apes fled, and Kamandi found that most of the tapes were broken, making them useless.
(Kamandi #16) - Kamandi explored more of Washington's ruins and came upon a biological research station where Gorilla-Men were using humans as test subjects. The scientist Professor Hanuman was intrigued by Kamandi's ability to talk, because he was working on recreating cortexin from the instructions in a diary written by Dr. Michael Grant during the Great Disaster. Cortexin was a brain booster, and Grant used it on gorillas, who began displaying human intelligence. His lab was shelled in the Disaster, flooding the basement with cortexin and freeing the gorillas. He theorized they would replace humanity, and other animals would drink from the stream filled with cortexin. The chief resident had little patience with Hanuman's work, and ordered Kamandi locked up with the other humans. Tuftan was anxious when he couldn't find Kamandi, and soon he and his Tiger-Men located the lab, using cannons to war with the gorillas. Cannon blasts wrecked the cages Kamandi and his fellow humans were locked in, and they made their way to the sewer underneath the lab, where leaking barrels of cortexin still remained, and several of the humans ingested it. Hanuman lay dying, but he witnessed the escape and wondered if intelligent humans would be his gift to the world. Kamandi saw fire and rubble all around him, and went searching for Tuftan.
(Kamandi #17, 18) - The Gorilla-Men army began overwhelming the Tiger-Men, and Tuftan, after consulting with Dr. Canus, decided Kamandi was beyond his help. He couldn't risk more of his soldier's lives, so he called them off and fled. Kamandi was trussed up by the apes, loaded onto a human supply truck alongside other captive humans, and sent off to the Gorilla-Men Pioneer Corps. A rockslide halted the truck, allowing Kamandi and his fellow prisoners. When the Gorilla-Men checked in on them the feral humans trampled over Kamandi to make their escape, and he remained a captive. The pioneers in Ohio, led by Sgt. Ugash, were beset by Human Gophers, mutants that dug up holes to steal their supplies. Firing into and flooding the tunnels failed to deter them, so they tied Kamandi's arms, strapped a crate full of explosives to his back, and marched him into the tunnels. The Gophers opened the crate, and tried to eat the bombs Until Kamandi convinced them bombs were bad, and the Gophers hurled them out of their tunnel, aiming for the apes. Secure that Kamandi was an ally they showed him their underground factory, full of Gophers operating heavy machinery that Kamandi could not fathom the purpose of. The machinery broke, sending the Gophers into a panic, and they scattered all over the tunnels. The machines produced loud noises and vibrations that kept away the Eater, a giant mutated worm, and Kamandi lured it away from his new friends, leading it to the surface. The Gorilla-Men were piling explosives around the center of the Gopher holes, hoping the Gophers would steal them and seal their own doom. Instead the Eater followed Kamandi and ate the explosives, causing it to be blown to pieces. In the confusion Kamandi stole a Pioneer Corps rover and made his way along an abandoned highway.
(Kamandi #19, 20) - Kamandi drove to Illinois where he witnessed what appeared to be Roaring '20s gangsters robbing a truck. They abducted him, and drove him through a tunnel to a pristine version of Chicago. They led him to the back room of a jazz club, saying he was going to be rubbed out for witnessing their crime, but Kamandi managed to grab a tommygun and opened fire. The gangsters fell, but soon got to their feet and Kamandi fled into the streets, where he ran right into Sgt. Ugash and his Gorilla-Men, who's pursued him. They tried to abduct him, but a mob of criminals fired on the Gorilla-Men and threw hand grenades at them, giving Kamandi a chance to slip away. He roused a number of other gangsters from a poker game, telling them they had to protect their city. Ugash shot one of them square in the face, revealing him as a robot. Robot police officers arrived, shoving Kamandi and Ugash into a police wagon and driving them to jail. Ugsah disliked being a captive and ripped the cell door off its' hinges and the pair made their way to a court room where the judge ordered them put to death in the electric chair as public enemies. Ugash was strapped in first, and Kamandi snagged an officer's gun, shooting it out a window to alert nearby Gorilla-Men looking for their leader. The Gorilla-Men freed Ugash and began brawling with the officers as Kamandi made his escape and ended up in a sub-basement filled with endless rows of computers. He learned that the remains of Chicago were a computer-run theme park named Chicago-Land, and the computers told him they hoped he enjoyed his stay and would bring friends before sending him off. Kamandi had hoped there'd be humans running the robots and felt incredibly alone.
(Kamandi #29) - Kamandi and Ben found a stone relief depicting the story of the Mighty One, Kla-Kent, who used his superhuman powers to fly into the Earth during a fiery eruption, dragging boulders to the surface to form a new continent, but perishing during the task. Kamandi recognized the Might One from his study of history as Superman. The Mighty One’s worshippers, a cult of Gorilla-Men, were watching Ben and Kamandi, and their elder, seeing Ben’s strange costume, proclaimed that he was the Might One reborn. Cultist Zuma had long claimed to be the reincarnation of the Mighty One and was furious at the thought of being usurped, and attacked. The elder broke up the battle and told Ben he’d have to go to the proving grounds of Nashnil to demonstrate he was the one they worshipped. Ben was not interested in being a messiah, but Kamandi convinced him it was in their best interest to play along. According to prophecy the Mighty One could leap higher than the tallest building, and the elder had them watch a claimant hop onto a catapult and get flung into the air. The elder admitted he was most likely dead, as were all those who had tried in the past to prove they were the messiah. Ben refused to get on the catapult, but Kamandi told him to show them his “secret identity,” and he pressed his cyclo-heart to turn into organic steel. The elder was astonished, but Zuma claimed it was a trick, challenging him to the feat of strength, moving the Daily Planet, a giant boulder. Zuma strained until he was nearly unconscious, but Ben used his foot to smash a hollow beneath the boulder, making it unstable enough for him to push. Most of the Gorilla-Men tribe were convinced he was their savior, but there were a few doubters, so the elder demanded a final test. Zuma helped set up the test, hoping it would kill Ben. The elder said he had to prove he was faster than a speeding bullet, and Zuma shot him repeatedly with a Gatling gun. Ben’s steel body was unscathed, and the elder proclaimed he’d dodged the bullets even though Zuma protested he’d been hit by all of them. The elder led Ben and Kamandi to their catacombs, which led to an active volcano where Superman’s suit was kept until he came to reclaim it. Zuma couldn’t stand to see the object of his greatest desire taken away from him, and grabbed the suit. Kamandi’s admiration of Superman kicked in, and he realized he couldn’t let Zuma have the suit. Kamandi and Zuma struggled, and when Zuma stepped on Superman’s cape, Kamandi yanked it from under him, tossing Zuma into the volcano. Kamandi was convinced that Superman must still be alive somewhere, and convinced the elder to stop looking for him, saying he’d present himself in his true form. The elder agreed to keep the suit untouched until the real Superman returned.
(Kamandi #32-34) - Captain Ramjam commanded a group of crack Gorilla-Men commandos. A fleet of Ramjam’s commandos attacked Great Caesar’s flagship on the open ocean. Ramjam and some of his commandos used the distraction to storm a nearby island where they’d spotted Caesar’s son Prince Tuftan. Tuftan was accompanied by his soldiers, human Kamandi and mutant Ben Boxer. They recently made contact with an extraterrestrial energy lifeform named “Me” that they’d met on the island. Tuftan’s chief scientist Dr. Canus was nearby in “Me’s” UFO. Ramjam had his mend fire a concussion grenade that left Tuftan and company unconscious. Ramjam wanted Tuftan taken hostage and told his men to look for Dr. Canus, who’d be another valuable captive. Kamandi revived and began running to warn Canus. One of the commandos tried to catch him, but Ramjam ordered him to back off, saying they weren’t on the island to hunt animals. Kamandi found Canus tinkering with one of the UFO’s machines and Canus used the UFO’s scanner to show Kamandi the galaxy “Me” came from. Canus knew “Me” would help them defeat the gorilla commandos because they’d struck a bargain. Canus had promised to manufacture a physical body for “Me.” Ramjam and his men discovered the UFO and demanded admittance, but Canus was not intimidated. “Me” fused its’ energy with beach sand to create a temporary body. The sand being blasted the gorillas with sand and lightning until Ramjam surrendered. Tuftan and Ben had recovered and made mincemeat of their guards. They took Ramjam and his men prisoner and went to assist the flagship in fighting off the remaining commandos while Kamandi and Canus staid behind to help “Me.” While Kamandi and Dr. Canus created a body for “Me” Tuftan, his soldiers and Ben Boxer fought fiercely against the Gorilla Men. Ben threw a fuel tank at the gorillas, but a gorilla sharpshooter hit it in midair, creating an explosion that rocked Ben and Great Caesar’s flagship. Tuftran warned Ben that there was no time for wild card tactics, and he expected an animal like Ben to know his place, displeasing the mutant to no end. The Gorilla-Men boarded the flagship, but were driven off after a bloody battle. Tuftan told Ben he had no love for sacrificing his men, but he did Caesar’s duty, and Caesar loved war, linking it to the expansion of his great empire. Tuftan’s Tiger-Men dragged Ramjam from the prisoner’s hold and the gorilla promised his men would return, rescue him and massacre them. Tuftan tied Ramjam to a post, put dynamite around his neck, and said that if the Gorilla-Men attacked him again he’d light the explosives and push Ramjam overboard. Ben was horrified with Tuftan’s grisly idea, but Tuftan said he’d do whatever it took to keep more of his men from dying. “Me” admired her new form, that of a red-skinned, blonde-haired female. Kamandi wondered why a superior species would want an Earthly body, and Canus said he had no answer for Kamandi’s question, which worried him, as did the fact that she wouldn’t reveal why she was on Earth in the first place. She struggled to control her new body and tripped. Kamandi remarked to Canus that she was helpless in a corporal body, enraging her. She blasted them with flames which they barely dodged, and Canus named her Pyra for pyromaniac. Pyra demanded they stay put while she went away by herself to master her new body. Kamandi and Canus kept an eye of Caesar’s flagship, wondering if another attack was imminent. Ben Boxer continued to try and talk Tuftan out of his bloody plan, but the prince would not be gainsaid. The gorilla fleet returned with an armored rammer, and threatened to cut the flagship in two and kill every man aboard if Tuftan didn’t surrender. Tuftan presented Ramjam, threatening to blow him sky high. Watching from the shore Kamandi decided to take action. Canus and Kamandi commandeered Pyra’s UFO which they piloted mentally. Pyra saw them flying off, yelling that it was too dangerous for them to fly her spacecraft without her. They buzzed the Gorilla-Men, drawing their fire, and this distraction allowed Ben Boxer to untie Ramjam, who immediately dove overboard, swimming away as Tuftan tried to shoot him. Tuftan was enraged, but Ben stood by his actions. Pyra arrived, melting the armored rammer and raining fire down on the Gorilla-Men, who fled.
(Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #12 (BTS)) - Earth-AD was erased from existence by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Comments: Created by Jack Kirby
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