Grease Monkey

GREASE MONKEY

Real Name: Grease Monkey

Class: Monkey cyborg

Occupation: Assistant

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Irontown, formerly Detroit, MI

First Appearance: Enginehead #1 (June, 2004)

Powers: Grease Monkey was a cyborg monkey who possessed human intelligence and the ability to speak.

History: (Enginehead #1-3) - The Mechanic's life fell apart, and he realized he was not alone, that the whole world was crumbling. With his cyborg assistant Grease Monkey, who was an early experiment, he recruited Brainstorm, Doctor Cyber, Automan, Rosie of the Demolition Team and Prof. Hamilton, telling them they could change the world if they let him use the unique spark they each possessed to create the gestalt robot Enginehead. He planned on recruiting Tin of the Metal Men, who was impressed with what he was offering, but admitted he was too scared to participate. Grease Monkey chose Jackhammer as a substitute, saving him from a suicide attempt before locking him into the sixth cylinder of the machine that would create Enginehead. The Mechanic activated the machine, creating Enginehead0 from his recruits' sacrifice, and Grease Monkey praised him as a great man. Like his creator, Enginehead was determined to find flaws in the system of society and correct them. He poured over Mechanic's case files, and investigated the murder of a young runaway. He identified her pimp, Drew Lavin as the murderer, ripping his arms off. Lavin's boss was human trafficker Arturo Lapaglia, whose criminal enterprise he destroyed, and reported back to his creator, saying he'd corrected a flaw. He reported back to Grease Monkey and the Mechanic, who called him the perfect son. Enginehead was concerned that he'd had a flashback of Rosie's previous life, but the Mechanic assured him that he was created from only the best parts of those who'd sacrificed themselves to make the perfect machine who would save humanity from itself. Jackhammer served as the main organic part of Enginehead's body, and as he was being repaired had a reverie about the pin-up girls he was obsessed with while his own person. Enginehead wanted time off from his duties, and was berated by Grease Monkey for it, but he eventually gave him approval for a walk around town. Enginehead destroyed a truck, saving a boy from running over, but had a vision of the future of massive layoffs in Sunshine resulting in several worker's suicides, and wondered how he understood the way things were connected in life. Enginehead thought that if he could fix his broken brother he could fix the world, and after stopping Samuel from abusing a girl he told him he was there to help. Enginehead / Jackhammer surgically took Samuel apart and rebuilt him, removing his predatory predilections, and changing him from a sociopath to someone who understood all the pain they'd caused to innocents. Samuel wished he was dead, and Enginehead promised that as soon as he figured out Sam's connection to him and the connection of his spark to something bigger he'd put him out of his misery. Choosing to blindly follow his programming Enginehead rescued a cat from a tree and gave a homeless woman startup money and stock tips that would make her a millionaire. The Mechanic, despairing in his project not following his programming told Enginehead that Jackhammer was never supposed to be the brains, it was intended to be Automan. Jackhammer was meant as spare parts, and he figured a suicidal man would not care what happened to his mind or body. Grease Monkey got in his ear, saying the Mechanic was disappointed he wasn't taking care of every flaw in the system, but Monkey saw one huge flaw underlying everything that he hoped Enginehead would come to see. Arturo's investor Doctor Grass, upset that Enginehead cost him a fortune, hired Floronic Man to kill him. Enginehead destroyed Floronic Man's body, manifesting the ability to talk to and control machines, and accidentally crippling a woman that resembled his fantasy girl. Floronic Man told him to seek therapy before going off to find a new body. The Mechanic was in despair at seeing Enginehead's new path and abilities.

(Enginehead #4-6) - Enginehead went about righting wrongs, asking for cats as payment until his entire apartment was filled with cats. A friend of the homeless woman who he'd given the stock tips to invited him to a strip club, and he had a night on the town with Grease Monkey. Doctor Grass invested in Arturo Lapaglia's human trafficking organization that was shut down by Enginehead. When the Demolition Team disbanded the original Jackhammer fell into drug addiction, missing the rush of his supervillain days. Jackhammer saw what Enginehead did to Grass' organization, and realized his fighting style was reminiscent of Rosie. Jackhammer reported to Grass about what he knew, and Grass, with his bodyguards Tweedledee and Tweedledum, confronted the Mechanic. Enginehead continued to suffer mental distress, and when binge-watching Batwatch failed to help him keep it together he moved to the West Coast. He prevented Kobra cultists from blowing up a bomb at a nuclear facility, and when the local police offered their thanks he used his precog abilities and told them about how they would die. Grease Monkey commented that he was clearly in a bad mood. Enginehead and Samuel talked about their father's abuse of them and their mother, and Samuel wondered if they wouldn't have turned out to be such awful people if they had decent parents. The Human Bomb was drawn to the area, responding to visions he'd had of Enginehead. Enginehead met him in a diner, telling him he was part of the flaw and asking for his help. Bomb said he was done with being a superhero, disillusioned after his wife started showing signs of Alzheimer's. Enginehead saw one of the fired Sunshine truckers who was going to commit suicide in the diner and decided to defy the machine by convincing him to live for the sake of his children. Grease Monkey was upset at his decision, but Enginehead realized he was the flaw in the system. Bones and the DEO were tracking Enginehead and sent the Metal Men and JLA to battle Enginehead. Enginehead needed a final spark to create what he saw would be a new world that was without the flaws of the old, and after showing Tin his vision of the universe, agreed to give him his spark. Tin felt overjoyed and brave, telling his teammates he'd just saved the world. He needed ignition, provided by the Human Bomb. Enginehead had given his wife a peaceful death as she wanted, sure that her love for Human Bomb would live after her death, and the Bomb was there to kill Enginehead using his explosive powers. Enginehead ended up sacrificing part of himself to build Irontown, a new kind of engine and home for the disaffected of the world. The woman he transformed became one of the first residents.

Comments: Created by Joe Kelly & Ted McKeever.