I've always liked the Red Ghost and his weird trio of Super-Apes. The offbeat quartet debuted in
Fantastic Four #13, the same issue which showcased the first appearance of the Watcher. They are not named in that first go, but the three apes are Mikiho the Gorilla, Igor the Baboon, and Peotr the Orangutan. Like their master the Soviet mad scientist who gets the super power to changed his body's density, the apes get super powers thanks the same cosmic particles which once upon a time empowered the Fab 4 itself. The Red Ghost and his Ape comrades made a come back in
Fantastic Four #29.
The Gorilla is super-strong.
The Baboon becomes a shape-shifter.
And the Orangutan gets the power to project magnetism.
Sadly the Super-Apes never get a cover appearance rendered by the great Kirby save as a part of the avalanche of villains who attack the Fab 4 in the third annual.
Rip Off
They have always been one of my favorites too
ReplyDeleteThey are just plain odd and that's no small thing in the Marvel Universe.
DeleteRip Off
I keep forgetting they made their debut in FF. (I read it a blue moon ago in the Essentials line.) When I think of the Red Ghost and his primate posse, I think of the first time I had encountered them, in the pages of Amazing Spiderman, around the 220s.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, what beautiful covers!! (In the first two, is that Chic or Frank over Jack's pencils?) The colors also go so well with the whole package.
That is Stone on the cover of 29. The inks on the cover of 13 might be George Bell (Roussos), but the interior inkwork is the real treat. Steve Ditko! Beautiful stuff.
DeleteWow! You're right! That is Ditko. I should have recognized it. It looks exactly like a cross between Kirby and Ditko.
DeleteThe GCD says the inks for thirteen are either by Don Heck or Al Hartley. The interiors though are definitely Ditko and great Ditko at that. FF twenty-nine is one of my fave Fab 4 covers.
DeleteRip Off