He’s been to Gotham, but now Marcus and Pigsy are headed for the stomping ground of another Justice Leaguer. Welcome to Atlantis! Your Major Spoilers review of Monkey Prince #5 from DC Comics awaits!
MONKEY PRINCE #5
Writer: Gene Luen Yang
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Editor: Jessica Chen
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Previously in Monkey Prince: Monkey Prince and Shifu Pigsy travel to Atlantis, where they believe a shard of Monkey King’s powerful jingu bang staff has fallen underwater. And if they can find it, Monkey Prince should be able to wield it… at least they think! Take a journey down to the Chinatown district of Atlantis where all the Chinese sea dragons thrive!
A QUEST FOR WISDOM AND POWER
After a strange dream full of portents and images of the lost Monkey King, Marcus awakens in the car as he and his parents reach their new home: The town of Amnesty Bay. After Batman’s concerns that his parents were working for The Penguin, Marcus is trying hard to believe that they’re not who the Dark Knight says they are. (The fact that they hid when Superman appeared in the sky isn’t the most encouraging sign, though.) On the first day in his new school, though, our Monkey Prince has trouble fitting in, save for one goth girl who greets him and offers him a banana. After checking with his friend/crush from Gotham, he decides to try and talk to her, only to have her transform into a toothy demon creature and try to eat him.
In my experience, this is a perfectly realistic depiction of changing high schools, by the way.
While the Monkey Prince fights for his life, his parents are hired by Black Manta to crack open a mystical artifact that he found at the bottom of the ocean.
THE AGE-OLD QUESTION: ARE MY PARENTS EVIL?
A lot of comics seem to try hard to capture the magic of early Spider-Man, but the ones that do it best are the ones that shoot for the tone, rather than the specifics. Marcus Shugel-Shen’s adventures capture the best parts of young Spidey: The wise-cracking hero whose secret identity is much more inhibited, the fact that even his most serious moments feel fun and free-wheeling, and the unique power set and modus operandi. The Monkey Prince is completely out of his (you should excuse the expression) depth in these pages, and having Shifu Pigsy pointing that out makes it even more entertaining. The use of Aquaman’s foes The Trench feels natural here, making me hope that the comic is going to be traveling the DCU and playing with all the settings and supporting casts. The art manages to bridge the gap between Chinese myth and modern comic aesthetics. I especially like how Monkey Prince feels flexible and almost cartoon-like, while Marcus is all-too human while running for his life from a demon.
BOTTOM LINE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The best parts of Monkey Prince #5 are all things that you could say about Invincible, the early years of Amazing Spider-Man, and the first three or four years of New Warriors, placing a cool young hero in a unique place and letting the storytelling do the rest, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. It’s hard to tell five issues in, but I’m hoping that this comic is the Next Big Thing, and that these creators get to tell four or five years of Monkey Prince adventures. At the very worst, he could be the next Creeper or Plastic Man, repeatedly being brought back to add some shine to the dull drudgery of a grimdark DCU.
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MONKEY PRINCE #5
Luen-Yang and Chang have a truly interesting story here, paired with unique and well-crafted art, making for a hero unlike anything else in comics.
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Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.