Ken Hale’s still not sure what happened with that dodgy business back in the jungle. But he’s plagued by the dreams. Dreams of… the Gorilla-Man! Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Men’s Adventures #26 awaits!

MEN’S ADVENTURES #26

Writer: Uncredited
Penciler: Robert Q. Sale
Inker: Robert Q. Sale
Colorist: Uncredited
Letterer: Uncredited
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Comic Combine Corp. (Marvel Comics)
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $300.00
Release Date: November 20, 1953

Previously in Men’s Adventures: Debuting as True Western in 1949, the title became True Adventure for one issue before mutating to Men’s Adventures. Along the way, the book went through multiple genres, traveling from Western to two-fisted adventure to a war comic before settling into a science fiction/horror hybrid title. It even became part of the brief superhero revival of 1954, hosting tales of the Human Torch before cancellation, but today’s tale encompasses almost all of those categories.

The science fiction/horror aspect will become obvious momentarily, but we start in the realm of adventure with a story that introduces the superheroic Agent of Atlas and Avenger with a bang. Or, at least, with a howl of simian triumph!

Our story opens with Ken Hale, seemingly an average guy, dreaming over and over of a strange gorilla/man whose cries of victory haunt him day and night. He seeks answers, only to be told by his doctor that he’s not suffering from any known malady. The local university librarian laughed him off the premises when he tried to do research, but when he finally took his query to the local adventurer’s club, Hale got more than he expected. Not only did an old man know rumors about the gorilla-men, but he also heard whispers about where they were supposed to live, sending Ken off to the wilds of Kenya.

I like the fact that this story is written in the second-person, addressing Ken directly, as though the writer/narrator (whose identity is not recorded) is taunting him directly. Paired with some really strong art by Funnies Inc. regular Robert Sale, best known for Lev Gleason’s The Claw, and this story is remarkably creepy and effective. That last panel? Brrrr.

Left alone after the horrible stereotype fifties natives (for which I apologize) refused to travel any further, Hale crashes alone through the jungle, lumbering towards his destiny.

The sound of the Gorilla-Man’s cry reveals just how far gone the mind of Ken Hale is, and it’s truly chilling to see him rushing into the darkness, his face contorting into a skeletal horror as he nears his goal.

When he finds himself face-to-face with the gorilla-man, Ken raises his rifle and then drops it, somehow aware that the tools of the humans wouldn’t do in the battle to come. Despite being horribly overmatched, Hale leaps at the gorilla, battling its powerful arms and in-no-way-accurate six-inch fangs with grit, determination, and the kind of madness you seldom see outside of the works of Lovecraft.

The story ends with Hale becoming that which he fears, a common thread of these ’50s suspense stories, leaving him trapped in the body of an immortal gorilla and forever cursed. It was some 25 years before Gorilla-Man reappeared, appearing in an issue of What If? as part of a 1950s Avengers team, thanks to the memory of Roy Thomas. Though this origin has been altered a bit for modern audiences, Men’s Adventures #26 still packs a punch and serves as the beginning for one of my favorite supporting characters of modern Marvel, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. If they would finally just give me a book with Gorilla-Man, Fat Cobra, The American Eagle, and Howard The Duck, I think I could finally give up comic books and chase my dream of fighting a man/chicken in the wilds of Iowa.

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