Seriously, shouldn't an editor say something, when two annuals, consecutive parts in the story, use the same title?
We're up to the Superman chapter of JLApe: thankfully, just one. In some annual crossover events, like Armegeddon: 2001, there would be the Superman Annual, then one for Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, even maybe Superman: the Man of Steel. And one chapter of this should do it...
The late Solovar's successor as ruler of Gorilla City, Ulgo, is gung-ho to battle the filthy humans. Something called 'Grogamesh' is coming to help him out with that. Meanwhile, while the apes have turned a lot of humans into apes (and putting them on their side) the military has not been targeted, meaning they can counterattack.
Meanwhile, reporting for Lexcorp, Lois Lane is not terribly impressed with the newsworthiness of the ape invasion: if you can see it out your window, why would she have to write about it? Instead, she's checking out the tape of Solovar's assassination, and notices a distortion not unlike the apes' apeifying weapons. I am going to make 'apeify' a word if it kills me.
Lois goes out and finds Superman, who is still an ape, and starting to lose control. She takes him to Professor Hamilton's for help, but he's been changed as well. When Lois mentions looking for something that would work on his "solar metabolism," Supes jumps to the conclusion the sun itself would do it, and flies out of the atmosphere, gets zapped, and falls into the river.
Not knowing how she can help, Lois gets to the river, in time to see Supes arise, as a giant ape! With apeifying vision! And then Supes eats her.
Well, not really, to any of that: Superman returns from space, restored. The giant ape is the aforementioned Grogamesh, and it's really a giant battle robot. It opens fire with enough firepower to level Metropolis, or at least knock Superman on his butt. Lois is inside, the prisoner of Ulgo, who's piloting the robot; in a much-less exciting manner than you'd expect: Grogamesh is magically-empowered, so Ulgo doesn't seem to have to do much besides sit in his chair and growl speeches.
When Grogamesh attacks the Pentagon, during the fight Superman points out that Grogamesh had been made "using the hides of a thousand slaughtered gorillas!" Which burned right off early into the attack, too. Ulgo had been tricked by Grodd and his conspirators, and tries to stop the robot, but loses control. Superman gets Lois and Ulgo out, then takes apart the mighty battle robot, magic or no. All's well that ends--hey, wait a second...
That may well be the best page in this whole crossover, right there. Scans from "The Apes of Wrath" Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencils by Joe Phillips, inks by Rich Faber and Rob Stull. Next week: Green Lantern Annual #8!
"Apeify." I LIKE that word. Works for me!
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