Random Happenstance

I think I maybe found one other random issue of Stanley and His Monster since bringing it up, and I don't have all of this one, either: from 1991, Angel and the Ape #1, "Shaking the Family Tree" Written and penciled by Phil Foglio, inks by Keith Wilson.

Angel and the Ape didn't appear in the gorilla issue of Secret Origins, so we get a bit here that might be new: a flashback to Angel and Sam's first meeting. As a child, Angel had met Sam, who was then bitten by a snake, but was more worried about being sent back wherever he had come from. Fast-forward to the present, where Angel was a private investigator, who had developed a style of unarmed combat that would be effective against gorillas, and Sam was a comic-book artist who helped her out on cases. Sam also could talk, and had some mental power to keep humans from seeing him as a gorilla and panicking. This issue also reveals what might have been a fan theory prior: Angel was the half sister of Athena, a.k.a. Dumb Bunny, of the Inferior Five. Athena usually had lunch with Sam on Tuesdays, but today says she needed to talk to Angel, since she had been thinking about trying to start a relationship with Sam. Angel's first instinct was, he's a gorilla, but she had to admit Sam was a great guy, and the super-strong Athena was looking for a relationship with someone who could take it.

Meanwhile, Sam has a weird moment at the bank, where he appears human, but everyone else is a gorilla. It quickly snaps back, so later Sam passes himself off as a video technician, to get access to the bank's security footage: watching the tape with Angel confirms the change did happen, but just for a second. Angel thinks she can show that to the bank manager, to get the bank to hire them to investigate, when three bald stooges show up, demanding Sam come with them. Sam and Angel are no match for them, but Dumb Bunny is, easily clobbering them. The bank manager then arrives to offer them the job, but Sam says he has to go, maybe forever, and jumps out the window! Having no clue, the bank manager wonders why Sam wasn't splattered on the pavement ("Did he miss the ground?") and Angel and Athena realize, those stooges were really apes! To be continued...

Angel and the Ape actually already had a tag here, since we saw their Vertigo mini some years back! Their original sixties series only ran six issues, plus an additional "Meet Angel" issue, that appeared to be trying to change the branding a bit. Those are a bit rich for my blood, though; and I'm not sure they've ever been reprinted. Still, this series would later reveal a secret, about Sam's family...