Monkeyman and O'Brien

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Monkeyman and O'Brien #1 (July 1996) Monkeyman and O'Brien 01.jpg
Monkeyman and O'Brien #1 (July 1996)

Monkeyman and O'Brien is an American comic book series created by artist Art Adams in 1993. The series was published from 1993 to 1999 by Dark Horse Comics in various types of installments including short features in anthologies, backup stories in other series, a three issue limited series, a two issue crossover series (with the WildStorm team Gen13, published by Image Comics) and a comic strip in the promotional newspaper Dark Horse Extra .

Contents

In 1997, a trade paperback collection of four issues (the three issue limited series and a special consisting of the Hellboy: Seed of Destruction backups) was published.

Characters

The series follows the story of Ann O'Brien, the daughter of a missing scientist, who at the time of his disappearance was working on experiments in interdimensional travel. When one of her father's experimental machines was accidentally activated by Ann, it teleported from another dimension Axwell Tiberius (also known as "Monkeyman"), a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) super-intelligent gorilla-like being that Adams conceived as "the Reed Richards of the gorilla world". [1] The same accident also bathed Ann in a mysterious radiation which caused her grow to seven feet tall and endowed her with superhuman strength, endurance and speed. [2] Axewell quickly became Ann's friend and the two went on to face numerous Silver Age–style threats including the "Shrewmanoid" and the "Froglodytes". [3] The duo also encountered the Image Comics super-team Gen13. [4] In the last Monkeyman and O'Brien stories published to date, humorous situations arise between the pair such as O'Brien growing to colossal size after being hit by one of Monkeyman's experimental devices. [5] Monkeyman's brother Nonny O'Brien also features in the series.

Villains the series include:

Cancelled Adaptation

On January 1, 2000, it was revealed that producer Jeff Kline was awaiting a pick-up order from the Fox Kids Network for a cel-animated Monkeyman and O'Brien series. While the production had gotten as far as scripting (with significant input from creator Art Adams), [6] the show was ultimately never produced.

It has never been publicly confirmed why the network passed on the series, but the underperformance of Kline's previous production, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot , may have been a contributing factor.

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References

  1. George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington. Modern Masters Volume Six: Arthur Adams, 2006, TwoMorrows Publishing.
  2. Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1≠4 (March–June 1994)
  3. Monkeyman and O'Brien #1–3 (July–September 1996)
  4. Gen13/Monkeyman and O'Brien #1–2 (July–August 1998)
  5. Dark Horse Extra #1–7 (July 1998 – January 1999)
  6. Jo Anne Kenny (1 January 2000). "SPFE's Jeff Kline is looking at a monkey, Jackie Chan and the Universe from around the world". kidscreen.