Men's Adventures #26

Gorilla Man

Ken Hale has been plagued night after night with nightmares about Gorilla Man. By day thoughts of the Gorilla Man plague his mind and so he decides to go see a doctor who finds that there is nothing wrong with him physically. He then goes to the library to see what he can learn but finds that there is only works of fiction about gorilla men. He also pays a visit to his explorer friend Bension, who tells him that there is a rumor about a half-man half-gorilla in a remote region of Africa.

This inspires Kent to take a trip out to Africa to locate the Gorilla Man. After saying goodbye to his girlfriend Lil he takes a ship to Africa. There he hires a group of natives to take him to the Gorilla Man. However, after a certain point the natives refuse to go any further, but suddenly Ken knows exactly where to find the Gorilla Man.

Ken travels deeper into the jungle and fends off danger until he finds the Gorilla Man. When he finally finds the half-man half-beast Ken raises his gun to shoot it, but suddenly gets the urge to fist fight it. Tossing his gun aside, Ken battles hand-to-hand with the Gorilla Man.

Ken beats the creature to death and suddenly he finds himself transformed into a Gorilla Man himself and cries out into the night.

Recurring Characters

• Gorilla Man

Continuity Notes

• The origins of Gorilla Man are expanded upon in Agents of Atlas #2. That story states that instead of being a man tortured by a recurring nightmare, he was a soldier of fortune that was seeking immortality. The differences in origins between this story and that in Agents of Atlas is unexplained but can probably be chalked up to the same “based on real events” affect that Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special, All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes, and Marvel Boy: The Uranian use to explain Timely/Atlas era stories that contradict with modern continuity.