Monkey Boy #1 is a comic created by Sean Needham. A monkey that has been experimented on undergoes a transformation. This is a science fiction superhero comic with dramatic elements and a bit of violence. The main monkey for this tale is Gregory, he has been used as a test subject for some time and wishes to be free. The person running this program is Dr. Ichabod Gideon, he is a man who cares about results so much that he can be cruel to the subjects. The story begins with Gregory being taken out of his cage and strapped to a table. He is then injected by Dr. Gideon after which he begins to shake and foam at the mouth. He then bites the doctor, breaks free from his restraints and escapes. The violence here is physical with no blood or gore. The pacing is steady with an early 2000’s superhero movie tone. There a few intense moments due to high danger and violence. The dialogue here is mostly conversational though there is a decent amount of narration and thought bubbles from Gregory. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting debut issue with an interesting story and a super powered monkey lead.

            The art here is decently detailed with heavy shading and a style modern for the time. The color range here is decent with a lot of white and red. This takes place in a city with palm trees and we’ll see them along the highway and next to buildings. The primary location is the lab where the experiments on Gregory take place but the majority of this story takes place all over the city from residential areas to a convention center. The backgrounds usually show the location with the violent moments tending to have a gradient color with action lines. The expression level here is a bit above average as the characters never hide their emotion. The emotional range goes from anger and fear to happiness and terror with a lot of shock thrown in. The faces here have a high amount so all the different looks come across clearly. The violence here is physical with some hard-hits but no blood or gore. The action scenes tend to not go longer than a page and are usually in a single panel.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like science fiction superhero stories that star a monkey with a bit of drama and violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“What I need is that monkey!”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.indyplanet.com/monkey-boy-1

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28

Violent Pages: 7, for 25% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 1

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”