History Behind DCUO: Bludhaven & Ace Chemicals

Bludhaven
Well, if we're going to cover the Bludhaven alert, I reckon we'd have to start with the place it all takes place in, won't we? Bludhaven- for typing's ease, I will be forgoing the umlaut in this article- first appeared in Nightwing v.2 #1 in October 1996, wherein Nightwing trails the second Blockbuster, Roland Desmond, to Bludhaven during the investigation of the murder of twenty-one Gotham gangsters.

Realistically, Bludhaven was introduced in an attempt to differentiate Nightwing from his mentor Batman. Since Nightwing was introduced, writers have gone back and forth on how to get Dick out of Batman's shadow- or if they even need too.

In story, Bludhaven was shown to be pretty much Gotham Lite, but even more corrupt. Every level of law enforcement was eaten through with corruption, the city was made of failed housing projects filled with addicts and more. It started out as a whaling town in the early 20th century, and was incorporated into a commonwealth in 1912. Owing in no small part to failed attempts at turning it into a shipping and manufacturing center, Bludhaven became a poverty stricken city. Thanks to high poverty rates and being overshadowed in all respects by nearby Gotham City, Bludhaven became a completely corrupt city. From top down crime ruled the city.

Note that several locations in the Alert are taken directly from the comics, such as the Spine, Mealtide Park and others. Y'all can consult the map I posted from Nightwing Secret Files and Origins if you want to see it closer.

When Nightwing chased Blockbuster to Bludhaven, he set up shop in the city, becoming its own protector. Over the next several years, Nightwing lived in Bludhaven and fought against Blockbuster, who essentially set himself as DC's Kingpin. Dick became Bludhaven's only honest cop and lived in an apartment complex also used by Golden Age hero Tarantula and former Batman villain Amygdla. In general, Bludhaven was pretty frickin' important for quite sometime. Probably due tot he concept of "Gotham... but poorer and more crime ridden." It works well enough, I suppose.

Anywho, it goes without saying that it got nuked, since it appearances as a chemical wasteland in DCUO.

That happened in Infinite Crisis #4, January 2006, the Brotherhood of Evil, acting on orders from the Secret Society of Supervillains, dropped chemical bomb Chemo on Bludhaven, killing most people involved. In Infinite Crisis proper, this wasn't used too much. However, one of the Crisis Aftermath miniseries, Battle for Bludhaven (June 2006), dealt hugely with the ruined city. In said mini, it was revealed that people had indeed survived the explosion and were forced to live in the ruins, quarantined by government agencies like the Superhuman Advance Defense Executive (SHADE). The city was also quarantined with a massive wall, creatively called the Wall. Of note, the concept of mutants arising in Bludhaven come directly from this- several humans were mutated into a group that would eventually become the new Freedom Fighters, used by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey in two minis and a short ongoing series. However, the mutants weren't nearly as prominent as the mutants in the Alert, due in no small part

Lots of stuff happened in the Battle, including a new group of "Atomic Knights" being loosed, as well Major Force being set loose on the city, as you'll read...now!

Major Force
Major Force is one of those evil versions of good characters, like Sinestro, Bizarro or Professor Zoom. In Force's case, he is the twisted mirror of Captain Nathanial Adam, alias Captain Atom.

Force  first appeared in Captain Atom #13 back in February 1988 and was created Cary Bates, Greg Weisman (of Gargoyles and Young Justice fame) and artist Pat Broderick. Force was the product of the Captain Atom Project that turned court martialed Vietnam soldier Nathanial Adam into Captain Atom. Clifford Zmeck was court martialed on charges of rape and murder and sentenced to life in prison. During the time he was locked up, Nathanial Adam got locked up in an alien ship and nuked to see what would happen, bonding the alien metal known as Dilustel to him and throwing him through the timestream.

So they took the murdering rapist and did the same thing with him. Comics, eh?

Zmeck emerged from the timestream a year after Captain Atom did. The government decided that they wanted a more servile quantum powered metal man and, in a move prescient of both the Suicide Squad and the Ellis Thunderbolts, stuck micro explosives under the Dilustel while it was still molten. Voila, instant government monster. Major Force became at first an ally and then, when his brutality went unchecked, an enemy. Throughout the Bates/Weisman series Zmeck was a hired gun for Captain Atom's corrupt handler, General Wade Eiling.

In Green Lantern vol. 3, #54, August 1994, Major Force commited the act that is not only his main claim to fame, but coined a new term. In said issue, Major Force kills Alexandra DeWitt, girlfriend of new Green Lantern Kyle Raynor. Major Force stuff her body into a refrigerator. Writer Gail Simone coined the term "Women in Refrigerators" after this, to be used when a (usually female) side character is injured/killed/etc. to make cheap drama for the protagonist. So, while Force isn't exactly a major villain, he HAS had a pretty big effect on the face of comics, albeit somewhat secondarily.

Force then sort of fluttered around comics for a while. In the Guy Gardner: Warrior series, (Issue 43, June, 1996), he killed Green Lantern Arisia, who later got better. Then Guy cut his head off. But then it turned out that as energy he can't die. Kyle later did the same when it looked like Force had killed his mother, but then that was retonned, presumably because seriously?

Force is in the Bludhaven alert, however, because of the aforementioned Battle for Bludhaven series. In it, he's the field leader of SHADE, a black-as-a-red-door ops group that specializes in metahuman affairs. Over the course of the mini, he kills Major Victor, an underling in a group called Freedom's Ring, and comes to blows with Hal Jordan. In the end, Force is "killed", inasmuch as an energy being can, by Captain Atom, who had been held under Command D, a special bunker underneath Bludhaven. Atom had been punctured during the Infinite Crisis and was leaking radiation. The Atomic Knights built a containment suit for him, but to their chagrin, Atom became unbalanced and became the much maligned Monarch. Speaking of Monarchs...

Ace Chemicals (Plus Monarch Playing Card Company)
Ace Chemicals is one of those things that doesn't really ever appear. It gets name dropped, sure, in no small part due to whose origin story happens in his fluorescent vats. But actual appearances? Those are much rarer.

Ace Chemicals and its next door neighbor, Monarch Playing Cards, both first appeared in Detective Comics #168, February 1951. This issue, "The Man Behind the Red Hood!", is rather important issue all told. In said issue, Batman discovers the Joker's identity: a crook from "ten years ago" called the Red Hood! See, the Hood had been a common thief in a fancy suit that had decided to rob the cashbox in the Monarch Playing Cards Company, which is right next door to the Ace Chemicals Processing Plant. Batman ends up knocking the Hood (or maybe he just fell) into the chemical vats of Ace Chemicals, causing his skin to be bleached and his hair to turn green. This turned out to be the One Bad Day that the Hood needed to turn him into the maniacal mirthful murderer called the Joker.

The next time the plant was shown in any sort of actual import was in the prestige format oneshot Batman: The Killing Joke, March 1988. Note that this is NOT an official origin, since the Joker in-story awknowledges that he doens't remember his past. "I prefer multiple choices!", he says. Anywho, the Joker was (maybe) a failed comedian who wanted to pull one robbery in order to help him, his wife and unborn child move up in the world, and ended up helping the Red Hood Gang into robbing Monarch Playing Cards, next door to a place he used to work at as an engineer, Ace Chemicals. Unfortunately, newly hired security and Batman show up, and the Joker ends up tumbling into chemicals and becoming the Joker.

That's pretty much it, actually. Last Rites, a story from late 2009, introduced the idea that it was Ajax Chemicals, part of Kane Chemicals, a chemical plant owned by Bruce Wayne's mother's family. It was also the source of the chemicals used by many villains early in Batman's career, explaining the various chemicals encountered back then, such as Dr. Death.

It was also important in the 1989 Batman movie, wherein it was Axis Chemicals. In said appearance, it was a plant owned by Carl Grissom, a gangster "Jack Napier" worked with. It was raided by police and Batman, ending with Napier getting shot in the face. Said wound caused his distinctive rictus. In the later parts of the film it was where the Joker manufactured his Smilex toxin. The use of it as a place where the Joker made his toxin is pretty clearly alluded to in the Alert.

Yup, that's pretty much it.





Chemo
Chemo is, for whatever reason, one of my favorite villains in the DC Universe. Seriously, I can't exactly pin down why I love the not-so jolly gelatinous green giant so much, but I do. Perhaps because he's such a distinctive character: A giant, transculscent green plastic humanoid filled with bubbling liquid. It just looks rad as hell.

Chemo has historically been an antagonist to the Metal Men, and as such, was created by Bob Kanigher and Ross Andru. He first appeared in Showcase 39, July-August 1962, the third of four issues the Metal Men had in Showcase, and their third overall. In the first appearance,  scientist Ramsey Norton, in one of those complete lapses of genres that only occurs in comic books, decides to dispose  of failed chemical experiments in a massive humanoid plastic shell. Why? Because why not. Anywho, the different chemicals somehow bring the shell to life. It, like many artificial creatures before it, kill its creator and goes on a rampage. It's stopped by the Metal Men and becomes possibly the closest thing to an arch nemesis the team had. They really didn't have many other recurring antagonists, especially in the early days.

Chemo returned to menace the team several times, in both the 1963 and 1973 series. It even fought Superman in DC Comics Presents #3, December 1978. The first time Chemo did anything big, however, wasn't until January 1986, in Crisis on Infinite Earths #10. It had appeared in the previous issue, attacking Earth-4's New York Harbor by spewing radioactive waste into the water. Issue 10, however, had the Silver Age Aquagirl, Tula, succumb to poisoning from the toxic beast. The fact that he managed to kill a character, however minor, was quiet impressive for this era. Chemo was destroyed immediatly afterwords when Valentina Vostock, Negative Woman, constricted around him with her N-Woman entity, shattering his plastic.

Although he next appeared in Action Comics #590, July 1987, his next semi-important appearance was in Peter David and Gary Frank's Supergirl #5 from January 1997. In said issue, Chemo menaced Leeburg, home of the Iron Age Supergirl, Linda Danvers. Interestingly, Danvers was able to destroy Chemo by telling the thing it wasn't human, causing it to essentially kill itself. This issue is important for one reason, however: the metal attachments that allow tubes to be attached to Chemo (See the Ace Chemicals alert) originate in this issue. This has been Chemo's design ever since, giving it a nice balance that the solid green original didn't have. This depiction has even made it into actoin figures, with the Collect and Connect in DC Universe Classic's Wave 9.

Chemo appeared here and there over the next few years, including a stint in the Suicide Squad during 2001's Our Worlds at War event. It wasn't until Infinite Crisis #4, December 2005, that Chemo had the appearance that solidified him as an important object in the DCU. In said issue, a Secret Society of Supervillains group (The Brotherhood of Evil from the Doom Patrol, actually) and Deathstroke drop Chemo as a makeshift chemical A-Bomb on Bludhaven, killing the majority of people inside and rendering it a mostly uninhabitable chemical wasteland. This is why Chemo is the boss of the Bludhaven alert, obviously.

Chemo has been used a few times since, including an appearance in Duncan Roulou, of Ben10 fame,'s great Metal Men mini. But for the most part, he's mostly remembered by DCUO, DC proper and the fanbase for his role in Infinite Crisis, a role which quite literally changed the face of the DC Universe.





Chemoids
J'onn rightfully says that Chemo isn't known for reproducing, but there have indeed been smaller Chemos. They were aptly, and somewhat adorably, called Baby Chemos. The Babies first, and only, appearance was in Superman #663, by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheo. The gist of the issue involved Lightray, of the New Gods, bringing the so-called "Young Gods" to Metropolis. Whilst in the city, they helped Superman fight against the Baby Chemos. By the end of the issue, they were revealed to be a product of a Lexcorp project involving chemical samples of Chemo left over from the Bludhaven ruins.

For the most part, the Chemo Babies are scenery for the issue, a footnote in a larger story. But for whatever reason, they seem to clearly be the inspiration for the Chemoids in the Bludhaven and Ace Chemicals alerts.

History Behind DCUO: Gorillas A-Go-Go!

Gorillas!
I know what you're thinking. "Really? Gorillas? What, is there a history of gorillas in DC?" To which I'd say, "Of course!"

DC's history with gorillas goes back decades. Look back at DC's Silver Age output, and you'll notice a strange, recurring thing... Taro, the Gorilla Witch in Strange Adventures #186. The Mod Gorilla Boss in Strange Adventures #201, who fought Animal Man in one of his five appearances. The Living Bomb Beast and the Gorilla Mob Boss of Gotham City, who came to blows with the Caped Crusader in Detective Comics #339 and Batman #75, respectively, and Mogo the Bat-Ape, who helped the Dynamic Duo in Batman #114, and who is my favorite Silver Age one-shot Bat character.

There were even recurring characters, like Beppo the Super Monkey, Monsieur Mallah and Gorilla Grodd. The mark our primate pals left on comics is undeniable. But the question remains- why?

Surprisingly, we know. Strange Adventures was one of a number of anthology titles DC ran during the Atomic Age and the Silver Age, and ran predominently science-fiction stories. There weren't any recurring characters for quite a few years. Issue 8, May 1951, had a cover feature entitled "Evolution- Plus!" by Gardner Fox. The issue concerned a crook getting an evolution ray and causing hijinks. The contents aren't terribly important to the issue at hand, however. The cover is. Sales apparently spiked on this issue.

Julius Schwartz, a great fellow who was editor of various titles from the mid-1940s when he cut his (comic) teeth on All-Star Comics to the 1980s, when Superman tearfully bid adieu to his editor on the cover to the second half of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", kept ledgers carefully tracking sales of sales of comics. So, while I'm not 100% sure about this, I'd say Julie was the fellow who is responsible for the surge of gorillas in comics.

And once that was observed, the flood gates- or, shall we say, gorilla gates- were open. Over the course of the next twenty years, gorillas went from being something that was occasionally in comics, like anything else, to being a massive part. Superman fought at least a half dozen gorillas, and even became a gorilla. Hawkman fought flying gorillas in one very inexplicable comic, even for the Silver Age. And of course, the Flash came to blows with a certain recurring gorilla rogue multiple times throughout the ages.

Even decades later, the legacy of Gorillas marches on. Secret Origins #40, May 1989, was dedicated completely to primates, featuring the Secret Origins of Gorilla City, DC longtimer Congorilla (Ran for thirty years in Action!) and Detective Chimp. In 1999, DC had an entire summer event in the annuals called JLApe, wherein Grodd turns the heroes into gorillas. Even Alan Moore has alluded to the legendary gimmicks of the Silver Age in Promethea, with Crying Gorilla Comix, a nod to Carmine Infantino's claims that the color purple and heroes weeping sold covers.

Of amusing note, the gorilla in the pinstripe suit that you see at in, IIRC, villain clubs is likely an allusion to the aforementioned Mod Gorilla Boss.

Gorilla City
Gorilla City is a long standing feature in the DCU, dating back to Flash #106, April-May 1959. In its first appearance, Gorilla City was largely as it appears today: A brilliant, isolationist city deep in Africa, inhabited solely by hyper-intelligent gorillas.

It's a lovely, distinctly comic book concept, isn't it?

Anyways, as per the aforementioned gorilla centric Secret Origins #40, an alien spaceship crashed into the jungles of Africa. A bunch of curious gorillas then ripped open the spaceship and were briefly enamored with a shiny gem, and then cast it aside. In the original origin for Gorilla City, this was the source of their intelligence, similar to Green Lantern foe Hector Hammond. The alien inside the ship ends up worshipped as a god, and helps educate the gorillas, as well as instructing them to construct a city. When the gorillas are holding the crystal, two beams are released. One is pure and straight and strikes the gorilla that will become king: Solovar. The other, warped, hits the gorilla that will become known as Grodd.

Two explorers, Hughes and Albert Westly, find the city and learn of its origin from the alien that was in the ship, a wizened yet infant-esque creature worshipped by the gorillas. The two are welcomed by the gorillas and the Mentor, who wishes to escape with the two. However, the warped gorilla ends controlling the two as they escape, causing Hughes to kill the Mentor. While Westly is able to escape back to civilization, whereupon he is promptly stuck in a madhouse, Hughes isn't so lucky and are beaten to death. It turns out the whole thing was a gambit by Grodd to ensure isolation for Gorilla City.

The next time the City would see an outsider would be when Barry Allen, the Flash, was welcomed to the city whilst searching for the diabolical Grodd. He became friends with Solovar, helping him against Grodd time and time again, until Barry died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the time following his death, Gorilla City began to open up more. In JLA Annual #3, part of the summer 1999 JLApe event, Solovar was prepared to open up Gorilla City to the United Nations before he was assassinated. More on that later.

Do note that Gorilla City has never been on an island in the comics, nor did the rocketship survive. It was explicitly destroyed by gorillas. There also isn't a volcano. I'm not entirely sure why the changes were made to DCUO, but it does help the game stand on its own, however small.

Gorilla Grodd
Arguably the most famous Gorilla in comics, Gorilla Grodd has been a thorn in the Scarlet Speedster's side since Flash #106, April-May 1959. This makes him one of Barry's oldest rogues, postdating only Captain Cold and the Turtle. In his first appearance, the psychic gorilla quests for the secret of "Force of Mind", or mind control. This story also has the frankly hilaroius Fred Pearson, a friend of Barry Allen's who starred in a popular stage show called "The Great Gorilla". The reason this is so funny is because the show apparently only has a single set, a living room, and stars a gorilla.

Anywho, the Force of Mind ends up being held within Solovar, the king of Gorilla City. Barry ends up having to help the king defeat the warped ape. Grodd ended up being a favorite of John Broome, apparenlty, appearing several other times in the next few years. For intance, he was involved in the positively memetic Flash #115, September 1960- the infamous "The Day the Flash Weighed 1000 Pounds!", wherein he fat-ifies the Flash. He was also a charter member of the Rogues in Flash #155, September 1965, though he is traditionally not on very positive terms with any of the Rogues, let alone a member.

However, the next big appearance for Grodd was in the 1970s title Secret Society of Super-Villains. While he was part of the Society from issue 1 on, it was in issue 8, August 1977 where Grodd actually became leader of the Society, pre-dating another infamous gorilla to lead the Society. This helped solidify Grodd as a "big" villain, along with appearing in the Challange of the Superfriends cartoon, though he lacked his trademark psychic abilities in that. Heck, he wasn't even the right color- he was brown.

Post-Crisis, he was a thorn in the sides of the Teen Titans, when he formed Tartarus, a super-group of villains consisting of mostly also-rans. He came to blows with the then new Flash, Wally West, and was defeated in part by Rex the Wonder Dog. And in his most ambitious, and mimicked in other media, Grodd attempted to turn the entire human species into gorillas in JLApe, an aforementioned event that makes up a big part of his arc in DCUO.

Interestingly, though he has never, to my knowledge, met the Ultra-Humanite, his hatred of "false" gorillas DOES stem from the comics. In Salvation Run #4, April 2008, he murdered Mnsr. Mallah, a gorilla artifiically made intelligent by his eventual boyfriend, a disembodied French brain, calling him a false gorilla that dares compare itself to a son of Gorilla City. Then he beat Mallah to death with the broken case of the Brain. Then the Joker kicked him off a cliff, where he was (wrongly, of course) assumed dead. Amusing aspect to keep for the game.

Gorillabomb
The amusing concept of a "Gorillabomb" that permeates the Grodd chapters is, amusingly enough, from the comics. The Gorillabomb was prominently featured in the JLApe annuals from Summer 1999. The storyline involved King Solovar being assassinated, supposedly by the "Human Supremacy Movement", but in truth by a secret cabal (Is there any other?) of evil gorillas called Simian Scarlet, being manipulated in turn by Grodd. Solovar had planned to open Gorilla City up and join the United Nations, but the perpetually scheming Grodd would have other plans.

Following the assassination, Prince Ulgo (more on him later) takes over the throne and declares war on humans at the UN. There, a Gorillabomb detonates, turning the UN Assembly into gorillas. The Flash (Wally West), Aquaman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Kyle Raynor and the Martian Manhunter are also turned. The rest of the very fun event has the various JLApes coming to blows with the Simian Scarlet, each themed after a different archetype (For instance: Grimm, the mob boss, or Admiral Tralfagor, the pirate captain) before turning their eyes on Grodd.

Of note is the way the Gorillabomb works. Rather than relying on already wonky evolution science, the Gorillabomb goes full on comic science and reconfigures your Morphogenetic Signature. The Morphogentetic Field, AKA the Red, is similar to the Green that binds all plant life in the Swamp Thing comics.

Surprisingly, the Gorillabomb has not been limited to JLApe and DCUO. It appeared as a major plot point in the last sesaon of Justice League Unlimited, wherein Lex Luthor discovered rival for leader of the Secret Society of Supervillains, Gorilla Grodd, had planned to detonate one and turn the planet's population into gorillas. Lex found the idea moronic and took over. It also appeared in Brave and the Bold episode "Terror on Dinosaur Island!", as a thematicly similar E-Ray that in and of itself may be a throwback to Evolution Plus.

Ultra-Humanite
Tip your hat, boys, for the oldest villain in DC Universe Online. Hailing from the long ago Action Comics #13, June 1939, he's just a month older than Batman and barely a year older than his first villain, Superman.

The Ultra-Humanite first appeared, as one could surmise from the above, as a Superman villain. He did not, however, appear as the albino gorilla most are familiar with. His first appearance was really strange, and involved the Ultra-Humanite masterminding a taxicab racket business in preparation for world domination. He had zero motivation. He just wanted to control the world. He even used the phrase world domination. In this story, he is an invalid confined to a wheel chair. In the end of the issue, the Humanite is assumed dead following his escape rocket exploding. He returned to trouble the early Man of Steel a handful of times as his first arch nemesis. Of note, was an appearance in Action Comics #21 that also introduced Terry Curtis who, forty years later, would become an important character in Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron series. Action Comics #20 introduced the idea that he was capable of transplanting his brain into other bodies, namely that of Hollywood actress Delores Winters. This has became his second most used and remembered of his bodies.

Following the introduction of Luthor, and subsequent balding thereof, Jerry Siegal chose to retire the Humanite rather than have two bald mad scientists fighting against the Humanite. He lurked in limbo for decades afterwords. The Superman Family title in the 1970s had a feature entitled "Mr. and Mrs. Superman", which starred the Earth-2, or Golden Age, Superman and his wife, Lois Lane-Kent. In these backups the Ultra-Humanite was reintroduced.Once again, he used the brain-swapping gimmick. Although his gorilla form still wasn't introduced, he did switch his brain into a giant ant at one point. That earns style points, right?

His big break came in Justice League of America, vol. 1, #s 195-198,October-December 1981. In this arc, the Justice League and Earth-2's Justice Society came to blows against the aforementioned Secret Society of Supervillains and their new leader, who is revealed to the Humanite in an all new body, and the one that would be his most inconic: The albino gorilla with the elongated head. Interestingly, a story a few years earlier in Detective Comics #482, March 1979, starred a villain named Xavier Simon that also transfered his mind into an albino gorilla. Perhaps that was a "prototype" of the Humanite, similar to the Marvel Monsters that were called the Hulk.

The Humanite also meneced the All-Star Squadron and their time-traveling children in the Generation Saga that kicked off Infinity Inc., starting in March 1984. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Humanite's history was, understandably, tinkered with. He wasn't seen too much until Geoff Johns used him in the JSA arc "Stealing Thunder", in 2002. In that arc, he switched his brain into Johnny Thunder's body and uses the Thunderbolt to take over the world, finally realizing his goal of global domination.

Then he gets shot in the head by the Crimson Avenger.

Of course, that didn't stop him from reappearing. In Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz' Booster Gold, he was a member of the Time Stealers, a pretty cool grouping of time-traveling villains. We actually saw where his original body came from in one appearance, in Justice League of America vol. 2 #7, July 2007. The albino gorilla was Nzame, a rare gorilla born into Gorilla City with healing powers. In a way, this makes Grodd's hatered of the "false" gorilla even funnier, considering that the body he inhabits is a holy gorilla.

There have also been two other Post-Crisis Ultra-Humanites, one in Legends of the DC Universe and the other in Palmiotti and Grey's Power Girl, but they really don't have much bearing here, so we'll let them slide.

Prince Ulgo
Mindblowing to me as well as likely you, the first boss in the Containment Facility alert is, in fact, from comics. Prince Ulgo first appeared in JLA Annual #3, part of the JLApe story. As mentioned before, he was the Prince of Gorilla City, and Solovar's nephew. Following the assassination of Solovar, Ulgo took the throne and declared war on the human species.

Ulgo later takes control of a giant robotic gorilla, Groggamesh, and begins to lay waste to Metropolis in Superman Annual #11. A newly un-Apified Superman reveals to Ulgo that his uncle wasn't assassinated by humans under their own free will, but instead were being manipulated by the Simian Scarlet. Then, as giant robots in comics are apt to do, Groggamesh goes out of control and is put out of commision by Superman. With the newly revealed treachery revealed to him, Ulgo agrees to help Superman and the rest of the JLA. In Martian Manhunter Annual #2, Ulgo fully apologizes for Gorilla City's actions during JLApe, and agrees to make full reparations. He's actually pretty cool in this appearance, humble and ready to carry on the dream of his uncle, that of human and gorilla co-existance.

Yeah, he's not a villain in his only appearances. Strange, huh?