Originally published on Patreon
And thus another comic series come to an end, as the final issue of Monkey Prince arrives. However, things seem far from over for the young hero.
Acting as a kind of epilogue for Lazarus Planet (though nothing on the cover would indicate that), the book catches up with Monkey Prince as he helps Supergirl clean up the chaos in Metropolis with the help of Shifu Pigsy. However, King Fire Bull is freed from the magical prison he was put in at the end of Lazarus Planet and is coming to take Supergirl prisoner to steal her life force and re-power himself.
With an army of skeletons to fight, and some extra help in the form of Deep princess Shellestriah, who claims she wants to learn under Pigsy too, Monkey Prince thinks he has things under control thanks to the new clone technique he learned from his father, the Monkey King. However, his plans at rescue are thrown for a loop when the villain reveals his true origin to him. It turns out MP isn't the son of Monkey King, but a hair clone that refused to disappear once his task was done.
The news shatters his sense of self, and he's left reeling. Thankfully, with some guidance from his mentor he's able to break through this, and is able to save the day.
I like that Monkey Prince has gone from being an incredible annoyance for Supergirl, to the two of them having a kind of friendship, and seeing the young hero sticking around to do the clean-up and damage control that he normally skips out on is a nice treat. I even like that Shellestriah turns back up and the slightly antagonistic response MP has to her even though she seems to be completely honest about not being up to no good. The moments where she still calls him Tasty Monkey to tease him are kind of funny.
Where this issue falls a bit flat for me, however, is with the return of the villain. It took a lot to beat him at the end of Lazarus Planet and it took every single magic user, good and bad, working together to do it. And now he's immediately out. Yes, he's weak now so he's not really a threat and MP can friends can beat him, but it does make it feel like the end of the event, which was only a couple of weeks ago, was kind of a nothing thing. Maybe it's just me, but it felt like something about the whole situation was off.
Outside of that though, things worked pretty well here. The reveal of MP's actual origin was very cleverly done because we've known about the hair clones for a while now, and the Monkey King is the one who taught Monkey Prince how to master it, so we know he's got a lot of experience with it. The series has been telling us for a while that him being the son of Monkey King has been a lie, and this reveal at least makes a lot of sense in the established lore. It's also hugely open to exploration in the future if the character gets to come back again.
The book does end feeling like there's a lot left undone. We don't get long with the revelation, we've got a new student joining Pigsy and Monkey Prince, his adoptive parents are continuing their lifestyle of journeying around and getting into trouble. This feels like less of an end to the character, and more of a close to his first chapter. His character has been firmly established now, he's got some decent relationships with a few members of the superhero community. I hope that this is just the start for him, and that there will be further adventures with this interesting and enjoyable character.
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