“Yesterday’s” Comic> Solitaire #4

A battle so potentially cool that they didn’t do it in the comic.

Solitaire #4

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (March, 1994)

“Bad Monkey”

WRITER: Gerald Jones

PENCILER: Jeff Johnson

INKER: Barbara Kaalberg

COLORING: Keith Conroy & Moose Bauman (design); Foodhammer! (interior)

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Phil Crain

EDITOR: Hank Kanalz

After taking out the gorilla, Solitaire gets a unintentional clue from one of the thugs left behind. He tracks the Monkey Woman and her primates to the dock where his father’s men are collecting a nuclear weapon prize. Solitaire rescues the “traitor” to the cult and in the fight is forced to introduce the Monkey Woman and the monkey on her back to a propeller, killing them, but his father’s agent, Jinn, is able to recover the weapons and kill off the remaining cultists and monkeys. Our hero does recruit the former sacrifice victim to his group, though.

What they got right: We get to learn more about Solitaire’s backstory, how he got the nanotech trying to end it all after realizing his father would kill others to protect his “business” and force his son to take it over. We also learn there are indeed limits to what the nano-powered healing factor can do, even if they were first used to bring him back to life. The fight with the gorilla was cool, and the story overall worked. The villains of the arc are gone, but I’m not sure they could be used again without taking the focus off of Nicholas Lone’s war with his evil father and his organization. Plus Solitaire’s own gets a new member. Curious if she’ll come into play. There’s also this great bit where the Monkey Woman stops the sacrifice to make sure Solitaire isn’t going to break it up, restarts the sacrifice, and then Solitaire shows up to break it up. This is how you use comedic moments in a serious superhero action story. Yes, they do explain how the monkey cult got nukes and it works for the story. It’s not the hardest to believe part of the story at least.

What they got wrong: So the monkeys are magic beings who enslaved the Monkey Woman for whatever it is they want to do, and what they want to do is sell weapons to Anton Lone. Okay…….. She also refers to her shoulder baboon as “the god-who-rides-my-spine”, and let’s just say it’s a good thing I don’t do blue humor, because that sentence just sounds wrong. That’s a weird way to say “there’s a monkey on my back telling me to sell nukes to an international crime boss”. They try to connect Haiti and Voodoo with Africa and it just doesn’t work, or at least the part I followed.

What I think overall: This is one of the shorter series in the Ultraverse, and it’s a shame because it’s one of my favorites. I hope it ends with the villains defeated and the hero finally clearing his conscience.