Monkey Prince is an comic book series, published by DC Comics as part of the DC Infinite Frontier initiative. It is written by Gene Luen Yang 楊謹倫 (New Super-Man) and drawn by Bernard Chang 張伯納 (Batman Beyond).
Marcus Sun is a normal kid... who just happens to be the child of two supervillain henchpeople. After witnessing his parents being attacked by Batman as a child, Marcus has panic attacks when he's reminded of the incident. One day, after trying to face his fears, he awakens the powers of the Monkey Prince, and learns that he is actually the son of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King! But Marcus hates superheroes, so he's not going to be joining the Justice League anytime soon — but he is going to embrace his powers as the Monkey Prince!
Monkey Prince debuted in the DC Festival of Asian Heroes special, and the issue has a digital-only prologue issue #0, released in October 2021. The series began an ongoing release on 1 February 2022, fittingly on the eve of Lunar New Year.
Monkey Prince contains examples of:
- Daddy's Little Villain: Shellestriah is the half-human daughter of the Trench King and she wants to help her father destroy Atlantis.
- Demonic Possession: The Penguin ends up possessed by the demon Golden Horn King, making him huge and golden.
- Dumb Jock: Rizalino Mayfeld is not very smart, and complicated words elude him.
- Good Parents: Despite being supervillain scientists, Laura and Winston Shugel-Shen are very good parents to Marcus. When Laura learns that Marcus is being bullied, she gives the bullies a talking to. Later that night, when she thinks Marcus is smoking, she's okay with him experimenting at his age — she just wants him to be safe, so she offers to get some good stuff for the family to smoke together.
- Happily Adopted: Marcus loves his parents, and it's a big part of why he refuses to accept that Sun Wukong is his father whenever Shifu Pigsy brings it up.
- I'm Standing Right Here: In Issue 3 when Monkey Prince and Robin are fighting and cracking jokes about Rizalino Mayfeld, Mayfeld mentions that he can hear them while hanging upside down. And on Issue 4 when MP and Robin are talking about who has the most hard-ass teacher, Shifu Pigsy says he's behind them and can hear them.
- Losing Your Head: The first issue ends with Batman accidentally decapitating the Monkey Prince. While all involved are disturbed, Marcus is actually still alive.
- Monkey King Lite: The entire premise of the series — that Sun Wukong is a real figure in the DCU, and we're following his son, who has inherited his powers.
- Nightmare Face: Shellestriah normally has a human face, but when channeling her Trench side, it turns into a maw of sharp teeth.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Marcus' parents are literally this. Their job is as villain henchpeople, or at least scientists. They're introduced working with Dr. Sivana, and later on work with the Penguin. They also have references from Captain Cold, Intergang and the Riddler!
- Ret-Canon: In Issue 0, Steppenwolf sports his DCEU design, while Apokolips is randomly shirtless, a design decision that is also from the DCEU (comics Darkseid usually at least started with a shirt if he ends up without one in a fight).
- Self-Duplication: Monkey King can form clones of himself from his hair. He uses this to manifest an army to repel the forces of Apokolips. The Lazarus Rain causes Marcus to manifest this ability, but it's much weaker. His clones come out as chibi versions of him, distracting at best.
- Sore Loser: In Issue 0, the Gods of China repel an invasion from Apokolips thanks to the Monkey King. However, Darkseid, out of pure spite, kills King Bull Demon and Princess Iron Fan before he leaves.
