Monkey Prince

Following a war between Darkseid and the Heavenly Realm, the Monkey King fled to the Phantom Zone to recuperate from his injuries. Centuries later, Ultra-Humanite opened a portal to the Phantom Zone in Metropolis to enslave the Monkey King, who hurled boulders through the portal. Unbeknownst to the Monkey King, one of the rocks contained his infant human son. Ultra-Humanite's daughter Laura Shugel and his assistant and Laura's lover Winston Shen rescued the baby and fled as Ultra-Humanite fought the Justice League.[4]

Laura and Winston married and adopted the baby as their son, whom they named Marcus. Marcus grew up in a loving household, while remaining completely oblivious to his origin and his parents' criminal backgrounds. During Marcus' childhood when the Shugel-Shens lived in Gotham City, Batman broke into their home during a thunderstorm to interrogate Winston and Laura but fled when he saw Marcus. The experience left Marcus with a fear of bats, storms and water and a hatred for superheroes, which would periodically cause him to suffer from panic attacks. The Shugel-Shens moved frequently due to Winston's and Laura's employment with various supervillains which Marcus continued to remain oblivious to.[5]

When Marcus is fifteen, the Shugel-Shens move back to Gotham due to his parents' work. After Marcus is tormented by several bullies at his high school, the school janitor Mr. Zhu encourages him to face his fears, prompting him to jump into the school swimming pool. Marcus finds himself transported to Flower Fruit Mountain, where Mr. Zhu tells him that his true father is the Monkey King and reveals himself to be Pigsy, his father's comrade. Appointing himself as Marcus' shifu, Pigsy warns Marcus of an upcoming threat to Earth and places a circlet on his head, transforming him into the Monkey Prince.[6]

The Monkey Prince becomes overconfident with his newfound abilities and initially uses his powers for selfish reasons, such as getting revenge on his bullies, but his inexperience and constant phobias interfere with ability to maintain his transformation, forcing Marcus to accept Pigsy as his shifu and to come to terms with his birthright.[7]

Under Pigsy's tutelage, the Monkey Prince learns to overcome his fears to awaken and control his latent abilities while discovering more about his father's history.[8] Coincidentally, several of the Shugel-Shens' supervillain employers come across and become possessed by malevolent Chinese demons, forcing the Monkey Prince to repeatedly rescue his parents and defeat their employers by exorcising the demons possessing them. Due to their bosses getting defeated, the Shugel-Shens repeatedly move to find new employment while Pigsy secretly follows them to continue Marcus' training. Although Marcus discovers his parents' criminal backgrounds, the Shugel-Shens remain unaware of their son's identity as the Monkey Prince.[9][10]

Due to his dislike of superheroes, the Monkey Prince comes into conflict with them during his adventures, including Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Shazam. At Pigsy's urging, the Monkey Prince cooperates with them to help defeat demons and realizes the true meaning of being a hero. The Monkey Prince's newfound heroism allows him to claim a duplicate of his father's Ruyi Jingu Bang and even earns him the grudging respect of the second Trench King and his daughter Shellestriah.[11][12]

During the Monkey Prince's adventures, the Golden and Silver Horned Kings are released from the gourds the Monkey King previously imprisoned them in, but are foiled by the Monkey Prince and Pigsy with the help of the superheroes the Monkey Prince befriended. Despite their defeat, the Golden and Silver Horned Kings are able consume some of the qi of Batman and Aquaman, respectively, and are recruited by King Fire Bull as part of his plans to invade Earth.[13]

The Shugel-Shens relocate to Metropolis and are hired as scientists for LexCorp. While Marcus meets with some new friends, Pigsy is captured by his and the Monkey King's old friend-turned enemy Nezha, who is also King Fire Bull's archenemy and adoptive father. Meanwhile, King Fire Bull and the Horned Kings attack LexCorp to consume several Bizarro clones, which leaves Laura fatally injured. Unable to take her to a hospital, Winston brings Marcus and the comatose Laura to her estranged father Gerard Shugel, Ultra-Humanite's human form, who nurses her in his secret laboratory outside of Metropolis. While investigating the attack on LexCorp, Supergirl flies close to Gerard's lair, causing Marcus to think she is after his parents and transforms into his monkey form to confront her. Gerard mistakenly believes the two are working together and confronts them in his Ultra-Humanite body.[14]

Concurrently, King Fire Bull causes the volcano on Lazarus Island to erupt, causing several Lazurus-fueled storms to erupt all over Earth, with Lazarus Resin raining over Metropolis causing various effects to people who come into contact with it, including the Monkey Prince. After dealing with Ultra-Humanite, the Monkey Prince assists Supergirl in quelling the chaos in Metropolis and accompanies her to the abandoned Hall of Justice where Supergirl puts out a call to all available heroes to deal with the current crisis.[15] Several heroes gather at the Hall, where Robin takes charge of the group and debriefs them on King Fire Bull and the events that transpired on Lazurus Island. As Robin dispatches the heroes to deal with the various threats affecting the world, he orders the Monkey Prince to remain at the Hall with him and Black Alice due to his lack of experience. The Monkey Prince befriends Alice and comforts her while she is still traumatized from her previous ordeal with Nezha. One of Pigsy's miniature clones visits the Monkey Prince and divulges Nezha's and King Fire Bull's origins and their corruption. Pigsy also informs him of his capture but orders the Monkey Prince not to rescue him and to help the other heroes.[16]

The Monkey Prince leaves the Hall to give Alice some time alone, but while he is away King Fire Bull attacks Robin and destroys the Hall. The Monkey Prince returns to find the Hall in ruins and Ultra-Humanite and Winston attempting to open a portal to the Phantom Zone to capture the Monkey King. Despite Winston being knocked unconscious, Ultra-Humanite succeeds in opening the portal but the Monkey Prince thwarts him by jumping into the Phantom Zone, where he encounters his father. Sun Wukong does not believe Marcus is his son, even after Marcus displays the same abilities as him and Wukong witnesses a memory from Marcus' birth. Marcus requests Wukong's help against Nezha and King Fire Bull but he refuses, as leaving the Phantom Zone will result in his death. To prove that he is his son, the Monkey King orders the Monkey Prince to deal with Nezha and King Fire Bull and once successful to seek out his mentor, the Sandalwood Buddha, as he could help Wukong escape the Phantom Zone. As the Monkey Prince returns to Earth, Ultra-Humanite deduces his identity and injects nanobots into his adoptive grandson's body, which will torture him unless he obeys Ultra-Humanite's commands.[17]