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Real Name: M’Baku
Alias: White Gorilla
Occupation: Mercenary, renegade
Legal Status: Exiled citizen of Wakanda
Identity: Known to Wakandan and American authorities
Place of Birth: Wakanda, Africa
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
Past Group Affiliations: One-time member of the Lethal Legion, former ally of the Grim Reaper
Known Powers:
Tracking: The Man-Ape can track prey with Remarkable ability.
Talents:
In combat, the Man-Ape uses Martial Arts A and C, and Acrobatics. He also possesses the Thrown Weapons and Sharp Weapons skills.
Contacts:
The Man-Ape was an ally of the Grim Reaper but has disassociated himself from that criminal because of his racist attitudes. He might be an ally of the Black Talon. The leader of the White Gorilla cult, he may draw on assistance from cultists (and probably a mystical master)
Role-Playing Notes:
Man-Ape, dedicated to the cause of the White Gorilla cult, acts as their agent against their chief rival, the Black Panther cult. A proud warrior in the traditional sense of tribal Africa, Man-Ape dislikes technology (whether this dislike has changed since his exile has made him more familiar with Western ways is unknown). Man-Ape’s goal in life is two-fold: the destruction of the Black Panther and regaining rule of Wakanda. Man-Ape’s appearance is often underestimated by Western heroes, at least until they face him in combat and learn how deadly he can really be.
History:
M’Baku was one of Wakanda’s greatest warriors, second only to T’Challa, the Black Panther himself. While the Panther, king of the Wakandas, was on leave from his royal duties to serve the Avengers in America, the ambitious M’Baku plotted to usurp the throne. The Wakandan culture had evolved from a hunter-warrior society and was traditionally ruled by its greatest warrior. The Black Panther had outlawed the rival White Gorilla cult from Wakanda while the Panther cult was dominant. M’Baku flouted T’Challa’s edicts and revived the White Gorilla cult, personally stalking and killing one of the rare white gorillas living in the jungles near Wakanda. Bathing in the gorilla’s blood and eating the gorilla’s flesh mystically conferred its great strength upon M’Baku.
When the Black Panther returned to Wakanda with some of the Avengers, M’Baku, calling himself the Man-Ape, openly challenged the Panther’s right to rule. M’Baku deplored T’Challa’s technological revitalization of Wakanda and sought to have all technology outlawed so the nation could return to its natural primitivism. After a protracted battle, the Man-Ape bested the Panther. However, when he bound T’Challa to the giant statue of a panther and tried to topple it upon his enemy, the statue instead crumbled, burying him.
The Black Panther, believing the Man-Ape had been crushed, returned to New York with the Avengers. But M’Baku’s chief supporter N’gamo revived the rebel. M’Baku followed the Panther to New York. There the Man-Ape allied himself with the Grim Reaper and his Lethal Legion, a short-lived team of Avengers’ foes including the Living Laser, the original Power Man, and the Swordsman. The Man-Ape kid-napped Monica Lynne, the Black Panther’s American girlfriend, and lured the Panther into captivity. When the rest of the Avengers came to the Panther’s rescue, it was, in the end, Captain America who physically bested the Man-Ape.
The Panther decreed that the Man-Ape could never return to Wakanda without facing the death penalty. Humiliated, the Man-Ape chose to wander the less civilized parts of the world, performing mercenary work to survive and keeping a low profile. He was eventually contacted again by the Grim Reaper, who was trying to assemble a new Lethal Legion to exact revenge upon the Avengers. The Man-Ape served as one of the Grim Reaper’s henchmen until the Reaper’s racist attitudes prompted the Man-Ape (and the Black Talon) to abandon the Reaper’s cause. The Man-Ape is at large, his current whereabouts and activities unknown.