Noted Kryptonian anthropologist, Professor An-Kal, aware of Krypton's pending
destruction, places his young experimental ape, Yango, into an escape rocket.
After years of intense conditional-cybernetic brain-programming, time that
he had devoted to Yango since birth, An-Kal was not about to let Yango perish.
The Science Council of Krypton would not accept An-Kal's revolutionary "genetic
alterance" theory. The bitter scientist has decided to send his small
friend to the jungles of Earth, to carry on his work. Of course, elsewhere
on Krypton, the scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara prepare to send their son,
Kal-El, to Earth as well. As Krypton explodes, the two rockets, equipped with
warp-engines, travel through space until they reach Earth. Whereas Jor-El
has sent his son to the heartland of America, An-Kal has sent his small ape
to the mountains of Kenya, "Gorilla Country", where he hopes Yango
will be accepted and respected.
Fifteen years later, in Kenya, an ivory-poacher prepares to gather the elephant
he has just killed. The poacher's bearers scream out "Yango! Yango!"
as a large ape swoops down and carries both the poacher and the elephant off.
Later, game-preserve officers have no luck interrogating the frightened natives,
so they radio Superboy for help. At that moment, elsewhere in the jungle,
two hunters who have been commissioned by a zoo to bring back some live gorillas,
kill one in order to draw out the others. As they and their bearers set up
nets, Yango swoops down and carries off the two hunters. Again the game-preserve
officers are summoned but cannot get a clear picture from the natives as to
what exactly has transpired. Believing that the gorillas will search out their
lost brother, Superboy acquires a gorilla hide and poses as the fallen ape.
Soon, the other gorillas arrive and carry the disguised Superboy back to
a camouflaged cave. Superboy cannot believe what he sees when he is carried
inside ... a great arch, carved into the shape of a gorilla's head, wearing
a crown containing a glowing red sun symbol. Superboy notes that the glowing
orb reminds him of similar symbols from Krypton. Superboy is then carried
through the arch into the inner cavern. There he sees an entire underground
ape city! A giant statue of a garbed ape, again wearing a glowing red sun
crown, stands over a large throne. Superboy suddenly hears gunfire. It is
the three captured humans, who have gotten free and are trying to escape.
Superboy then hears an unseen entity yelling words in his original Kryptonian
tongue! As the men try to shoot their way out of the cave, Superboy tries
to help, but he is exposed by the other apes as a human. The apes call for
Yango, their protector. The large super-ape, Yango, flies in, ripping the
gorilla disguise off of Superboy. Yango tells his brothers that he will deal
with the human impostor. Yango and Superboy fight with one another, but they
soon realize that they are both facing a stalemate. Superboy addresses Yango
in Kryptonese, taunting him. The angry super-ape grabs Superboy and throws
him through the cavern wall and into orbit.
Superboy, surmising that the super-ape is from Krypton, uses his ability
to break the time-barrier to discover the secret of Yango's origins. Superboy
then returns to the jungle, where he finds the three men being chased by a
group of gorillas. The men are shocked when Superboy gathers them up and brings
them back to the cave. In Kryptonese, Superboy explains to Yango that he has
learned of the ape’s past. He trusts that Yango will not kill the poachers
because he has chosen to protect the animal world, instead of using his mighty
powers to conquer the planet. Superboy allows Yango to teach the men a lesson
by leaving them imprisoned in the cave for a short while. Superboy flies off,
bidding his new ally farewell.
This was his only appearance.
Yankee Doodle
Written by Rich Meyer
The character of Yankee Doodle has a
rather strange history. He was a Silver Age super-hero who didn't appear
in print until 1992. Now as strange as that might seem, Yankee Doodle became
something considerably stranger than I think his original creators could've
ever envisioned.
DOOM PATROL #51 (January 1992) marked
the first appearance of the man known as Yankee Doodle. But he was apparently
originally intended to see print back in May of 1964, in SHOWCASE #50. In
fact, the cover of DOOM PATROL #51 features a re-colored version of the Mike
Sekowsky/Frank Giacoia cover for that issue.
For some strange reason, both the cover
and Yankee Doodle were pulled from SHOWCASE #50, which instead did an issue
of reprints of old King Faraday adventures (under the collective title of "I
Spy"). The only information we have on the original treatment of the
character can be found on the cover: Prof John Dandy used a strange spray
to become the blank-faced Yankee Doodle, "master of disguise".
He looked considerably like Steve Ditko's The
Question minus the hat, a similarity that Morrison would actually use
in the DP story. The concept of the character may have also influenced
the creation of The Unknown Soldier in STAR-SPANGLED WAR STORIES.
Grant Morrison brought in Yankee Doodle
during the final Brotherhood of Dada story arc he did in Doom Patrol. For
those not familiar with The Doom Patrol, the team was originally a group
of three "freaks" (Cliff Steele/Robotman, Larry Trainor/Negative
Man, Rita Farr/Elasti-Girl) brought together by the enigmatic Niles Caulder,
who was also known as the Chief. The team went through various incarnations,
and started handling very strange and surrealistic menaces under the auspices
of Morrison (best known for his work on ANIMAL MAN).
According to Morrison's story, John Dandy
worked as a special government operative attached to the Pentagon's Unusual
Operatives Division. He had used his cover as an archaeologist to steal the
research notes of a Professor Rodor, which helped him create a special gas
(housed in a special ballpoint pen) that solidified on contact with air to
produce a malleable skin. He adopted the codename of "Yankee Doodle" and
was apparently very successful in his work for the government.
Longtime comics fans will recognize that
Rodor was in fact the man who provided the Question with the unique technology
to create the blank facemasks he wears as a part of his costume. At this
point, the origin of Yankee Doodle takes a leap off the diving board of the
surreal.
Dandy volunteered to follow a bureaucrat
into the City Under The Pentagon because the man had stolen a lot of sensitive
documents. The City is a sort of other dimensional netherworld from which
the Pentagon derives power, strange operatives and even policy at times.
At least that is my personal interpretation of what Morrison was trying to
get across to the readers. No one who goes down there is ever really the
same again, and Dandy was no exception.
"There were garbled radio messages
of enormous structures walking, people or things with tunnels for eyes...and
then we lost all contact" was how the Major tried to explain it to Ms.
Roddick as they went to see Dandy to enlist his aid. A year later, something
claiming to be John Dandy came back. Something strange had happened to his
face, and he told everyone that he had swapped his original face for what
he had now.
Dandy was brought up out of the City
to help the government in its quest to prevent Mr. Nobody (of the Brotherhood
of Dada) from becoming President. Mr. Nobody had used the bicycle of Albert
Hoffman to create a near-nationwide state of hallucinogenic bliss, and he
was now offering the voters the opportunity to enter the Painting, the quasi-dimension
that had changed him from old Doom Patrol enemy Mr. Morden into the two-dimensional
and multi-facted Mr. Nobody.
Dandy and the government forces attacked
Nobody and the Brotherhood at one of their rallies. They made short work
of most of the Brotherhood of Dada, and Dandy hurled one of his many faces
onto Mr. Nobody's, which changed him back into Morden and allowed Dandy the
opportunity to impale him on a piece of wood. The Love Glove (a Brotherhood
of Dada member) and Cliff Steele prevented Dandy from finishing the job.
Military snipers destroyed the only method of saving Mr. Nobody by incinerating
the painting, and he eventually just faded away. Cliff tossed Dandy across
the street into the roof where the snipers were located, possibly killing
him in the process.
Any one who read Grant Morrison's Doom
Patrol series knows he has a definite knack for making the weird out of the
mundane...Cliff Steele was the only real normal character in the book after
a while, and he was a human brain encased in a robot body. Yankee Doodle
was another example of this, but it was much easier to take than a lot of
these metamorphoses because we didn't really know the character...Dandy had
a history but the readers had never met him before this single story. It
wasn't like the transformation of Larry Trainor into Rebis, or even Rhea
Jones' changes during the Geomancers storyline.
Appearances: Doom Patrol (2nd series)
#51, 53
Yggadris, the Living Planet
First Appearance: Mystery In Space #60 (June 1960)
Yggardis is a sentient, tentacled planet that scours other worlds for life
forms to populate it—which die within 24 hours of the transplantation.
Originally thwarted by Adam Strange, Yggardis later joined (on a long-distance-basis)
the Enchantress' team of Forgotten Villains, who battled the Forgotten Heroes
and Superman in DC COMICS PRESENTS #77-78.
The entity is also mentioned in WHOS WHO's Forgotten
Villains entry. He
is listed as a "sorcerer" who, along with Krakow, an 18th century Polish mystic,
and the Enchantress, were the focus of the Forgotten Villains' plans.
The Yellow Peri
Bob Rozakis and Kurt Schaffenberger's creation, the Yellow Peri, first
crossed paths with Superboy in NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY #34 and 35 (1982).
Teenager Loretta York had discovered a magic book that transformed her into
the Yellow Peri. Her own inexperience and a devilish imp named Gazook made
Loretta more of a threat than a help and the Boy of Steel finally threw the
book into outer space, erasing York's memories of the Yellow Peri in the process.
Years later, the book fell back into Earth's atmosphere and returned to Loretta,
now married to a shady character named Alvin Grant. Grant hoped to use the
Yellow Peri for a get-rich-quick scheme. When Superman entered the picture,
Alvin tried unsuccessfully to pit his wife against the Man of Steel. In the
end, Superman agreed to leave the book in Loretta's possession until she proved
unworthy of the power (ACTION #559).
Months later, Clark Kent and Lois Lane encountered the Grants and, once again,
Alvin was trying to make a quick buck and the Yellow Peri's magic was backfiring.
Unable to destroy the book, Superman encased it in lead, erasing the Grants'
memories of the Yellow Peri once more. Loretta tumbled upon the lead-sealed
book (ACTION #567) but whether she ever recovered her memories is unknown.
THE YELLOW PERI:
Action Comics #559, 567
The New Adventures of Superboy #34-35
Who's Who '87 #26
THE YELLOW PERI (variant):
The Kingdom: Planet Krypton #1
Original text copyright DC
Comics unless otherwise noted. Used without permission.
