Snapshots of Jimmy Olsen #43: Congorilla

Source: Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #49 (1960) and #86 (1965)
Type: Body switch

If you thought Congo Bill was the only man to switch minds with the famous golden ape known as Congorilla, think again. Anyone can use that blood ring. And Jimmy Olsen has done so. Twice!

It's actually pretty neat that Congo Bill is part of Superman's corner of the DC Universe, seeing as he regularly appeared in Action Comics (though not with Supes) for years. And he's in Metropolis looking for the golden gorilla, apprehended by poachers in the jungles of the Congo. Maybe Jimmy can help get in touch with Superman? Oh, and here's the magic ring you have to rub to switch minds with the ape, you know, because Superman can use his telescopic vision to find its twin on Congorilla's hand! Jimmy brings up the point that Bill could just do his thing, pop into the ape's body and check out where he is, but the great white hunter doesn't want to do that in case Congorilla is dead or something? But Superman is at the center of the Earth preventing earthquakes, so Jimmy undertakes to find the gorilla himself, which he eventually does at a "wild animal farm" (doesn't sound legit). Hearing of a robbery in progress, Jimmy decides to become Congorilla and stop it himself. But first, he must render himself unconscious so his body doesn't go running off while inhabited by the ape's mind. Thankfully, he's seen Sylvester and Son cartoons.

Congorilla-Jimmy stops the "Red Knight Gang", but in the meantime, Lois Lane finds his prone body and attempts to drive to the hospital. But it wakes up...

So "Jimmy" climbs up a building to steal some bug-infested bananas while Congorilla rides a motorcycle into battle with the Red Knights. It's comics, people. That done, he climbs up to save himself, switching bodies accidentally while he's up there.

And so the ape throws poor Jimmy off the building, a fate from which he is saved by his signal watch and Superman hearing it underground. Superman lets the ape uselessly fight him until it gets tired, and it's given back to Bill for a quick return to Africa.

Jimmy and Bill cross paths AGAIN when Superman's Pal visits the Congo branch of his famous fan club, who have heard rumors of a villainous plot called "Project Kryptonite". Bill gives him a lead and the magic ring; a broken arm keeps him from participating himself. I guess having an ape drive your body can lead to accidents.

Soon, Jimmy finds the ape and switches bodies with it in order to seek the members of the "Criminal Scientists' Society" responsible.

They've created a magnet that attracts specific colors of kryptonite from space so it can be used to fight Superman. They take refuge as the Green K drops from the sky, and calling their experiment a success, next call for Red K. From their hiding place, they don't see Congorilla throw all their Green K into a volcanic crater, or use the Superman costume his local club stripped off a now-naked Superman statue to give him as a souvenir to put on a lifelike snowman version of the Man of Steel (uhm...).

So when they come out, they believe the Red K has turned Superman into snow (plausible) and made the Green K vanish because only one color can exist in the same place (not so plausible). Scared messing with snow Superman will make him bounce back to normal, they instead call for Gold K, which takes away Superman's powers permanently. But Congorilla sabotages their machine and sends the Red K into a river with the scientists' helicopter. (Jimmy is very sure none of these kryptonite deposits will ever harm Superman because no one can fish rocks out of rivers and Superman never goes into the Earth's molten center--oh wait.) Now, by sabotage, I mean that Jimmy angles the arriving Gold K into quicksand, which is really more about preventing his body from sinking in it.

Only NOW does he try to fell the antenna array, and because he's caught a cold and wrapped himself in a tarp, the scientists come to another amazing conclusion.

That the African mountains are haunted by some version of the Abominable Snowman. Let's just say the C.S.S. is no A.I.M. And if they were A.I.M., they'd still be pretty dumb.

And that's how Jimmy stole another DC hero's shtick.

Contest of a Sort Results!
Last Monday, I asked you guys, across several platforms, to suggest which Jimmy Olsens should be covered before the end of 2015. I received 9 suggestions, and realizing that I already had a Christmas story prepped for Dec. 26th anyway, that's enough! So here's what you can expect, in no particular order, for the rest of this year's Snapshots:

Congorilla (you've already seen it, what did you think?)
Jimmy Olsen from Jupiter (from Jimmy Olsen #32)
Mehcad Brooks
Mr. Action (from Countdown)
Accountable/Doctor Impossible (from the New52's Earth2)
Computer-Brain Jimmy (from Jimmy Olsen #86)
The Human Octopus (from Jimmy Olsen #41)
Jimmy the Genie (from Jimmy Olsen #42)
Ame-Comi Jimmy
Old Man Jimmy/Santa Claus (from Jimmy Olsen #66)

Hopefully you favorite got in before the end!