Who's This? A simian sleuth.
The facts: First appearing in Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4 (July–August 1952), Bobo - an uncommonly smart chimpanzee with a knack for helping the local sheriff solve crimes - went on to appear in back-ups in that book until 1959. He was a Lassie, Flipper or Skippy type, nothing truly fantastical. The joke may have been that Detective Chimp's initials are DC. After Crisis however, Secret Origins made aliens the culprits for his enhanced intelligence and in a Flash/GL story, both he and Rex were able to speak. Day of Vengeance retconned his origin to include Gorilla City, and this new version of the character joined Shadowpact, which cemented his place in the modern DCU.
How you could have heard of him: He continues to appear from Rebirth on, was in Dark Nights: Metal, for example, and joins Justice League Dark, like several other Shadowpact alumni. He has recently been seen in The New Golden Age and the new JSA title.
Example story: The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #8 (April 1953) "Death Walks the High Wire" by John Broome, Irwin Hasen and Joe Giella
Bobo can't speak yet, so these stories are narrated by Sheriff Chase, or Oscaloosa County, Florida (I suppose a fictional version of Okaloosa County, FL, unclear which of these two places is more "normal"). The law man brings his department's mascot to the circus one rainy night, and they both witness a tightrope walker fall to his death.
The detectives of course want to race up there to see if it was an accident or perhaps... murrrrderrrrr?
As you can see, we know Bobo is more intelligent than one would expect because he wears a hat--I mean, because he can think in terms we understand. It's a bit primitive (he doesn't use pronouns), so let's just just under Krypto's super-dog intelligence. But still enough to put two and two together. And the strip also makes use of his ape abilities (just as a canine protagonist would use his sniffer), like climbing all the way up the Big Top and finding a tiny hole up there. But being unable to verbally communicate, he can't tell Chase how this might be relevant.
Despite Bobo's assertion, Chase DOES soon find that the rope was cut by a bullet, which explains the hole just above it. Hey, did I mention the canine sense of smell? Well, maybe chimps have that power too. And maybe all animals sound smart when they talk to each other. I'm still learning the rules.
Chimps say A LOT with few sounds. Bobo is caught fiddling with the carnival rifle by the killer who starts shooting at him. See, bad guys don't care if they incriminate themselves in front of an animal. They don't usually testify in court. Bobo uses the carnival games to fight back...
...and ultimately, the help of his elephant ally. And this is weird enough to shake a confession out of the murderer.
Fun, right? When I was a kid, we watched all the shows where an animal helped a family take care of business, and it was in fashion for a while. The Wonder Dog and the Detective Chimp are part of that trend. Those days are far behind, and Bobo is now a hard-talkin', hard-drinkin' Justice Leaguer, because we live in a more cynical franchise-obsessed world. But I'm sure no one saw that coming.
Who's Next? A rotary phone.
Comments