Hit-Monkey

Hit-Monkey is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history
Created by writer Daniel Way and artist Dalibor Talajić, Hit-Monkey first appeared in Hit-Monkey #1 (April 2010), a digital comic on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. The one-shot was released in print format a week later and, starting in the same month, he was featured in a three-issue story arc in Deadpool #19-21. Cover artist Dave Johnson also accidentally confirmed that Hit-Monkey would be featured in his own three issue limited series, a fact later confirmed by Daniel Way at the 2010 Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo.

Fictional character biography
An unnamed assassin was marked for death after his part in a failed political coup. After blowing up a squad of enemy soldiers, he decides to run for his life. Passed out in the snow after four days of fleeing, he was rescued by a troop of Japanese macaques. The monkeys allowed the assassin into their clan, with the exception of a lone monkey. The man knew that he would be hunted so he trained daily using snowmen as training dummies. Quietly, the monkey that distrusted him watched, and eventually picked up on the fighter's skills. The assassin's health began to fail, and as the tribe of monkeys tried to save him, the lone monkey objected, eventually fighting the rest of the group with his newfound skills. Because of the violence he displayed, the monkey was banished from his clan. However, on his own, he saw a group of men on their way to kill the assassin. He tried to run back and warn his tribe, but it was too late - the assassin had been killed as well as the rest of the monkeys. Furious at his clan's slaughter, the monkey picked up extra guns from a bag and proceeded to kill the entire group of men. Determined to avenge his fallen tribe, the monkey now dedicated his life to killing assassins - under the alias of Hit-Monkey.

In Deadpool #19, Spider-Man finds a local shop owner brutally murdered. Having seen Deadpool in New York earlier, Spider-Man suspects he is the killer, and fights and catches him. However, Deadpool claims he has an alibi. After examining the crime scene, Deadpool says that only one assassin could have pulled off a job so flawlessly: Hit-Monkey. Deadpool and Spider-Man team up to catch Hit-Monkey, who is known for killing other assassins. Because of this, they realize that Deadpool is likely on Hit-Monkey's hit list. Spider-Man reluctantly teams up with Deadpool, and after some dirty cops are killed by Hit-Monkey, Spider-Man is followed by Hit-Monkey in order to kill Deadpool. Hit-Monkey accidentally shoots Spider-Man in the fight and seemingly feels bad about it, showing that he is not just a ruthless killer, but a killer of known assassins. Trying to capitalize on this moment, Deadpool attempts to kill Hit-Monkey, but fails and is shot several times. Hit-Monkey leaves him for dead, apparently not knowing about Deadpool's healing factor. Deadpool then pretends to be Spider-Man and fakes his death. At "Spider-Man's" funeral, Hit-Monkey comes to pay his respect, thinking he killed him. However, Deadpool jumps out of the casket in order to kill Hit-Monkey. Spider-Man renders both fighters' guns unusable so they can't kill each other without blowing themselves up as well. Deadpool doesn't care and pulls the trigger, seemingly killing Hit-Monkey but surviving due to his healing factor. Nevertheless, Spider-Man reveals that Hit-Monkey did survive or, at least, that his body was not found. Hit-Monkey later returns for a short cameo.

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event, Hit-Monkey appears as a member of S.T.A.K.E.'s Howling Commandos.

Hit-Monkey later joins up with Domino's incarnation of the Mercs for Money.

Hit-Monkey was seen with the Howling Commandos at the time when they help Old Man Logan rescue Jubilee from Dracula.

Powers and abilities
Hit-Monkey is an expert marksman and martial artist with incredible agility and reflexes.

Collected editions
The character's appearances have been collected into a trade paperback:


 * Deadpool, Volume 4: Monkey Business (collects Hit-Monkey #1 and Deadpool (vol. 4) #19-21, 120 pages, Marvel Comics, hardcover, July 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4530-3)
 * Hit-Monkey: Year of the Monkey (collects Hit-Monkey #1-3, Hit-Monkey one-shot, 96 pages, Marvel Comics, softcover, January 4, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4859-0)

Television

 * Hulu will air a Hit-Monkey animated series written and executive produce by Josh Gordon and Will Speck. It was originally conceived as being part of its own shared universe that would have led up to a special titled The Offenders, but will now be a stand-alone series.

Video games

 * A video game based on the comic was announced as being developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision for release in 2013. This was revealed to be a red herring meant to foreshadow the release of Deadpool.
 * Hit-Monkey appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. He runs a quest in K'un-L'un called "Do You Want to Hit a Snowman?" where he can be unlocked by knocking down the nearby snowmen in a specific time limit using any character that can attack and run at the same time. As Hit-Monkey mostly speaks monkey language, his language is translated by Gwenpool.
 * Hit-Monkey was introduced as a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions in June, 2020.

Reviews

 * Review: Hit-Monkey #1, Comic Book Resources
 * Hit-Monkey #1 Review, IGN
 * Hit-Monkey #1 Review, Comics Bulletin
 * Best Shots Reviews: BATMAN & ROBIN #8, HIT MONKEY #1, more, Newsarama