Story: "Manchester Monkey Business" (22 Pages)

Credits:

Jason Hernadez Rosenblatt (plot, script)
Pop Mahn (pencils)
Romeo Tanghal (inks)
Daniel Vozzo (colors)
Digital Chameleon (separations)
L.A. Williams (edits)

Feature Character:

Impulse

Supporting Characters:

Max Mercury
Carol Bucklen
Preston Lindsay

Villains:

Gorbul Mammit (son of Grodd)
Gorilla Grodd

Other Characters:

Xong Tsai (a super-fast panda, in flashback to the fourteenth century)
Franklin (an orangutan)
Herman and Chester (chimpanzees); An unnamed lady gorilla

Synopsis:

Max Mercury and Impulse are called in to deal with an 'escape' from a school that trains apes for showbusiness, and Bart simultaneously has problems keeping up with Gordon Matthews, chemistry whizz-kid. While Bart goes for a revision session with Carol and Preston, Max discovers that three of the four escaped apes have tapped into the speed force, and pursues them across the globe.

Revision session over, Bart suddenly realises that he left his text books at Carol's house, zaps back to get them and discoves that Preston has been tied up and Carol kidnapped, by none other than Gordon Matthews. Bart trails Matthews to a lab where he discovers Carol and a gorilla plugged into a machine of some kind, also finding that he was expected, and that the lab has an anti-speed force device installed.

As Max recaptures the apes, discovering that they were endowed with speed via helmet-like devices, Bart discovers that Matthews is actually a gorilla named Gorbul Mammit, son of the infamous Gorilla Grodd. He is attempting to endow the gorilla (a female) with human intelligence in order to provide himself with a mate and go on to father a new race of super-gorillas. A convenient power cut nullifies the speed force field, and Carol and Bart are able to defeat the gorillas, who nevertheless teleport away, just before Max arrives, following his own trail of clues.

Elsewhere, Grodd looks at the news reports of his son's activities, musing that they are far too small. Grodd has much greater plans in store.