Killer Space Monkey: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Maybe it's because they land somewhere in the [[Uncanny Valley]]. Maybe, as with the [[Monster Clown]], it's because writers like subverting the traditionally "cute". Maybe it is a reflection of our savage ancestry. Maybe it's a remnant of our struggle with our differently-evolved cousins. Or maybe it's simply that [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]. Whatever the reason, killer simians make for good alien monsters.

{{examples}}

* The Saiyans from ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. They used their power to transform into giant "apes"<ref>they're referred to as apes, but, having tails, are technically monkeys</ref> during the full moon to conquer planets for Freeza. And calling the saiyans 'monkeys' was a bit of a [[Fantastic Slur|racial slur]] used by Freeza and his underlings.

* The Thunes in Mike Baron and Steve Rude's comic book ''Nexus'' resemble apes. Thunes are an intelligent race, though, and are just as varied morality-wise as humans. The two most prominent Thune castmembers are Nexus's two best friends, Dave and his son Judah.

* The [[Marvel]] ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' comic had a race of (somewhat) intelligent, vicious cyborg monkeys living in limbo.

* Titano from the ''[[Superman]]'' comics, who features in the page image, started life as an ordinary Earth ape. Rocketed into space, he and his ship were bombarded with radiation, which changed him into a giant ape with incredible strength and the ability to emit beams of Kryptonite radiation from his eyes.

* One variation is the movie ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'', in which the apes are exactly as brutish and nasty as humans.

* The aliens in ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'' start evolving into ape-monsters around the third act of the film as they reach the monkey [[Evolutionary Levels|stage of the evolutionary "ladder"]].

* The Simeons in the ''[[Godzilla]]'' series were a race of apes from a planet that was coming close to being sucked into a black hole, deciding to relocate themselves to Earth and building Mechagodzilla to try and conquer the planet.

* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' setting has multiple hominids evolved from the Pak, including a whole [[Ringworld]] full of sentient and non-sentient types. The [[Shout-Out|Morlocks]] of Wunderland are also apelike [[Underground Monkey|cave-dwellers]].

* In ''[[After Man: A Zoology of The Future]]'', several species of deadly predator have evolved from monkeys, including the fish-eating [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|swimming monkey]], the cheetah-like [[Fragile Speedster|horrane]], and several species of [[It Makes Sense in Context|carnosaur-like raboon]].

* The Ogrons, a race of mercenary grunts often turning up as henchmen to the Daleks in ''[[Doctor Who]]''.

* The Kromaggs, the product of parallel evolution on one of the worlds of ''[[Sliders]]'' with a taste for human eyeballs. In their initial appearance, they were most definitely ape-descended, though later appearances made them more human, with something of a Nosferatu bent. (Note that their name comes from "Cro-Magnon", [[Hollywood Meaningful Name|but the actual Cro-Magnons were modern humans]].)

* Goldar of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' fame.

* The Mugato from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Not so much ''killer'', as their role is more of [[The Engineer]], but ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' features the Jokaero, a race of space orangutans.

* ''[[Star Frontiers]]'' had the Yazirians as a playable race. They were generally good guys, of the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] sort.

* ''[[Spelljammer]]'' brought the Yazirians back, but renamed them "Hadozee," or "deck apes."

* ''[[Alternity]]'' had the Weren, who were also [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys.]]

* ''[[System Shock]] 2'' had creepy zombie space lab monkeys. With [[Psychic Powers]] (either cryokinesis or pyrokinesis, depending on which kind of monkey).

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has transdimensional psychic monkeys. Which emit toxic gas when defeated.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* An odd twist on the trope is the ''[[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!]]''. They're technically the good guys, but they have no compunction whatsoever against killing their enemies, and being brutal about it.

* An episode of ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'' has Titano (see Comics section) as Lois Lane's pet monkey (her father was part of NASA at the time.) He eventually lands in Metropolis, starts growing to massive size and runs amok downtown.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The Lespuko from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' probably counts as this. It is a species of alien, its name means "Rock Ape" and it has been shown to be aggressive.

== [[Real Life]] ==