Monsieur Mallah
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Monsieur Mallah is a fictional character, a sentient gorilla with a genius level IQ. He is the supervillain partner of the Brain in the DC Comics Universe. Monsieur Mallah first appeared in Doom Patrol Vol. 1 #86 (May 1964) and was created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani.
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[edit] Fictional character history
[edit] Origins
As a scientist, the man who would one day become known as the Brain experimented on animals to raise their intelligence. One of his experiments was when he captured a gorilla and experimented on it, raising its I.Q. to the genius-level of 178. He named the gorilla Monsieur Mallah and educated him for almost a decade before making him his personal assistant.
| “ | Ten years ago, I took a superior ape — stronger than any human... more agile than the best athlete! Through secret teaching methods and shock treatments, I gave it an I.Q. of 178! Genius status! | ” |
- The Brain, explaining Mallah's origin in Doom Patrol #86
The scientist's colleague, Niles Caulder grew jealous of his work and arranged for the scientist to get caught in an explosion, which destroyed the scientist's body. Only the brain survived, and Caulder planned on putting his brain in a robot body.
Mallah rescued the scientist, taking his brain and transferring it to a computer network that kept it functioning. Now known simply as the Brain, the scientist and Mallah gathered together the criminal organization known as the Brotherhood of Evil in hopes of conquering the world and getting revenge on Caulder. Caulder, now known as the Chief, through a series of other accidents that he manipulated, would form the superhero group known as the Doom Patrol. Setting out to destroy the Chief's 'pets', the Brain, Mallah, and their Brotherhood became enemies with the Patrol. Their criminal activities would also put them into opposition with the Teen Titans.
[edit] Romance
During Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run, Mallah had the Brain placed in one of Robotman's bodies. In his new body, the Brain confessed to Mallah he was in love with him. Mallah revealed he felt the same way, and the two kissed. However, Robotman's body had developed sentience and vowed never to be enslaved by a brain again; when Mallah placed his lover in the body, he triggered a self-destruct mechanism, which exploded as they kissed.
The two would later resurface (the Brain back to floating in a jar). It is uncertain if the two somehow survived the explosion, or that they were brought back to life by some alteration of reality (in Zero Hour, the world was destroyed and recreated with subtle differences, and in Infinite Crisis, Superboy-Prime's pounding on the walls of reality created ripples which corrected reality and caused history to repeat itself for several characters).
Recently, the Brotherhood have been raiding genetic research facilities; their plan being to unlock the secrets of cloning in order to create a new body for the Brain, so he and Monsieur Mallah "can finally be happily ever after."
[edit] Other media
[edit] Teen Titans animated series
In the Teen Titans animated series, Monsieur Mallah, a sentient gorilla, seems to be The Brain's second-in-command, and speaks English with a French accent, though this is rare, since he uses his weapons as his preferred method of talking to his enemies. His strength is only matched by his intelligence. He almost turns the tide of his final battle with the Titans, and once he knows he has lost, tries to escape with the Brain. He climbs up a scaffold, but Beast Boy knocks him off the scaffold and into the Brotherhood's freezing machine. Like the Brain, he is also played by Glenn Shadix.
[edit] Note
Monsieur Mallah should not be confused with Gorilla Grodd, who appears in Super Friends, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited, as well as other DC comic titles.
