Series Review: Marvel's Hit-Monkey

Hit-Monkey (2021)

Okay, this one is an interesting one! After the previous Hulu attempt at a Marvel comedy show, M.O.D.O.K., turned out to be more of a parody featuring original characters as around half of its cast, Marvel's Hit-Monkey is a bit more... it feels like I'm watching through an adaptation of an actual comic-book series, in vein of something like Invincible. Of course, as with most Marvel's recent work, this one is more of a loose adaptation than anything, but regardless it was a blast to watch.

Running for 10 episodes, Hit-Monkey goes through a pretty solid story of a monkey who is also a hitman... which is something that feels like it would get old and couldn't hold an entire series. And you're right! A change to Hit-Monkey's comic-book counterpart is that his ghostly mentor (who was mostly cryptic/silent in the comics, as far as I can gather) is reinvented as Bryce McHenry (the excellent Jason Sudeikis) who acts as his ghostly mentor-cum-partner. 

The story here is that when Bryce, a hitman himself, ends up getting killed after an assassination attempt went wrong, he ends up being nursed back to health by a colony of monkeys. One of whom is 'Monkey', who would become our protagonist. While the mystical parts of this origin story is never really explained to its fullest (beyond generic 'oh it's the Marvel universe'), Monkey ends up scavenging Bryce's hitman equipment, killing the corrupt soldiers that killed his monkey tribe and Bryce, and ends up traveling to Tokyo... with Bryce as a ghostly tagalong. The dynamic between the two goes through the expected rough patch of this sort of buddy-cop dynamic, but the voice acting and the absolutely excellent comedic scripting make the two actually pretty fun to watch. 

The 10 episodes mostly involve Hit-Monkey and Bryce dismantling the Tokyo underworld, and getting themselves essentially dragged into a conspiracy done to rig elections. Other than Hit-Monkey and Bryce, other primary recurring characters include a couple of policemen investigating the case -- which aren't as dull as certain equivalents to this would be -- and Akiko, a woman involved with the underdog of the election and Hit-Monkey's only real human friend. Again, it doesn't sound super-interesting on paper, but the series has some really great plot twists that make you care for the election plot in the background even though we're all here for the monkey violently killing people with guns.

And violent this show is, of course. And perhaps that's why Marvel discontinued its whole Hulu brand? It doesn't want to be associated with so much violence? But with goriness that would make Invincible or Harley Quinn proud, the excellently-animated series does a pretty great job at balancing action with comedy... and dark comedy. 

It wasn't a series that I was super-interested about, which was why it took me until May this year to watch it, but once you get past the admittedly odd premise, it just hooks you in. I've never actually binged a show as fast as this one in recent memory, and I feel like the show has a great balance at keeping each episode standalone with its own standalone villains while also giving us enough to be invested with the greater plot. 

If we're talking about mild spoilers to the larger Marvel universe, we also get a bunch of established Marvel characters as well beyond Hit-Monkey. Mild spoilers for the later half of the series, but Lady Bullseye ends up becoming the primary antagonist near the end, an excellent foil to Bryce and Hit-Monkey. Silver Samurai, an X-Men anti-villain, also shows up for a brief cameo at the beginning and becomes a major player in the final two episodes... which, to me, is delightful since just like Mr. Sinister in M.O.D.O.K., it means Marvel Studios' properties are starting to use X-Men characters more. It's a bit understated, too, but minor Iron Fist villain Fat Cobra and Daredevil character Yuki also end up reoccuring through the season. And there's still a couple of brief cameos by good ol' Kingpin, as well as Wolverine foe Ogun. 

The show would perhaps be fun but forgettable if it was just about Hit-Monkey committing primal acts of monkey violence and us getting the odd dark comedy joke every three minutes or so, but it actually has a pretty decent heart. Hit-Monkey continually struggles with the necessity of murder, the fact that some of the people he killed had family, and how this would look to Akiko... all of which, of course, is played completely straight. Except Monkey only speaks in ook-ook-ah's, making it still funny regardless. There's a surprising bit of heart and Bryce even gets a fair amount of characterization and backstory as the story goes on, and I really do adore how this is handled. 

Ultimately, a surprisingly great and standalone Marvel superhero series, albeit with a slightly bloodier and gorier fare compared to the standard MCu movie. Great animation, great voice-acting, great comedy and pretty excellent pacing. All in all, a pretty short and sweet series that doesn't really overstay its welcome. Shame that the series is likely not to be renewed for a second season with Disney canceling most of its Hulu content, but this one was pretty fun.