Monkey Prince #1 (2022)

When Marcus Shugel-Shen was a child, Batman broke into his family's home during a thunderstorm and attacked his beloved adoptive parents, who are freelance henchmen for supervillains. Batman left when he realised there was a child in the house, but Marcus was traumatised by the incident and was left suffering from severe phobias and panic attacks, including an intense fear of water. In the present day, Marcus freaks out during gym class at the swimming pool. He accidentally bumps into a bully named Rizalino, who throws him in the pool. Later at the front office while Marcus is waiting for his mother, the school janitor Mr. Zhu asks him to come to the maintenance office after school. Marcus' mother Dr Laura Shugel-Shen arrives and offers to take him home but he asks to stay. Laura notices Rizalino and his friends laughing outside and realises they were responsible, and confronts them despite Marcus asking her not to. Laura goes to work, where she and her husband Dr. Winston Shugel-Shen are building a machine which will allow the Penguin to free an ancient golden demon from a gourd, with which Penguin plans to transform his former financial advisor into gold after the man's bad advice caused him to lose money. Despite Winston and Laura's attempts to talk him out of it, Penguin releases the demon, which possesses him. At school, Mr. Zhu tells Marcus that the only way to overcome his fears is to jump into the pool, but Marcus refuses and leaves. The next day Marcus, an avid sneaker collector, decides to wear his prized Jordan 3's to school in the hopes of rehabilitating his image. In class a girl named Kaya who Marcus likes notices a monkey's tail sticking out of the back of his pants and in a panic he runs out of the classroom. He runs to the maintenance office but finds it empty, and Rizalino and his friends catch him, beat him up and steal his shoes. Marcus goes to the pool, where Kaya finds him and asks him what happened. He leaps into the pool and is transported to Water Curtain Cave on Flower Fruit Mountain, the home of the Monkey King. Marcus walks through the cave and comes out on an outcropping of rock, where he sees the Monkey King flying through the air. Mr Zhu, now in his true form as Shifu Pigsy, places a circlet on Marcus' head and tells him the world is in danger and his training has begun. He sends Marcus away with a gust of wind, telling him to claim what is his. Marcus rises up out of the pool in front of Kaya, transformed into the Monkey Prince. The gust carries him to the boy's locker room, where Monkey Prince attacks Rizalino and the other bullies to take his shoes back. Damian Wayne is also in the locker room and alerts his father that a metahuman is loose in the school. Batman and Robin burst in as Monkey Prince is threatening Rizalino with his own lacrosse stick, and at the sight of Batman Marcus has another panic attack and freezes. Batman throws a batarang, intending to disarm him, but Rizalino pulls Monkey Prince into the path of the batarang, which cuts his head off.