Hulu brings us new Marvel series, Hit Monkey which is literally a monkey as a hitman. Just when you thought things can’t be crazy with all the other Marvel shows and Multiverse coming into action, they drop this. We are introduced to Bryce, an American assassin played by Jason Sudeikis who has done a good job delivering the character the way comics intended, an annoying asshole who just talks all the time. The show starts off with Bryce on one of his assignments to assassinate a candidate for the upcoming elections and how that leads into twisted mess. His character feels like a blend of other characters like Deadpool and John wick. He is a funny and deadly guy with great skills and a tragic past which the show somewhere fails to let us connect with him. As the story progresses Bryce ends up injured, and a monkey tribe saves him where we see our MONKEY a Japanese macaque voiced by Fred Tatasciore. After a gun shower where all the monkeys and Bryce die, the monkey takes up his mantle just to get revenge on the people who killed his tribe. Bryce turns into a ghost and mentor who is tethered to him and the only way out is to help him on his quest. (It’s no spoiler, the trailer gave it away.)
There are few moments where we see character development in both Bryce as well as the Monkey. For Bryce, it’s his past which was something he was pretending never existed, and killing made it easier. But over time he got more numb and filled with regrets for the things he have done. On the other hand, Monkey was hardly accepted in his tribe and others saw him as an outcast except for the Alpha. When he became a hitman he thought perhaps he’ll be able to fit in the human world. But sadly it turns out that he doesn’t belong in either of the worlds, rather is the link between the two worlds rectifying the mistakes, a Killer of Killers.
The animation is pretty simple and decent, but somewhere it feels like there are frame drops not sure if it was intentional but it feels off. Even the action sequence isn’t that fast-paced which will pump up the excitement. And the story is kinda a predictable to an extent with one or two surprises up its sleeves as there are other movies, series that have a very similar plotline, sure there are no monkeys in it. We get to see a friendship building, falling and the dynamic duo between Monkey and Bryce which was interesting. In the initial episodes of the show it’s hard to get into this universe of Hitman and bounties and the politics revolving around it. But once the base origin is set it surely gets interesting enough to continue watching it but not actually liking the show.
If you’re looking for some good R-rated violence and gore, this show just gets more bloody with every kill. And it has a few Easter eggs to some well known Marvel shows. The show also introduces us to this bunch of new characters like The Silver Samurai, Lady Bullseye, Fat Cobra and many others. They are entirely unknown and new if you haven’t read the comics. The story could’ve been told in a different and better way like M.O.D.O.K which had the seriousness, the jokes, and a well-told narrative. But Hit Monkey feels like it’s trying hard to give the audience what Marvel is generally capable of. So if you just want to pass time and want some Marvel content this should do it, otherwise, it’s not worth it, for now.
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