Lord Ook

Lord Ook (aka Barnabas) is an orangutan supervillain and scientist. With the eventual goal of overthrowing the human race and replacing them with apekind, Ook follows in the footsteps of his once-companion turned nemesis The Explordinaire, and seeks various wonders of the world to gain increased power, most notably the Garden of Eden, which he is convinced is the key to ape overthrowing man.

Biography
When Lord Ook was born, there was nothing to indicate that this orangutan may go on to lead the most unusual life any of his species has ever achieved. He was one of several babies born to two wild orangutan in the jungles of Sumatra, and it seemed his life would be a short one, as hunters butchered his family and left the young ape to die.

But fate had other plans.

Professor Harold Percival Rutherford was exploring the jungles of Sumatra at this time, and happened upon the nearly dead orangutan. Saddened by the ape's situation, Professor Rutherford took him in, planning to rear him back to health before releasing him once again into the wild. However, the two quickly formed a strong bond, with the orangutan proving to be intelligent and eager to connect to the humans on board The Pride of James. Before long, Professor Rutherford had given his new companion a name - Barnabas - and decided that it would be cruel to return such a domesticated creature to the wild.

And so it was that Barnabas became a permanent resident aboard The Pride of James, and the travelling companion of Professor Rutherford. It was Barnabas who was with Rutherford when the explorer discovered the fabled Fountain of Youth, and it was Barnabas who saved the human's life in the ruins of Aztlan. The two were inseparable, so much so that when Professor Rutherford gained the title of The Explordinaire, few who knew of that name didn't also know of the tame orangutan who was always by his side.

This friendship lasted over two centuries, with Barnabas being the only other living being that The Explordinaire ever let drink from the Fountain of Youth. Yet in the mid-1800s, a chance discovery changed the two forever. Having been attacked by Tsarist forces over Azov, The Pride of James was forced to land in an unpopulated mountainous region of the Middle East, in order to patch up and take stock of supplies. Having overseen his crew's work, The Explordinaire set off for a short journey with Barnabas by his side. The pair gathered food from the nearby trees and returned to the airship in time for it to set off once more. Over the next few days, the crew feasted on the fresh fruit that The Explordinaire and his orangutan had brought.

It was later that week that Barnabas spoke his first word. Having feasted on what is believed to have been the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, the orangutan was able to master the English language in less than a month, with other languages shortly following. The Explordinaire was delighted, eager to discover just how intelligent Barnabas had become. And for a time, Barnabas relished this new understanding of his world, keen to please his friend.

But after a month of his new-found intelligence, other questions began to occur to the orangutan: Why were there no others of his kind on board the airship? Why did the humans wear clothes when he did not? Why was his bed a mattress on the floor of his companion's room? Why did the others look at him differently, and speak to him with a smirk or a sneer? Why was he not paid for his services on board, as all others were?

It was as the Pride was flying above the American West that Barnabas furthered his understanding of humanity and how it operated. The Explordinaire had warned Barnabas that there were horrors and cruelty hiding behind civilised man, but nothing could have prepared the orangutan for what he saw. Humans didn't just kill other humans, as the Professor had confessed they did, but they butchered animals in the millions. Mountains of skulls and bones, fields of fur and leather, wide plains turned to open graves as creatures were hunted to extinction. These sights led Barnabas to approach his beloved companion, and to quietly ask a single question.

"What happened to my parents?"

When he saw the hesitation in the Professor's eyes, Barnabas knew the truth. That same night, the orangutan stole one of the Pride of James' lifecopters and set out to find his own people, his fellow apes, and protect them from the scourge of mankind.

Over the next few years, Barnabas found much in the jungles of South America. He found apes in the thousands. He found native tribes who lived in harmony with their surroundings. He found colonial parties who cut down the jungles and butchered those - human and ape alike - who they found in their way.

And when he rallied the apes and humans, and forced the colonists and 'civilised' out of the jungles he now called his home, he found another thing.

He found riding horses. He found hunting dogs. He found domesticated beast.

And Barnabas realised then why he had been aboard the Pride. He had been a pet. He had been a slave.

The orangutan was Barnabas no more. Instead he took a name his fellow apes could use, a name that no human could claim ownership of.

He became Ook, lord of the apes.

Embittered by the passing decades, Lord Ook established a stronghold in his jungle, surrounding himself with apes and attempting to teach them, and when he saw that he could only get so far with that endeavour, he attempted to improve them, to modify them, to make them better than man. He began to dream of overthrowing humanity, replacing them with what he saw as the superior ape race. More than anything, he began to dream of relocating the Tree of Knowledge, and handing its fruit to every ape and monkey in his empire. By the time that Lord Ook was discovered once again by The Explordinaire, the orangutan had developed a burning hatred of mankind, and of what he now referred to as his "ex-master", a label that horrified the Professor. Nothing would dissuade Lord Ook from his anger, and after trying to murder the Professor in a fit of rage, Ook's old companion was forced to flee, vowing to return one day to help Ook to "see reason".

Decades passed, and Ook's apes often clashed with armies and heroes of the world in the orangutan's search for the fabled Tree of Knowledge. Ook's desperation grew and grew, until he commanded entire villages slaughtered and entire jungles set ablaze. It was after The Explordinaire heard one such command with his own ears that the Professor finally realised how far gone his old companion was. The two engaged in a fight to the death, with the reluctant and anguished Explordinaire clearly outmatched. As Ook was about to deliver the killing blow, the two heard a noise, and discovered a crying baby in the smouldering ruins of her tribal home, surrounded by the charred remains of her family, killed on the orders of Lord Ook.

Ook saw himself in the young child's eyes, and realised that his hatred of the human hunters who slaughtered his parents had led him down the same path. The orangutan left, calling his forces into retreat, and disappeared into the dark, uncharted jungles of South America. He wouldn't emerge again for years, nor would his empire seek to interfere with the affairs of mankind.

This period of Lord Ook's rule was a quiet one, but the world had not forgotten about the talking lord of apes who had waged war on man, and many hunters entered his territory to claim Ook's head as their trophy. Most of these hunters were quickly and efficiently dispatched, never to be heard of again, but a small few proved their skill enough that Ook gave them a choice; join him, and they could live. Before long, Ook was surrounded by experienced sharpshooters and poisoners, and in learning from them, as they did from him, his position on humanity began to soften.

Ook decided he would again set forth to claim the great prizes that Earth had to offer, both those of the natural world and those ancient wonders of lost civilisations. Some such wonders had even reappeared in human cities, ripe for the plucking; Ook's favourite hunter, the living giant known as Big Game, told him of an amulet of power wielded by a new and inexperienced 'hero', granting its wearer powers of transformation. Ook's supernatural intellect burned with possibilities, and over time, the idea of this amulet took over from his desire for the Tree of Knowledge. Why look for a way to improve the knowledge of apes when he could tap into the power of the amulet and simply transform ape into man? Or man into ape...

Knowing he could not manage this new venture alone, nor achieve his goals from the confines of his jungle empire, Lord Ook set about gaining a method of travel. He began tracking down his old companion The Explordinaire, and, knowing that Professor Rutherford would likely reject him after their battle in the burning village, Ook began to communicate instead with some of the crew of The Pride of James. Many, it seemed, were bitter about their captain refusing to share the location of the Fountain of Youth. It was not long before a small gang on board had sworn loyalty to Ook in exchange for his promise to reveal the location of the Fountain. As agreed, the group landed in a jungle clearing, slaughtered most of the loyal crew, and handed The Explordinaire over to Ook.

Ook had planned to kill his nemesis, but in a moment of mercy, he let the explorer live. Instead, the orangutan took the Pride for himself, killing most of the human rebels and enslaving the rest, while filling the remaining ranks with his own kind. Setting up a workshop within the world-renowned dirigible, Ook began sailing the skies, offering his inventions to his fellow villains in exchange for their aid. Safe high above the battlefield, Ook only landed his stolen ship when he needed to restock, otherwise floating out of harm and lowering his newest inventions to the hordes of criminals and crazies fighting below.

However, while Ook's feelings towards humanity had softened since the battle of the burning village, those of his ape and monkey crew had not. In particular, Killer Kong's chronic suffering was a constant reminder of the ape's burning hatred of mankind. When confronted by Kong in front his crew about working alongside humans, Ook defended his position, saying that apes were no different from man. When Kong said that Ook was no longer a true ape, Ook flew into a rage, beating Kong almost to death in view of the entire crew of The Pride, human and ape alike. Kong never forgave Ook for that encounter, and days later, the crew mutinied. Every human on board was murdered, along with every ape and monkey loyal to Ook. Finally, Kong led his mutineers in beating down Ook until the orangutan was barely left conscious, at which point he was dropped from the cargo hold along with the bodies of his former companions. Killer Kong and Lord Ook stared into each other's eyes as The Pride drifted away, human bodies strung up on its hull as a warning, ready to strike terror into the race of man. Ook is thought to have returned, alone and without an empire, to the jungles of South America, but neither he nor the Explordinaire have been seen since.

Human Speech
While a common trait among heroes and villains, perhaps less so among orangutan. After being fed the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Barnabas found himself capable of learning the languages of his companion, and within weeks was able to use full sentences effectively. This trait has continued throughout his many years, and now Ook is fluent in many human languages, while still capable of communicating with his ape and monkey brethren.

Super Intelligence
Also gifted by the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was an intelligence above and beyond almost any other mortal mind on Earth. A tactical genius, Ook is also a keen scientist and inventor, focusing his intellect on brain manipulation in an attempt to recreate for his ape followers the gift he himself received. Lord Ook's intelligence is in fact beyond his own capacity to use it, as he is restrained by his remaining primal instincts and his conflicting human emotions of jealousy, greed, anger, love and loss. Were he able to fully remove his emotions, he would easily surpass any of the intellectual feats he has achieved thus far...

Eternal Life
Like his ex-companion and now nemesis The Explordinaire, Ook regularly drinks from the Fountain of Youth, and whilever he does so, he cannot age. This does not grant him any specific invulnerability from harm - and indeed, the ape is at times paranoid about the dangers posed by humans who wish to overthrow his rule of the jungle - but so long as he avoids mortal wounds and protects the location of the Fountain, Ook will never die.

The Pride of Ook
For many years, Ook battled Heroes in the jungles of South America. However, his true goal was to relocate the fabled Tree of Knowledge, thus allowing his entire ape army to feast on its fruit, gain its supernatural intelligence, and eventually overthrow the human race. Realising he would not gain this from his jungle stronghold, and was unlikely to overpower the world's heroes on his own, Ook began to gather new, villainous allies. Once he was ready, he tracked down his old companion The Explordinaire and tricked his airship crew into mutiny. Once their captain was overthrown and Lord Ook had control of The Pride of James, the mutinous humans were murdered, and the fabled airship was filled with monkeys and apes, thus renamed The Pride of Ook. Protected by armour, loaded with munitions, and housing a workshop to allow Captain Ook to create mechanical wonders for his villainous allies, The Pride is a threat to be taken seriously, always darkening the skies of any battlefield that it appears in.