Before the merc with a mouth pays us a visit later this week in theaters in his upcoming bloody venture with his pal Logan, Marvel’s monkey merc has returned for a rampage with the second season of Hit-Monkey. After wreaking havoc in Tokyo’s underworld in the first season and killing the corrupt President-elect Shinji as well, this time the ape version of John Wick has arrived in New York with his trusted assassin ghost sidekick, Bryce, and is taking on threats that are more supernatural in nature. The second season is more introspective and melodramatic in tone, which results in the series losing its edge with a clear lack of action, blood, and gore, and aside from that, the tendency to bring in monstrous flora and fauna in every other episode starts feeling pretty clichéd in no time.
With a host of new characters being introduced, some familiar faces like the monkey’s former ally turned nemesis, Akiko, and the straight-arrow rookie cop, Haruka, return in the second season as well, but their arcs are not integrated into the core narrative that well. Instead, Bryce’s arc as a father trying to make up for failing his family has more of an emotional connection than the monkey’s overall arc, which might be a deal-breaker for fans who were awaiting the release of the second season.
Spoilers Ahead
Bryce made a deal with the devil twice
After arriving in New York, the killer of killers, Hit-Monkey, is already on a warpath as Bryce, whose former base of operation was in the city, guides him to take down the notorious baddies of the Big Apple. It is revealed that in order to return to the mortal plane from hell (a crooked man like Bryce never would have ascended to heaven after death), Bryce made a deal with the Devil (Mephisto) himself, stating that in exchange for his return, he will guide the monkey to eliminate a horde of sinful killers, the likes of which the Devil can use in his army of wretched.
At the city, Bryce and Hit-Monkey meet Haruka, who has decided to follow them after being unable to clear the monkey’s name, as she had promised to. After the monkey left Japan, Tokyo became embroiled in the bloody conflict over underworld power grab. Bonsai Master’s sword became the target of a vicious killer who butchered the entire city police precinct, and Haruka somehow managed to escape from the country, taking the sword with her. Bryce takes the monkey to his former handler, Eunice Jones, and while taking the first job, the duo, along with Haruka, find themselves led into a trap—a magical one at that. As Haruka wields the Bonsai Master’s sword to protect herself, she gets possessed by the vengeful spirit of a bloodthirsty daimyo. Later, the trio decides to pay a visit to the vetter/middleman who brought them the contract and learn about the mysterious Aldermen. Meanwhile, the Aldermen, a secretive cult of extremely powerful relic-wielding diabolical beings, decide to target the Bonsai Master’s sword. Following the clues provided by the vetter in her last moments, Haruka, Bryce, and Hit-Monkey visit a rich, sadistic member of the Aldermen who uses his relic-granted powers to pin the trio down. However, the team is shocked to see a little girl taking the Alderman down by ripping him apart and leaving after taking the relic with her.
Parallel to the main storyline, Bryce’s effort to reconcile with his daughter, Iris, continues. Being a high-profile assassin, Bryce wanted to keep his family safe from harm’s way and had decided to abandon them, which resulted in his wife raising their daughter, Iris, all by herself, leading to her harboring nothing but hatred for her father ever since. Bryce notices Iris staying in New York as well, but can’t muster up the courage to apologize for his actions, and the monkey tries to become a negotiator by bringing Bryce’s ghost to Iris. After the initial attempts to communicate with his daughter in spirit form fail, Bryce decides to make another deal with the Devil, this time for a chance to switch between his ghost and human form for two days in exchange for eternal servitude in hell.
The Aldermen and Assassins Cooperative
While wielding Bonsai Master’s sword once again, Haruka loses control and clashes with the monkey, and eventually a member of the Aldermen captures her by taking a giant ogre form. While chasing the ogre, Bryce and Hit-Monkey are assisted by a group of unique, strong assassins, and they find the girl who killed the Alderman among them as well. Together, they take down this Alderman as well, and as the team finds themselves in the lair of the assassins, their leader, Boone, introduces them to the members of his team. Boone himself is a psychic; his brother, Slyke, can convert objects and people into energy and pull them into his mind; the teenage girl, Dot; an animated statue from ancient times, Amara; and a highly skilled co-op soldier, Double Tap. Together, they are known as the Assassins’ Cooperative, and all of them have been wronged by the violence and brutality perpetuated by the Aldermen at some point in their lives. Which is why they wish to save the world from the clutches of the Aldermen and take the relics back from them.
Boone shares a brief history of the Aldermen, which allows the monkey and his retinue to realize what they are dealing with at the moment. During antiquity, a farmer had found a mystical, immensely powerful mineral, and its supernatural properties attracted the attention of a vicious warlord, who seized the mineral and converted it into a number of weapons and relics that could grant its users immense powers. However, the relics get scattered to the winds in time, with dictators, invaders, and notorious killers using them through the years, prompting a cult to gather all the pieces and, with their help, rule the world from secrecy. This group of people are known as Aldermen, and Bonsai Master’s sword was one of the ancient relics of such kind that allowed Haruka to transform. After learning this, she hands over the sword to the Assassins Cooperative for safekeeping.
Legacy of Lady Bullseye and a Rift Between Old Friends
On the other hand, as it turns out, Akiko has sworn vengeance on the monkey’s life ever since donning Lady Bullseye’s domino mask and is revealed to have a darker side within her, which was awakened by the death of her corrupt uncle Shinji, who was the only family she had. Even though, as an upright politician, Akiko used to be a staunch believer in the monkey’s brutal justice and had formed a strong bond of friendship with the simian as well, the death of her uncle broke her and exposed her opportunistic sense of morality. Tracking down the monkey’s trail of blood, Akiko, the new Lady Bullseye, arrives in New York, and as she makes her first kill by brutally dispatching a couple of Bryce’s associates, the original Lady Bullseye’s ghost appears as well to assist her (similar to how Bryce is attached to the monkey). In exchange for taking revenge on her killers, Haruka and Bryce, the ghost of Lady Vengeance agrees to help Akiko.
Meanwhile, Bryce manages to make amends with his daughter, Iris, and as she gets entangled in the bloody business of her father, Eunice fixes her up with a job as a crime scene clean-up crew, much to Bryce’s dismay, who wanted to let her have a good life away from the world of violence. On the other hand, the monkey gradually forms a familial bond with the members of the Assassins Cooperative, especially with the little kid, Dot, and begins to spend more time with his new acquaintances, much to Bryce’s dismay, as he fears losing his only friend. Bryce’s insecurities about himself not being a good person stir his sadness even more, although Haruka comforts her by saying his heart is in the right place. However, as the Assassins Cooperative and Hit-Monkey and co. manage to kill the remaining two Aldermen, Bryce and Haruka grow suspicious about the motivations of the so-called group of do-gooders. Especially due to the fact that Haruka recognizes Double Tap as the mercenary responsible for her precinct’s massacre. Along with Bryce, she steals Bonsai Master’s sword to stop whatever the members of the groups are planning by combining the relics, and with Eunice by their side, they make her seashore house at the hamlet of Montauk their stronghold to defend against the Assassins Cooperative. Later on, they are joined by Iris as well, who has taken a liking to her father’s profession.
Boone manages to convince the monkey to go against his friends, and Hit-Monkey engages in a fight with Bryce, Haruka, and Eunice. Eventually, Akiko joins the battle, and Haruka has no other option to counter her except to wield Bonsai Master’s sword once again. However, despite defeating her, a possessed Haruko shows great strength of character by sparing Akiko’s life, which proves to be a mistake on her part as, finding an opportunity, Akiko stabs her to death, leaving Hit-Monkey devastated. Bryce is unable to help as the ghost of Lady Bullseye subdues him, and the Assassins Cooperative decides to move in to rescue the monkey, prompting Akiko to flee the scene.
Boone’s Plan for the Eradication of Humanity
Bryce, Eunice, and Iris recuperate and lament Haruka’s death, with Bryce mourning the loss of his dear friend. To honor Haruka’s memory, they decide to track down the Assassins Cooperative and save the world in the process. On the other hand, Dot and Hit-Monkey are aghast after learning that Bryce and Haruka’s assumptions were true; the assassins were keeping up a pretense of nobility while Boone’s ulterior plan was to bring total obliteration to humankind by fusing the relics into their original form, as they strongly believe humanity to be irredeemable. Furthermore, Boone had promised the Devil eight billion damned souls in exchange for helping to take down the Aldermen. Akiko, on the other hand, gets rid of Lady Bullseye by plunging her into seawater.
As Hit-Monkey tries to stop Boone and his lackeys, Slyke pulls him inside his mind. Dot flees to seek help from Bryce, and the duo get pulled inside Slyke’s mind as well. Although later Dot manages to get herself free, it isn’t until Bryce and Hit-Monkey make peace with each other and take a trip down the dark depths of Slyke’s subconscious that they manage to escape to freedom. As part of his grand plan of eradicating humankind, Boone uses the fused relic to unleash plant monstrosity, which gradually takes over the entire city, similar to David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad,” where primal gods Incubus and Enchantress enact a similar scenario. Bryce, Hit-Monkey, Dot, Eunice, and a bunch of assassins (Eunice’s contacts) make a last stand to foil Boone’s plan. Despite being grievously injured while battling Double Tap and a mind-controlled Dot, the monkey manages to kill Double Tap and bring Dot back to her normal self. Bryce kills Amara with an explosion and blasts the relic to shards in the process as well.
However, Boone still survives with the help of the broken shards of the relics and takes on a monstrous form while chasing the monkey and his allies through the dilapidated city. Thanks to Iris and Buddy (the former crime scene clean-up guy) using their dissolver mix on Boone, the monstrosity is finally subdued on Brooklyn Bridge, and the Bryce/Hit-Monkey duo pulls each of the shards from his body to weaken him even further. However, in the process, the trio go back in time, witnessing how humanity has abused the mystical mineral in the worst possible way to kill each other, despite it having the potential for greater goodness, as Boone shows Hit-Monkey that he was right in his decision to consider the annihilation of humankind. Finally, Boone transports the duo to Hit-Monkey’s childhood, as a kindly scientist broke the young monkey free from a lab; unfortunately, the monkey’s parents, who were victims of lifelong abuse and experimentation, didn’t share the same fate. The scientist had passed away in a car accident, and the tribe of snow macaques on the mountainside of Yokohama had found the monkey. Boone mentions that the monkey’s childhood experience of humanity’s dark depths prevented him from ever belonging to the apes or humans, and he is doomed forever. Bryce releases Boone from his misery by killing him, but a sense of sadness still engulfs the monkey in the aftermath.
Without giving the team a moment of respite, a vengeful Akiko arrives, guns blazing, and incapacitates everyone present to finally take her revenge by killing the monkey. However, seeing the monkey too reluctant to even struggle and fight, Akiko decides to torture him by killing Iris, knowing all too well that Bryce’s pain will shake the monkey to the core. Meanwhile, with Bryce’s two-day deal nearing its end, the Devil arrives as well to take his end of the bargain. In order to save Iris, Hit-Monkey embraces Akiko and jumps in the river along with her from the bridge. In their final moments, none of them seem to hold grudges against each other, and a tender feeling of regret and pain is reflected on their faces before the monkey and Akiko drown to death. Bryce cries in anguish, being unable to save the monkey, and surprisingly, the Devil grants him his life back. It turns out that the Devil is not interested in his soul and finds a much better soldier in the monkey’s soul instead, whom he seeks to bring to hell to wage his war.
In the aftermath, the city recovers gradually, Bryce and his friends try to turn a new page in their lives, and Dot is accepted among them as well. Bryce finds it hard to believe that he has gotten a second chance in life and misses his old friend dearly. However, before the second season ends, the monkey’s ghost is seen to have appeared in front of Bryce, who is overjoyed by this unexpected reunion. With Bryce becoming a mortal and Hit-Monkey taking spirit form, their present condition is an exact opposite situation compared to how their journey began. If the series continues into a third season, the altered positions will add a new dimension to the narrative as a whole. Questions like why did the Devil release the monkey’s spirit or whether Akiko or Haruka’s spirit will return as well remain unanswered so far, which will possibly be revealed if the continuation is confirmed later on.
