Monkey juice
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"Monkey juice" is a shamanic beverage used by the Iwi people. While it was mainly used as a medicine, it proved to have hallucinogenic properties if abused. Abuse of the drug led to the insanity of Monarch mythographer Walter R. Riccio in the second issue of the 2017 comic series Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, "The Mountain who Thunders Death."
Name
The beverage is never given a true name by the Iwi of Skull Island, so its most distinct title is Iwi "monkey juice," which it was called in jest by Aaron Brooks in the fourth issue "Over the Rainbow." Otherwise it is interchangeably referred to as "shaman drink" "drink," or "juice." The ambiguous nature of its title led the writer/game designer Sigfried Trent of Evil Genius Games not to give it one for his 2023 role playing game Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure, alongside concerns of exoticizing the Iwi culture.[1]
Origins
Monkey juice is a traditional healing beverage created by unknown means by the Iwi people from the ground wing membranes of the Leafwings, coated in the creature's waxy bodily excretions. This idea was teased in the Monarch profile of the Leafwing included in the first issue of the comic series,[2] but was not explicitly confirmed until the Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure in 2023.[3]
Design
Monkey juice is a liquid beverage, and can be stored in virtually any container. It appears to be white or possibly clear in color.
Tabletop games
- Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure (2023) [profile]
Comics
Skull Island: The Birth of Kong
When the crew of the crashed Monarch V-22 Osprey were brought by Ato to the Iwi village, they were given monkey juice to treat their wounds. Its healing properties proved viable, as Evenji Medov, who had been mauled by a Death Jackal, made a relatively speedy recovery. Walter Riccio began to overindulge in the monkey juice, which made him highly unstable and caused him to receive hallucinogenic visions of Kong's past. Because of these, he began to believe he was chosen by Kong for a higher purpose. This led him on a pilgrimage which ended in him destroying the Iwi Wall with a seismic charge before being killed by Kong himself.
Gallery
Riccio's first taste of monkey juice
Riccio succumbing to hallucinations
Trivia
- A similar substance, the black wall vine, was featured in the one-shot BOOM! Studios comic Kong: Gods of Skull Island, which was published in the same year as Skull Island: The Birth of Kong.
References
This is a list of references for Monkey juice. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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