Category: Planet of the Apes
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O’Brien’s pacing of Revolution is bad, but it’s not entirely an issue-to-issue thing. It’s more of a four issue story being spread out to six. For example, this issue could go alltogether (if it weren’t for Fowler doing the art). There’s a good deal of implied action, but the reader doesn’t see much of it.…
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Oh, no dream sequence this issue. I would have entirely forgotten about the dream sequences if the backup story hadn’t mentioned them. Caesar (Roddy McDowell in the last two movies) is a psychic in Revolution. He sees the future, which looks shockingly like bad Charlton Heston movies. The backup this issue clearly identifies what’s so…
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The problem with Revolution reveals itself in the backup from Templeton and Gabriel Morrissette–it’s supposed to be cheeky. It’s hard to describe the comic as anything else. Sure, it’s a direct sequel to Conquest but who cares? It’s also a direct prequel to Battle so the series is of little consequence. To fill in for…
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Ty Templeton can draw,right? What I mean is… why did he hire Salgood Sam, who’s not a very good artist, to draw Revolution on the Planet of the Apes if he could do it himself? Sam’s a step down from the Adventure Comics Apes franchise, even if there is color this time around. I assume…
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In the front matter, Cunningham seems to dare the reader to put Forbidden Zone in continuity. A few pages later, Cunningham has an inexplicable gaff. For a bit, I hoped I could just attribute it to playing with the reader. But as the issue ended, I could not. It’s a slight blight on the otherwise…
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Kirk appears just to have concentrated his attention on drawing good ape faces, not human. The issue is full of these exquisite ape faces and these terrible human ones. While one can appreciate the former, it’s too bad about the latter. Cunningham continues to impress with his plotting. The most compelling part of Forbidden Zone…
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Cunningham has four plots this issue (and presumably through the entire series, until the last one). He’s got the peaceful humans and apes, the not peaceful apes, the mutants and then this expedition team. In some ways, it’s like he’s doing a good version of the second Apes movie—without the expectation of a Charlton Heston…
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Forbidden Zone is quite a surprise, and not just because a young Leonard Kirk is on the art. It’s surprising because writer Lowell Cunningham takes a departure from the regular Adventure approach (even of their good entries) and goes it alone. This story is set after the regular series and before the movies. It seems…
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I didn’t think Blood could get worse. I thought Mann had established the bottom and was comfortable lurking around it. I was very, very wrong. He breaks with the franchise’s “reality” so abruptly at the end, I wish I’d read Blood first, so I could have either enjoyed other Adventure Apes comics more or just…
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While this issue of Blood isn’t any better than the previous ones, with Mann and his artists operating at their established their quality level, they can’t exactly disappoint. Here, Mann joins the creative continuity club of Adventure’s Apes comics and establishes the main ape settlement (from the movies and the regular series) knows about all…
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Artists Darren Goodhart and Bruce McCorkindale find an interesting way to be faithful to the source material. Their apes look like people wearing cheap masks. Instead of embracing the limitless possibilities, Goodhart and McCorkindale maybe have the “cheapest” ape design I’ve seen in an Apes comic. Mann’s script continues to be Blood’s biggest problem though.…
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So this terrible comic book is about what I was expecting from Adventure’s Apes franchise. At least the flagship series started well, even if it did eventually go to pot. Blood of the Apes starts in the pot and kind of just stirs around a little. Because they’re based on an existing franchise, I accept…
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Sins of the Father is pretty darn good for a licensed tie-in. Mike Valerio’s writing is strong–he mixes a Sherlock Holmes-like investigation into an ape’s death with an explanation of why Maurice Evan’s Zaius is such a tool in the original Planet of the Apes. He also introduces family relationships into the franchise for the…
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At least the art is good. Otherwise, this annual is incredibly stupid. Marshall’s intended audience isn’t fans of the movies or even most of his regular Apes comics. Instead, it’s for fans of monkeys acting like people. Being a Planet of the Apes annual has nothing to do with any of the stories. Maybe the…
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Coming to the end, Urchak’s Folly falls victim to a problem I hadn’t anticipated. Chaloner doesn’t do the finished pencils, just layouts. Gates takes over the pencil finishes and it shows. One could use this series, then, as an example of how inkers don’t always make an exceptional difference. But Chaloner’s writing is still strong.…
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Chaloner doesn’t have too much quality drop, but there is a little. He’s delaying the revelations about the protagonist by introducing new material—stuff from the movies, actually—and then the titular Urchak going nutty. But Urchak isn’t as interesting as the rest of the cast. He works far better when he’s silent and dangerous instead of…
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I’m a little taken aback by Folly. The first issue was shockingly good for a licensed property, but this one is even better. Chaloner uses the franchise to tell this fantastic story of mismatched characters. The Apes setting is both a constraint and a device to bring the elements together. This issue reveals, like everyone…
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Urchak’s Folly is quite a surprise. I had little expectations from the comic, but it turns out it’s rather good. Gary Chaloner, who writes and pencils, sort of brings Burroughs to the Apes franchise. His protagonist is amnesiac and moving through a lush backdrop where all the people are primitive. And then there are the…
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Marshall doesn’t come up with anything good for the Ape Nation finale. In fact, he comes up with all these lame things and keeps stringing them together until the finish. Like most narratives with an endless supply of events, the problem is a lack of story. I mean, the comic opens with three separate recaps…
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I’m perplexed. There’s only one issue left to Ape Nation and the best Marshall has come up with for a threat to our heroes is a rampaging horde of bad guys. But these are all anonymous bad guys; the two major bad guys are still having their bickering scenes. And Marshall also makes the terrible…
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The coloring and the art come together this issue. The coloring was nice last issue, but this issue it’s even better. And Wyman and Pallot overcome their bad action panels (it’s like Wyman can’t draw human figures, only ape) and create some great art. The close-ups, for example, are exquisite. Other than the art, I…
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Marshall ties a crossover between Planet of the Apes and Alien Nation directly into his Apes series. Meaning Ape Nation would be incomprehensible without reading Apes. While Marshall does introduce a new protagonist, the lamely named Heston, most of the setup directly involves Apes events. The result is somewhat sillier than it need to be,…
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While having apes watching MTV might be outlandish, having spaceships in a Planet of the Apes comic seems even more disjointed. Maybe because the apes themselves show no sign of having the technology, so it’s like there are time travelers from the past…. I forgot to mention the last issue—Marshall wastes at least three pages…
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The art gets worse this issue. I wonder what Wyman’s pencils look like without inks. From a few panels, I wonder if he even bothered with full faces. Adventure really didn’t put much effort into their Apes comics as far as the art (Wyman, at one point, being the exception). But Ape City is almost…
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Interesting. I don’t know what else to say about this issue of Ape City except… interesting. Imagine me sort of pensively scratching my chin as I think. Marshall, besides making a… ahem… big King Kong reference, introduces Charlton Heston’s character’s daughter. She’s come to the future to make things better once her dad shows up.…
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There used to be a cable network with chimps doing scenes from old movies. Ape City is a lot like those commercials. But Marshall does make it mildly compelling because of the threat factor. He introduces a bunch of time traveling humans sent from the past to kill apes in the future. It’s not to…
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Planet of the Apes limps off into the sunset with a new artist for this extra-special finale. Craig Taillefer, who also handles the letters, is terrible. I almost like the first artist on the book more, because you could at least tell he liked good artists. And Taillefer’s lettering is bad too. The amount of…
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You know, when I started reading Adventure’s Planet of the Apes series, I complimented Marshall for his intelligence. As the series winds down, this penultimate issue leaves me considering him beyond dumb. There’s a big canonical change here—Caesar (you know, Roddy McDowell’s chimp) is resurrected as the Lawgiver (John Huston’s orangutan). So, the way Marshall…
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So Marshall’s evil ghost with demonic powers isn’t actually an evil ghost… he’s the Beyonder. Marshall doesn’t so much as borrow full scenes from Secret Wars II just how he approaches it. I’m wondering if he’s trying to do some kind of commentary on the series actually, as this arc (he intimates it’s going to…
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What an exceptionally bad issue. First, the art. Wyman has a new inker with Peter Murphy, according to the credits, but I can’t believe Wyman did much but sketch. The art has descended to the laughable garbage of the series’s early issues, before Wyman (with his alternating excellence and competence) took over. Then the writing……
The Stop Button 