Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 6 (August 2006)

Even with Fowler back, nothing can stop Revolution from having a lousy finish.

O’Brien introduces a fighter pet gorilla. He just shows up. Maybe Templeton planned a second limited series from his point of view… I’m glad he never got around to telling that bad story.

This issue is loose with the characters. O’Brien was never good at making any of them interesting, so when they start dying off, the momentous scenes have no weight. The whole thing just can’t end fast enough.

And then when it does end, when O’Brien finishes with an inane development (apes learned to talk seven days after the Conquest movie), then there’s the backup.

Templeton continues the silliness of his backups, but almost has something interesting. Sort of a Back to the Future thing. He lets it pass and goes with something dumb instead.

Revolution is an awful comic book.

Great Fowler art though.

Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 5 (July 2006)

Swell, Templeton brings in Kent Burles (from the Adventure series) for the backup. Burles’s art is still bad. Worse, Templeton’s script doesn’t have any action, so Burles is doing talking heads. It’s incomprehensible.

But it does explain there are multiple lawgivers (which doesn’t make much sense) and there’s something with the development of ape society. It’s pretty crappy; I expected more from Templeton’s writing.

The feature story has Sam back on the art, which isn’t a good thing. This issue’s about diversion–ties to the movies, ties to the Marvel black and white magazines. O’Brien sticks to the humans for this one, which doesn’t make much sense. They’re all unsympathetic and many of them are just plain evil.

It makes for an unpleasant read, which is better than a stupid one though. When it gets to the backup story, the issue is just plain stupid.

Thankfully, the series’s almost finished.

Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 4 (May 2006)

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. Instead, O’Brien follows Roddy McDowell as he chases the bad guy from Conquest. I’m guessing Templeton and O’Brien hadn’t seen the extended cut where they kill that dude.

So it’s a chase issue instead of an action issue. Not sure why a movie tie-in series needs a chase issue.

Oh, there’s other stuff–the other governments (or “givernments,” I guess no one proofread the lettering) of the world nuke themselves instead of letting the American apes invade.

The backup, from Templeton and Sam Agro, is both a silly misfire and subtely profound.

Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 3 (March 2006)

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 wrong with Revolution. Templeton can write and O’Brien can’t. Templeton’s backup, even with the Sam art (and at times because of it), feels like a wacky Love and Rockets homage. The pacing of the story’s great and Templeton’s dialogue is excellent. Sam’s layouts are strong, even if his details get very lazy. It’s almost good and definitely interesting to read.

O’Brien’s script for the main story is crap. It’s all a Terminator 3 rip-off now with the acocalyptic stuff.

But it’s got Tom Fowler art. He alone makes this comic worth reading. He’s great.

Revolution on the Planet of the Apes 1 (December 2005)

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 it’s because Templeton thought–as the publisher too–people desperate for Apes comics would put up with anything. And I guess they might… if they didn’t like even medicore comic books.

Templeton (who plotted) and scripter Joe O’Brien do a direct sequel to the fourth Apes movie, Conquest, and a little bit of a prelude to the final film, Battle. Unfortunately, they don’t have anything interesting to say about either film. It’s shaping up to be boring and political.

There’s definite enthusasism, but it doesn’t produce anything good, showing enthusasism isn’t everything. Or anything.