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 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.