Planet of the Apes from the beginning (reviews by shaxper)

[shaxper]

I love the first two movies, but found the rest of the films pretty hokey. Almost tempted to look for some of the mags just for the artwork, though - Ploog, Alcala, Alcazar, ...

That's an interesting perspective. Most fans find the second film hokey, but feel the series really hits its momentum with the third and fourth films. Personally, I'd rank my favorites as #5, #1, #4, #3, and #2 last.

Beyond that, though, I do feel Moench takes the "Terror" storyline well beyond the scope of the five feature films. It's solid storytelling that uses the Planet of the Apes premise remarkably well, regardless of whether or not you cared for the films, and the characters are entirely new creations anyway.

If you say the later issues are even better then it must really be impressive.

Well, later as in "after #3". I haven't read beyond #8 yet.

The movie adapatation artwork was quite simplistic compared to the terror story.

If you read the first three issues, you would have been looking at Tuska's work. I really enjoyed it.

Discludes? Shouldn't that be excludes?

Yes, but being quite ill to the point that I can sometimes barely string together sentences has certainly rattled my internal thesaurus Advantage = more time to read comics. Disadvantage = harder to write about them without making tons of errors.

Pedantry aside, I'm looking forward to this as I know nothing about these series. I have vague memories of watching the 1970s animated series, but that's about it for my Planet of the Apes knowledge.

The animated series was quality, but it was also a significant departure from the rest of the franchise (most obviously in making the Apes technologically advanced). I wouldn't gauge your expectations of the comic based upon the animated series.

I read that the Lawgiver was someone who was able to keep the peace between apes and humans, rather than an ideal leader.

Well Jason certainly puts him on a pedestal (and Jason rarely even likes anyone). I do agree that he's probably doing his best to keep the peace, but then you'd expect that moment along their journey when he reflects upon his own frustrations as a leader or even expresses regret over his decision to empower Brutus and Xavier. He doesn't.

Why he left that bumbling Xavier in charge in his absence i cant remember, isnt there a reason given? Something like he's the only impartial one (albeit weak and incompetent and easily leaned on).

As far as I recall, no reason has been given as of issue #8. Maybe an explanation will be given once they all return to Ape City.