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

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #4

"Battle"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C


Some things have improved with this issue. Marshall's writing is getting a little more competent, though the pacing is still rushed and awkward. Meanwhile, so much of Burles' art is still virtually impossible to follow, and so many other scenes make odd choices of how to depict the action (example: a panel after Simon shouts a threat at the guards, they are still looking off as if they haven't noticed him yet, and a panel later, we are told they ran off), but he finally gets in a few truly good panels, like the one with Grunt on page 17. Striking stuff. Oh, and Simon still looks like a girl, perhaps Patty Smyth specifically.

So, still lots of logic problems in this issue:

- Why does Simon know or care about Ollo having apes kill other apes in the arena battle? He wasn't there, and that certainly shouldn't trump the killing of his mother in his own mind.

- How does Simon know Grunt's name?

- Simon teaches Grunt to sign all in one (possibly two) evenings, and Grunt suddenly knows enough to concoct a plan with him.

- Really, the entire plan consisted of distracting ONE guard. How the heck was only one guard defending the city?

- How could they be sure the guard would randomly want to take and hurt Coure's baby?

- How did Coure manage to keep a hive of hornets docile and quiet under a cloth until it was time to unleash them on the guard?

- Upon seeing Grunt, Ollo's men proclaim "He doesn't leave here alive," yet Ollo specifically ordered them to bring Grunt and Simon back alive. For a gang of soldiers who get tortured and killed for disobeying orders in the slightest, you think these guys would be more careful.

- When the heck did they contact and assemble all the apes that are suddenly behind Alexander during the invasion? Wouldn't rallying the entire city behind Alexander have been kinda' a bigger and more important aspect of the plan to depict than the distracting of a single guard?

- How is Alexander, a wishy-washy and self-doubting drunk of a leader (as depicted in the first issue) a better fighter than Ollo one-on-one? Doesn't it stand to reason that a single-minded ape obsessively driven to obtain power would spend more time training in such things than Alexander would?

- So how/when did Alexander's forces get all the weapons, and how did that prevent the already armed gorillas from fighting back? Where were they while all of this was happening? Surely, they're not going to pick up and leave just because Ollo got his butt kicked in hand-to-hand combat. Toss him a gun and keep fighting back.

- Help me out with the ending. In what way is Alexander possibly the greatest of Apes (even trumping Caesar)? He had the guts to execute a plan concocted by someone else to undo the damage that his own irresponsible absence caused.


So yeah, still definitely not a tight issue. I don't find these characters anywhere near as interesting nor as great as Marshall does, and I have to say that it's just a tad egoistic to have a monument built to your new protagonist after only four issues with others asserting he's an even greater ape than Caesar was. Sure, Marshall. You tell yourself that.


minor details:

- Dr. Moto is back. He's playing a very stereotypical sadistic torturer, but even stereotypical master torturers are fun.

- Burles succeeds in making Max charming in this issue, especially as he silently struggles with trying to care for the infant Joshua. That little exchange of looks as Max tries to feed him was priceless. If only the art on every page could be this clear, purposeful, and evocative.

- Further clarification is given that a first plague wiped out all household pets prior to Conquest, and a second one deprived the humans of speech and higher cognitive functions after Battle.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Simon catches the gang up on what Ollo has been doing, Ollo and Dr. Moto torture the gorillas that ran from Grunt last issue, Simon and Grunt come up with a lame plan to retake Ape City, they execute the plan, Grunt gets to defeat Ollo, then Alexander and Ollo face off in front of everyone, Alexander wins, Ollo is banned from the city, and the statue being built to honor Aldo is revised to look like Alexander, and Vonar the sculptor suggests that Alexander might be the greatest Ape of all.


I was truly hoping that, with the end of this story arc, we'd move on to a new cast of characters, but with Alexander assuring us that Ollo will be back, and with Dr. Moto on next issue's cover, I'm relatively sure we're stuck with these characters for a while yet. Oh well.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #5

"Loss"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: B


Wow. Big changes in this issue. I can finally and absolutely see what Marshall is trying to do with this series, and I'm impressed by it. Unfortunately, the execution is still clumsy as all heck.

What I respect:

-Attempting to flesh out Alexander a lot better so that he's a likeable, sympathetic character, even revisiting the drunken rage we found him in in the first issue with a new perspective as to how he'd fallen into that rut.

- Simon's transformation into a bit of a monster. When Moench wrote his Jason stories, the dark potential within Jason always frightened us, but his unwavering allegiance to the Lawgiver ultimately made him a safer character. Marshall has taken a younger and (seemingly) less angry orphan and unexpectedly had him attempt to assassinate the leader of the apes. Wow. If that isn't an unexpected and potentially well-earned turn of events for a story, then I don't know what is. I've argued many times before that I feel the true strength of the comic book medium is the potential to watch characters grow/evolve. In that respect, Marshall is on the verge of getting this series right.


What I don't respect:

- On the other hand, where was the growth/evolution that led to Simon suddenly doing this? At no point were we invited to witness any growth/transformation within him. One moment, he's a weeping victim. The next, he's planning an invasion of Ape City. The next after, he's attempting to assassinate the leader he helped restore to power. Where's the true emotional why behind any of this?

- Additionally, when did Alexander and Coure become romantically involved? It's inferred in flashback at the beginning of this issue, but we never ever saw it happen. And it seems a bit weird since she JUST learned her lover had died and JUST gave birth to that lover's child. What are Alexander's feelings towards the baby? Shouldn't we be privy to some of this?

- The dialogue: Jacob just says exactly what he's thinking to two potentially serious enemies and lays all his cards on the table for no apparent reason. You don't live long by doing things in this way. Marshall doesn't seem capable of delivering dialogue like a poker hand; there's no subtlety nor intrigue to any of it.

- Burles' art is improving (and that's a nice cover that they finally let him draw) but lack of clarity continues to be a problem. I was sure that General Doda was the one who gouged out his eye and then pledged to find Ollo. If it wasn't him, then who was it? Burles makes every gorilla look the same, and I still can't tell if Alexander is supposed to look like an Orangutan. And, by the way, is that a duck in Alexander's arm in the first panel, or is that a flap on his overalls? Maybe better inking would help solve some of this, but I doubt it.



Other interesting tidbits:

- More on the second plague: Apparently, it also killed elderly apes. However, if Alexander was already an adult when this happened (as is implied by the visuals), and he's still in his prime today (enough to take on the leader of the milltary in hand-to-hand combat), could the plague really have happened a full generation ago (explained last issue)? I suppose Alexander could have assumed power in his early twenties and is now in his early fifties??

- So Alexander's power has always been tenuous, and Ollo was already in power with the Aldonite movement in full swing when he assumed control of Ape City. In that case, why did Ollo wait until four issues ago to assume power? There was clearly a power vacuum after Alexander's parents died and before he returned to Ape City.

- Why does the hospital and Dr. Moto's lab have futuristic-looking technology? It's been two (maybe three?) generations since Caesar's revolution, which took place in the early 1990s. You can't tell me that apes advanced technology this far since that time when they're living in Adobe huts and riding horses.

- Why would the Lawgiver's words about "Beware the Beast Man" still exist in this timeline? Didn't the end of the final film clearly show that The Lawgiver now preached co-existence as a result of the actions of Caesar? And also, how could the Lawgiver have already come and gone? He clearly wasn't there in the present day of the fifth film (implying he hadn't been born yet, unless he came later from another village) and he was quite old at the end of the fifth film, so it seems unlikely to me that he came, wrote, and died all in the small span of time that has now existed between the present day of the fifth film and the present day of these comics. And, also, if the Lawgiver has already come, then shouldn't that statue of Caesar seen at the end still be hanging around somewhere? How has that been disregarded when the entire dramatic resolution of the first story arc for this volume was the construction of a statue to immortalize Alexander, with Alexander suggesting that it should have been built to immortalize Caesar?


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Alexander flashes back through his life as he lays dying from an assassination attempt, Coure and Jacob discover him and get him to a hospital, Jacob suspects the new Gorilla General, Doda, of the assassination attempt and confronts him, some gorilla (apparently not Doda) gouges out his eyeball with a knife and pledges to find Ollo, Simon decides to leave Ape City, enraged that Jacob burnt his books, Jacob confronts Dr. Moto about his unethical practices and potential allegiance to Ollo, Simon tries to assassinate Jacob, is thwarted, and reveals that he also tried to kill Alexander because he was the only one not rewarded for winning back Ape City when it had been his plan, Simon escapes and teams up with General Doda for the time being, we learn that Alexander wanted to give Simon a token reward by placing him on the honorary council but that Jacob intentionally withheld this offer from Simon, and Jacob re-reads the Lawgivers' words about "Beware the Beast Man," seemingly at peace with his decision to get in Simon's way.


I like the character growth that Marshall is trying to express, and I appreciate the continuity he is trying to weave, but this book is still so rife with amateur errors. It has a long way to go. However, judging by the growth that has occurred in the span of only five issues, maybe this title really can wow me by its close. Here's hoping...

[shaxper]

Ape City #1

"Monkey Business"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: MC Wyman
inks: Marvin Perry Mann
tonework: Steve Miller
letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C+

Well, I suppose there are two reasons to be surprised about the contents of the comic:

1. It takes place in Europe, far from the "Ape City" we're all thinking of
2. It has absolutely nothing to do with the cool looking cover containing menacing apes around a campfire

Instead, the comic is a largely silly story about apes in a less decimated society attempting to seamlessly pick up where human society left off. With the power still running (for now, though this is a major concern in the comic) and all non-living things as they once were, these apes were able to just walk in and take over when the second plague rendered all humans mute and cognitively deficient. Interestingly, we don't actually see any of the humans in this issue, but that's more or less beside the point.

So, while Marshall works hard to explain how this society does exist within the confines of his POTA comic universe, he's also clearly having more fun with this series, especially by the end of the issue, as ape gangsters ape ninjas, and Rob Liefield-inspired human bad-asses all attack our just assembled band of protagonists at the same time. In this light, it's a little easier to excuse all the logic flaws and minor problems in this issue since it clearly isn't looking to be taken seriously.

The art is bugging me, though. Wyman is a far more professional penciler than Burles, but what's up with how the art was scanned/copied for this issue? Everything is pixilated and faint, especially the word bubbles, which look like they were drawn with Microsoft Paint. It's really hard to look at. Maybe this has something to do with Steve Miller and the "tonework" he's credited for having contributed.

So I guess the major thematic backdrop for this story will be the issue of how to keep society going when the apes don't have the technological know-how to do so. It could make for a far slower and more painful decline into chaos (meanwhile, of course, the ape doctors in Marshall's main title are effortlessly using futuristic machines to attend to their patients. WTF?). Truly, this is a rich and original extension of the basic POTA premise that could be done as a much darker, more thought-provoking story, but that doesn't appear to be Marshall's intent at this point. Still, one has to ask, if Europe wasn't attacked during the big war, why didn't it lend assistance to the United States? At least two generations passed between the war and the plague that took down human society.


The characters we meet this issue:

- Mongo, the wandering musician with a guitar on his back who loves a brawl

- The Vindicators (Scab, Devon, Pi, Moriah, MX, and Jo), the band of ex-cons hired by the humans (from the past, or in the present?) to wipe out all apes using really big guns. These guys are either parodies of or serious wanna-bes to Rob Liefield's work (I can't tell which). In fact, I'm pretty sure Scab is even using Cable's best remembered gun. The narration says something about taking over where Taylor failed, but I don't get this. As far as we know, Taylor's mission never involved erasing the apes' ability to be the dominant race in the future. Certainly, he didn't even understand that they had taken over until the end of the first film and, by that point, humanity had already been subjugated for centuries and showed no signs of coming back.

- Dr. Benday, the scientist with an expertise in energy that everyone else is seeking

- Flannagan, his begrudging assistant

- Cong, the mysterious (and not yet seen) creature that Dr. Benday keeps ordering Flannagan to look after.

- Rox, the female samurai ape hired to be Dr. Benday's bodyguard

- Big Mal, the ape mobster

- Krak, leader of the ape ninjas


The plot synopsis in one sentence: The Vindicators have come to wipe out all apes for the sake of humanity, Mongo teams up with Rox and goes with her to Dr. Benday, Flanagan finds the Vindicators' ship and unknowingly takes their power crystal back to Dr. Benday's lab, and Big Mal's gang, the ape ninjas, and the Vindicators attack them all at the same time, all seeking new power sources.


Fascinating premise squandered on silly fun. I have to admit that the apes in mobster suits complete with tommy guns were darn amusing, but so much of the rest just felt too over-the-top for me. If we're going for all out comic parody, I'll learn to lighten up in another issue or so, but if that's the case, the silliness doesn't have me laughing anywhere near as much as it should by this point.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #6

"Welcome to Ape City"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: D

What an odd choice. This feels like a filler story, and yet Marshall and Burles are both on the book this issue. It's a departure from the main action of the series in order to introduce the reader to Ape City as if we hadn't been reading the last five issues. Why was this necessary, and why not do it last issue, right after the culmination of the first major story arc? I found this story, in which various members of Ape City welcome us and show us around, a tad too saccharine for my taste. I don't want to live next door to these people; I want to explore the depths of their souls.

At any rate, beyond idealizing Ape City as a severely simplified Utopia, the story does show us a few important things:

- The idea is still perpetuated that there are numerous ape civilizations out there. Vonar then introduces a bust of Caesar as depicting "the founder of our city." So Caesar doesn't mean anything to other ape tribes? Did the other tribes come to power more recently when the second plague wiped out all humans? This is certainly a contrast to the general assumption amongst POTA fans and best explained by James Whitmore in the Curtis/Marvel volume that other apes across the world were inspired by Caesar's rebellion and followed suit soon after. Really, if you go with Marshall's approach, then what would be the significance of Caesar and his story? The second plague would have left apes dominant anyway and not looking to Caesar's carefully considered example at all. His contribution to future history would be negligible.

- Frito and Jojo, two inept and ever-hungry gorilla guards, are introduced as comic relief, (though they're probably the same bumbling soldiers who called Doda "General Doo-Doo" by mistake last issue) but they are nowhere near as funny as Marshall thinks they are. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from these two.

- Heston (creative name!) is introduced as well, though we don't really learn anything about him.

- The Lightfeet, a primitive tribe of apes, living in the mountains near Ape City, are mentioned for the first time. They are great trackers and are only seen when they choose to be.

- Grunt now leads Ape City's army. Does that mean General Doda has already been expelled from power? When did that happen? What about all the Ollo loyalists/Aldoists in the army???

- Jacob is now the Defender of the Faith and definitely laying groundwork for later Defenders to hate and be prejudiced against humans. It's interesting that Marshall chooses to continue characterizing him in a relatively benign way. It certainly makes his intolerance of humans more complicated and less easy to simply judge and dismiss.

- Dr. Moto wants to sterilize all humans. Why does he care? It seemed before that all he really cared about was torture. Perhaps a policy of sterilization will give him a greater excuse to do so.


Plot synopsis: none really. You are a new ape to Ape City named "Reador" and are introduced to everyone via forced second person perspective.


Weird issue. Could have done without it.

[shaxper]

Ape City #2

"See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: MC Wyman
inks: Marvin Perry Mann
tonework: Steve Miller
letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ulm

grade: D+

It was working at first -- the Liefield wanna bees, the mobsters, the "Baboonjas," and even the need to make every female excessively voluptuous and with pronounced nipples (including the apes) all felt so perfectly ridiculous that I was having fun and, of course, excusing all the excessive lapses in logic, but then Marshall's lousy dialogue took over and complete strangers started arbitrarily lapsing into deep and personal narratives about their past, and the whole thing just fell apart for me. Marshall still seems unsure of whether this is a pure parody when he attempts to paint Jo Taylor (the Taylor's daughter) with such overt attempts at pathos. There's nothing funny about her story, and that just throws everything off.

We learn more about The Vindicators in this issue, but it makes no real sense. Apparently, 1970s America somehow learned what happened to Taylor (how???) and decided that the most reasonable course of action was to go into the future and diminish the ape population with full scale force. In what skewed world does this approach make any sense whatsoever? Who are they looking to protect by doing this? Wouldn't it make more sense to diminish or contain the ape population in their own time in order to prevent the future from happening rather than using what I can only assume are tremendous resources to send folks into the future to defend humanity after it's already fallen?

As a minor detail, it's also inferred for the second time that, in attempting to kill the apes, the Vindicators may have been responsible for one or both of the plagues (the first killing house pets and possibly making apes intelligent, the second making humans dumb).

We meet Cong in this issue -- a giant ape with the mind of a child. Dr. Benday created him. So, an ape just struggling to comprehend advanced human sciences can be an expert on energy and the most successful geneticist in all of history all at the same time?

Going along with this, you have to love how overly important Marshall makes all of these characters. Mongo was the big star of Europe's hottest nightclub, Dr. Benday is the world's greatest expert on energy (and apparently genetics), and I've no doubt we'll learn that Rox is the world's greatest samurai and Big Mal is the world's most infamous mobster.


Nothing else really worth noting about this issue beyond the plot synopsis.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Dr. Benday summons Cong, who somehow arrives before anyone can possibly fire a bullet or grab a hostage, a three-way brawl begins with the heavily armed Vindicators somehow in a stalemate with gangsters with tommy guns, our protagonists meet Jo Taylor, who goes from threatening to shoot them to telling them her personal life story all in the span of a few panels and just because Dr. Benday asked her to, Mongo grabs one of the Vindicators' guns and then randomly goes off to befriend Cong, we find out that Flannagan can fire a gun, and Dr. Benday and Jo Taylor decide that they'll provide each other with more excessive backstory next issue.

Yeah. Every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and not in the "I'm trying to be ridiculous" way that Marshall seems to be going for. There's no sense of self-awareness nor intended parody as he does these things.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #7

"Survival of the Fittest"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C


So far, the one aspect of this entire series that's won me over is the transformation of Simon, and yet he, as well as General Doda, seem totally ignored/forgotten by this point. Last issue was filler, and this one takes some new directions that are only marginally interesting. A brawler named Roto comes into town to cause trouble, Alexander and Coure are on a getaway and get robbed/left for dead, and then an earthquake strikes, forcing Roto and Grunt to become friends as they work to save endangered children and causing Alexander and Coure to be mistaken for dead, with Jacob set to take Alexander's place. Not particularly exciting, and (once again) the tears start flowing by the end of the issue as Alexander's will is read, and I felt none of it. Still, nothing particularly badly done about this issue.t

Minor details:

- Max is dead. Wow. That was out of the blue. I was really starting to like the guy, and we don't even see him die. We just see Dr. Moto talking to his severed head.

- Joshua was left with the one person in Ape City who died during the earthquake, and no one realizes this. What's going to happen to that baby?

- Coure leaves her newborn with others a whole lot, doesn't she? Does Ape City have a Children's Services bureau?

- Jacob makes the decision to revise written ape history so that humans were never the dominant species and (presumably, by logical extension) there is no Caesar. Combine that with the Defender of the Faith assuming total control over the city, and you have all the necessary prerequisites for the society we saw in the first film. Is Alexander going to be able to do something to stop this, or are we stuck in a time loop? And, while I doubt Marshall would ever entertain an idea this complex, if Alexander does manage to prevent history from repeating, wouldn't preventing the society to come also mean preventing the creation of an ape named Caesar and the circumstances that would lead to his being born in the past?

- Alexander, Coure, baby Joshua, Grunt, Simon, Jacob, Ollo, Doda, Dr. Moto, Vonar, Frito, Jojo, Heston; is there any chance of Marshall keeping up with all of these characters? It seems like some will have to get forgotten/discarded as others end up taking center stage. Too bad so few of them are showing any true potential at this point.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Roto comes to town and causes trouble, Grunt tries to stop him, Alexander gives Jacob the scrolls of Caesar to copy and Jacob decides to revise them so that apes are never depicted as having been a lesser species to humans, Coure goes looking for Max, and we learn that Dr. Moto killed him, Alexander and Coure go on a trip and get mugged and left for dead, an earthquake strikes, Roto and Grunt work together to save some children and become friends, Alexander and Coure are mistaken for dead, the women who (for some reason) only we know was watching baby Jacob is reported to have been killed, Jacob is given control of Ape City as a result.


Again, not a bad issue aside from a few weak Burles panels, but nothing about this issue won me over either.

[shaxper]

Ape City #3

“Monkey Planet”
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: MC Wyman
inks: Marvin Perry Mann
tonework: Steve Miller
letters: Pat Brossau
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: D

More of the same, for the most part – a story that can't decide whether it wants to be taken seriously or wants to be played for laughs, and the characters are too poorly done to be taken seriously, while the laughs are nowhere near good enough nor frequent enough to make this story worthwhile for humor. Truly, the only worthwhile aspect of this story is that it reveals Charles Marshall's full explanation of how the Planet of the Apes came to be.

Here's what we learn:

1. Caesar's revolution sent shockwaves across the world
2. In Western Europe, they decided to grant equal rights to apes for fear of what might happen otherwise.
3. The second plague came, killing most humans, and rendering the rest cognitively deficient
4. In America, a curious ape accidentally caused the meltdown of a nuclear power plant, which caused some sort of “chain reaction” in which other similar disasters occurred (this was unclear)
5. In Europe, Apes simply took over with everything still intact.

The problems with this explanation:

1. If Caesar's revolution had such a tremendous impact, why did Marshall imply in POTA #6 that apes outside of Ape City wouldn't know who Caesar was?
2. If apes still weren't as cognitively able as humans and were not yet able to speak at the time of Caesar's revolution, how could they be granted equal rights? You're telling me they could pay bills and vote? Wouldn't a more obvious answer be to let them go free in some dedicated nature preserves, or even a mass extermination? No society that's economically dependent upon slavery is going to grant those slaves equal rights over night, and no society can truly afford to grant mass citizenship to any large group of beings at one time. This just doesn't add up.
3. For that matter, Marshall still doesn't bother to explain how the apes became so mentally advanced in such a short while. The obvious answer would seem to be the plague, but Marshall never goes there.
4. Still not clear on what this “chain reaction” was, but certainly one nuclear plant meltdown couldn't wipe out all civilization on the American continent.
5. This idea of a meltdown causing it all directly contradicts Moench's explanation in the first POTA volume involving “the Africans” and China.
6. So none of this explains why we have 1920s mafia apes, samurai apes, and ninja apes. If apes were already fully integrated into modern society before the humans died off, shouldn't they be more or less like modern day humans?

In a previous issue, I explained how Marshall's plague idea completely kills the purpose/meaning of Caesar's revolution since apes were going to rise and become the dominant species anyway and without needing to look to his example. But I think it does even more damage than that. In my mind, the entire power of the Planet of the Apes premise was the idea that was made so evident by the end of the first film – we did it to ourselves. It's a message that forces us to look inward at ourselves and ask ourselves how we could be so blind, so foolish, and (in a sense) subsequently less worthy to run the planet than our closest cousins. The plague concept kills all of that, chalking humanity's final fate up to dumb luck.

Marshall explains in his letter to the reader at the beginning of this issue that he more or less came up with this explanation while daydreaming in algebra class as a kid. Sadly, it shows. His explanation creates a logical explanation for a world in which apes are the dominant species, but it pretty much robs the basic premise of any meaning or thematic potential beyond that.


And do you really want a plot synopsis this time around? Good. It's truly not worth it.

[shaxper]

So, as quiet as this thread has been, the view count shows about a hundred people reading this per day. I'm just wondering how many of you reading this have actually read the Malibu/Adventure Comics series. I wonder if I'm the only one disliking it this much since, judging by how long it ran and how many mini spin-offs it launched, it must have been doing pretty well at the time.

Anyway, I digress...


Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #8

"Here Comes Traveling Jack"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C

It's a pretty cute story. As a nod to Christmas (though, clearly, Christmas isn't celebrated on the Planet of the Apes -- well maybe in the Ape City spin-off...), Marshall introduces Traveling Jack: an ape who explores far out places with his horse and wagon and returns, bringing exotic gifts for all. There may be a subtle nod to Moench's "Lightsmith" with this character, but probably not. Instead, it would seem that, while Christianity is dead and gone on the POTA, the spirit of the ever-commercialized Santa Claus lives on in an ape. Take that message for what you will. Disturbing implications about Santa living on while Christ and humanity do not (and, for what it's worth, I'm not a Christian, yet I still find this strange) aside, there's something touching and comforting about the presence of Traveling Jack, so much so that it doesn't even feel all that cheap with Jack somehow knowing about Coure and Alexander's plight for survival in the desert, "accidentally" leaving them a box of emergency supplies when it falls off the back of his wagon.

Still, this issue was full of problems once more. I think Charles Marshall has potential as a writer, but it's damn right frustrating having to watch him grow ever so slowly as a professional across these issues. On so many levels, it feels like an extraordinarily imaginative twelve year old is writing these stories.


Problem 1: Baby Joshua

We were explicitly told last issue that Coure was leaving Joshua with the seamstress and then later explicitly told that the seamstress died and that everyone thought Joshua was with Coure and Alexander. Though the dots were never explicitly connected, we knew that baby was in trouble. Now, magically, he has been with Coure and Alexander all along. WTF???


Problem 2: "You've been cold and distant lately, to me, to everyone"

Once again, Marshall presents as fact in hindsight events that we NEVER saw take shape. In this case, Coure is describing a change that apparently came over Alexander that we never saw. And let's not forget, we never even saw Alexander and Coure fall in love in the first place. What should have been depicted subtly and through careful characterization was simply told to us in hindsight a few issues back. It's like Marshall is rushing to hit plot points and missing the entire journey along the way. He's not spending any time developing these characters and allowing them to be, instead outright telling us his plans for them as if we were reading the Cliffnotes for this series.


Problem 3: four pages of Frito and Jojo

I'll admit that they were better this time around, almost funny, but it still feels like Marshall is forcing them upon us and going "Aren't these two hilarious?! They're your new favorite characters!" rather than featuring them briefly and leaving the fans to demand more if they like what they see.


Problem 4: Still absolutely no idea who Simon really is.

So we thought he was an innocent victim, he ended up trying to kill Alexander, and we still don't really understand how the two connect. We've been waiting three issues to see more of Simon and finally get a sense of how he ticks, and instead he's giving Doda the silent treatment all throughout this issue, barring us from gaining any further insight and, in fact, confusing us further since he apparently wants to kill Doda even though he voluntarily went with the guy, and Doda seems to be trying to mentor him.

Problem 5: So do bad gorillas follow Aldo or Ollo?

Apparently, Doda was the one who took a knife to his face back in issue #5 out of allegiance to Ollo, but he didn't gouge out his eye (as it appeared that he had). Rather, the scar running right next to his eye is "The Mark of Ollo." So is Doda an Aldonite, an Ollonite, or what? And do we really need TWO Aldo wannabes running around this planet as chief antagonists? Couldn't Doda be a different kind of enemy on some level? Maybe his attempting to mentor Simon suggests that he will be?


minor details:

- I keep wanting to call him "Traveling Matt." Anyone else ever watch Fraggle Rock as a child?


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Traveling Jack shows up and seems to have exactly what everyone wants, he's told Alexander and Coure are dead, Frito and Jojo fight over a wheel that they have been told is a fruitcake, Coure struggles to keep Alexander alive in the desert, Doda attempts to mentor Simon against his will, and Traveling Jack "accidentally" drops a box of emergency supplies for Coure to discover -- an easy out from a conflict we didn't care much about anyway.


Not a bad premise for the issue, but lots of problems still holding this story back.

[MWGallaher]

So, as quiet as this thread has been, the view count shows about a hundred people reading this per day. I'm just wondering how many of you reading this have actually read the Malibu/Adventure Comics series. I wonder if I'm the only one disliking it this much since, judging by how long it ran and how many mini spin-offs it launched, it must have been doing pretty well at the time.

I was a big "Apes" fan, and I had the money to afford to buy almost any and all comics I wanted back when these were published, and writer Charles Marshall was operating out of my hometown region...and I think I gave up on this run after one issue of Ape City. I wasn't really an extremely critical reader at the time, but this material was one of the first times I bailed because I couldn't stand the writing (and I couldn't have much hope, at a small publisher like this, that the scripter would be replaced any time soon).
Even though I didn't stick with the series, I appreciate the chance to look over your shoulder here at the issues I avoided.

[shaxper]

...and I think I gave up on this run after one issue of Ape City. I wasn't really an extremely critical reader at the time, but this material was one of the first times I bailed because I couldn't stand the writing (and I couldn't have much hope, at a small publisher like this, that the scripter would be replaced any time soon).

Very smart.

Even though I didn't stick with the series, I appreciate the chance to look over your shoulder here at the issues I avoided.

Because I'm very dumb

[shaxper]

Ape City #4

"Monkey See, Monkey Do"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: MC Wyman
inks: Marvin Perry Mann
tonework: Steve Miller
letters: Pat Brosseau
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: F


In my previous review, I described Marshall's work as feeling like a particularly imaginative 12 year old wrote it. Well this one feels like the work of an 8 year old. Truly and honestly, it's so bad that I'm not even going to take the time to describe it beyond saying that, at one point, an ape takes the futuristic energy crystal they're all looking for, shoves it in his motorcycle's tailpipe, and starts driving the motorcycle through the sky with absolutely no effort, casually steering this way and that. And, while the comic clearly goes for laugh out loud ridiculousness at some moments (though, truly, NONE of it is actually funny), there are many other moments that try to be heavy and serious, making this a terrible mismatch of imaginative vomit strewn upon the page.

Oh, and Marshall explicitly leaves room for a sequel. Can't wait...


Minor details:

- Marshall even acknowledges in his letter to the reader section that the overall reaction to Ape City has been negative. In fact, while they've started publishing a letters page in the main title, I notice that they've avoided giving one to Ape city. I wonder why...


Plot summary: I refuse to relive this awful story for even a moment.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #9

"Changes"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: D

Thirteen issues in and, with the knowledge that Marshall remains on this book up to the end, it's become evident both that Marshall's writing isn't going to improve anytime soon, and that we're just going to have to get used to it. Truth be told, Planet of the Apes stories are a lot like pizza for me -- even bad POTA stories are better than no POTA stories. So we marshall on (get it? Sorry).

So what's actually working in this story: Jacob. I feel he's the one character that Marshall has had marginal success in depicting as a slowly evolving character. In this case, a semi-likable good guy has transformed into the bad seed that will poison all Ape society if left unchecked. In the first film, we were impressed by the fact that, though we hated Dr. Zaius, we could also understand where he was coming from. Jacob takes the opposite approach, gaining our understanding and approval before going down that dark path. It isn't written very well by any standards other than Marshall's, but it's a good concept.

What isn't working in this story: nearly everything else, including the now familiar over-the-top drama (I love Coure's "KHAAAAAN!" moment on page 12, as well as all the otherwise tough-as-nails gorilla guards who are so shocked and moved by the execution of a human -- even though their society regularly treats humans as a lower species), and the random explanations of past events we never saw the first time around (now Joshua had a fever? When did Max injure himself, and why was this funny to Coure?). And, of course, there's Burles' artwork. I mean, was that gorilla in Alexander's dream supposed to be Ollo or Doda? It looked like Doda, only with the scar on the wrong side of his face, but it sounded like Ollo? If Ollo had a scar, and that's why Doda scarred himself in Ollo's name, then Burles' entirely unclear art caused me to miss that detail in all five issues that had Ollo featured prominently in them.


And, while I'm almost impressed by Marshall finally taking another page from Moench's book and depicting a society outside of Ape City, the whole "the king has amnesia and falls in with another group/society" bit felt waaaaay too cliche for my taste. And really, could a fever cause all this (especially now that it appears to have broken)?

Finally, what the heck was that last page? Was that part of this story, or was it a preview of some other comic to come? I had absolutely no idea what was happening.


So ultimately we have a generic plot, no likeable characters to care for, bad writing, over-the-top drama that's mostly unearned, and potentially an interesting hero turned villain. Maybe, when we finally get back to Simon, Marshall will take an interesting approach with him as well.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Jacob sentences a human to death for stealing food and everyone is shocked and appalled by this, Alexander has fever dreams, wakes up with amnesia, and joins another society that randomly and indiscriminately wants a total stranger to lead their army to war in the Forbidden Zone, an ape named Jeeta tries to extort Dr. Moto and pays the price, Coure figures out (inexplicably and waaaaay too late) that Dr. Moto killed Max and wants revenge, Grunt finds Coure and takes her back to Ape City, and some astronauts are counting down to blast-off on the last page, discussing how they're in a world of trouble. Can I get a WTF on that last one?

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Urchak's Folly #1

"Chapter One: The Valley"
writer/penciler: Gary Chaloner
inks: Dillon Naylor
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: B+


Finally, a POTA story not written by Charles Marshall. I imagine a small independent publisher like Malibu must have been thrilled to find a new talent who could write and draw, and Gary Chaloner fits that description well. His writing is solid, his characters already hint of great complexity (especially the gorillas, which is something you rarely see in POTA stories), and though his writing is woefully inconsistent, it definitely has impressive moments. In short, this one issue holds far more potential than the 13 previous apes stories I've read from this publisher. Too bad that (as far as I know) Chaloner only sticks around for this four issue mini. Couldn't Malibu see that this guy was far better than Marshall? I guess that, if a guy can generate consistent output on time, sells books, and is likeable enough around the office, you don't question it, regardless of the scathing fan mail.

Anyway, this storyline is set in a time after what's happening in the main POTA title. Urchak mentions Caesar, Alexander, and Ollo as past inspirations that he strives to surpass. In this story, we have a human protagonist (clearly a soldier of some kind from the past) who has lost his memory and is captured by the militaristic gorillas now ruling Ape City (interesting. Will Marshall abide by this ultimate destiny for the civilization he's worked so hard to flesh out?) who have conflicting ideas of what should be done with him. Caspian (love the reference), a lower ranking officer, seems to have a purpose in mind for our protagonist, though Urchak wants him crucified.

As with any first issue, you're judging on potential rather than execution. In that respect, in spite of the sometimes awful drawing (and, as I said, it's sometimes impressive as well), this series has a lot of potential. Urchak conveys power and hunger in a deep, almost admirable way, and Caspian strikes me as fascinating in that he isn't a human lover, but he clearly thinks differently from those around him. I just hope the series spends more time on these compelling gorillas than on filling in our protagonist's past and giving attention to his horribly drawn and under-characterized half-naked love interest.

Minor details:

- Caspian mentions that the protagonist reminds him of two other humans in both behavior and appearance. Clearly, we're not talking about Simon then. Does he mean Taylor and Brent? If so, that's a whammy of a revelation in terms of timelines.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #10

"Return to the Forbidden City"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: B


Marshall begins this issue by conceding, on his letter to the reader page, that he struggles with his writing and hates doing it much of the time, but gets clarity of vision on other occasions and really enjoys it. It makes a good intro to this issue because Marshall's writing sucks donkey dung much of the time, but it was a little better this time, finally seeming to have a sense of vision and bringing things together. We've got those prisoner apes from the first story arc back and now apparently controlled by Ollo (yes, he's back), Alexander facing off with Ollo again, and Simon back in the picture as a raging human supremacist who doesn't think twice about leaving an ape to die. Essentially, it's probably as good as a Marshall story is going to get.

That being said, there were still problems:

- I absolutely hate Coure. The second she gets back to Ape City, she hands her infant off to Grunt and instructs him to "leave him where you know he'll be safe." Her baby just survived being exposed in the desert wilds for a prolonged period of time while living on rations and braving a dangerous fever, and she ditches him (again) the first second she sees an opportunity to do so because it's more important to her to expose Dr. Moto (and, please note, she arrives well ahead of the authorities -- that's time she could have spent ensuring suitable arrangements for her child). And, of course, her rashness in confronting someone she knows to be a heartless killer and expert liar with absolutely no ace up her sleeve was just plain stupid. And let's not forget her total lack of concern for what's happened to Alexander (supposedly the man she loves). Yeah, she's a moron. Marshall may love her and see protagonist potential in her, but he's not relaying any of that through his writing.

- Okay, so just as we finally get it explained that all followers of Ollo mark their faces (okay, so that WAS Doda), we find out that the guy that's been training Simon for all these issues wasn't Doda (oh, I guess not), but instead a totally new follower of Doda following Ollo following Aldo named Pato. Yeah, that's not confusing.

- And I don't care how determined he is. A small, mal-nourished boy should not be able to defeat a gorilla military leader in hand-to-hand combat.

- What the heck was the point of Coure discovering Dr. Moto killed Max if that was all going to get discarded this issue by Dr. Moto pulling out a pocket watch and totally non-sensically brain-washing Coure against her will? Yeah, that would never work, by the way.

- The letters page is full of letters praising Marshall for issue #6, but we KNOW from his own concession in his letters to the reader for Ape City that he was receiving about 50% letters of criticism for his approach to POTA. I find it hard to believe that everyone unanimously agreed that issue #6 (in my opinion, the second worst issue in the series) was brilliant.


Minor aside -- I should also mention that, while Burles will never be a competent artist, I do enjoy the Kirby-inspired machinery with which he fills Dr. Moto' lab.



So a pretty good issue by Charles Marshall standards. Things are coming together, and Simon still lacks depth but is at least becoming a clearly defined character of dynamic action.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Urchak's Folly #2

"The Bridge"
writer:/pencils: Gary Chaloner
inks: Dillon Naylor with Greg Gates
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: A

"Let us show colonel Urchak that this was never his bridge."

Wow. This is seriously one of the best stand alone ape stories I've ever read. Moench's work was rich in terms of concepts and premises, but this story is just exceptionally well plotted, written, and characterized. It truly moved me by the climax. Only Chaloner's average art kept it from being an A+ in my book.

First off, Chaloner fleshes out a lot of the back story of this series this time around. We now know that this storyline takes place less than two years ahead of the events in the main POTA title and that this isn't actually Ape City. Urchak was apparently a follower of Ollo's (and, by the way, Chaloner FINALLY explains what Marshall never did: Apparently, Alexander scarred one of Ollo's eyes in their climactic battle, and Ollo's followers therefore scar their eyes to show their obedience to him). After Ollo was exiled, Urchak's punishment was to explore Westward and see what was out there. Followers of Ollo, curious scientists, and others all followed to assist Urchak in this undertaking, resulting in the society we are now seeing. It's a very compelling premise, though I must concede that I have no idea why this is an appropriate punishment for someone who participated in an attempted coupe, especially when it leaves him in charge of a large group of apes once again.

My suspicion is that Chaloner originally intended to have Urchak just be a military leader whose mission it was to explore Westward and who slowly became drunk with power without anyone to answer to, and he was later forced to tie this concept into Marshall's series.

Anyway, the story is remarkably well paced, actually broken into three separate acts that roughly follow the conventions of drama. It also introduces some rich and compelling new characters (especially William, the mute, telepathic human whose mouth has been stitched closed and who is yet still willing to die for his caring ape master), sheds some fascinating light on our nameless protagonist's past (we were all expecting the generic astronaut from the 1970s-90s, but this guy is flashing back to the late 19th century!), and presents some wild turns of events, including the death of Caspian, and the destruction of Urchak's bridge, which any reader would have guessed would be the climax of the series, not of the second issue. I absolutely cannot wait to see where this story is going next!

A final intriguing point: last issue, Caspian commented that our protagonist reminded him of two previous humans who dressed and acted as he did. I assumed they were Taylor and Brent, but we discover in this issue that the intelligent human tribe resisting Urchak's forces are "Taylorites," awaiting his prophecized arrival (cool concept!), and, of course, the main POTA storyline is set many years prior to the first film, so who were these two humans that dressed and acted like men from our time period? Surely, Simon isn't one of them.

Awesome awesome story! I just wish the art was better. It's still superior to Kent Burles' work in the main title, but it's barely adequate at times.