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

[MRP]

Ok Shaxper, after reading through parts of this thread, I felt the need to get my Apes on, so I set the DVR this morning/afternoon to record the Apes movie marathon on AMC. It's all your fault you know. I got strange looks from my wife-you're taping those? She loved Rise but has trouble sitting through the originals. Now I just have to find time to watch them all-it has been years and years since I have done so.

-M

[shaxper]

If I have corrupted just one soul, it was all worthwhile

And, if you want to compare notes after each film, here's my write-up of the series.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #2
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: B-

I’ve been trying to keep up with these reviews. Really I have, but the problem is that I truly do not enjoy these Boom! stories. What I’ve said all along about the Daryl Gregory stories still applies to the Bechko and Hardman stories. The art is good, the concepts are decent, and the writing is adequate, but the characterization and focus are lacking.

Nine issues in to the Bechko/Hardman continuity, I’m still not sure what the series is about or building to, who the main characters are, nor who to latch onto. The only likeable character we were given any true reason to care about in the previous series was General Aleron, and yet he’s dead now. Prisca has inherited his mission, but her approach is far more subdued and has since apparently diminished to the point that she’s just harboring a bunch of humans in an attic with no apparent passion nor plan to do anything further. No particular tragedy is attached to this fact, and she’s hardly the focus of the series.

So why am I reading this?

Fortunately, all those lacking qualities aside, this was a pretty decent story. Bechko and Hardman capture the sense of panic in the face of a crisis rather well, from the indecisiveness of government officials to the feeling of those trapped in an area where the waters are suddenly rising throughout their homes without warning (certainly a topical issue in the wake of Katrina and Hurricane Sandy). All that was missing was characterization and a purpose in portraying all this. What, if anything, is this series building to, and why should I care?

Additionally, though Couceiro draws some excellent ape faces close-up (no one draws Cornelius like he does), I found his apes difficult to decipher in most other panels. Cornelius, Prisca, and Cassia were indistinguishable at first glance in many shots, and Val and her mother could only be told apart by Val's pregnant belly in most panels.

Really, this issue doesn't do anything more than this beyond giving Zaius yet another opportunity to rise in power and influence, yet the culmination of Exile on the Planet of the Apes had already implied that he'd taken control of the council (which, apparently, did not happen after all, even with his lengthy address to Ape City at the conclusion of that series). I certainly wasn't hungry to see more of Zaius' rise to power, and yet that's what we're getting here, almost as if Bechko and Hardman were backing up for fear that there'd be no further story to tell otherwise. All the plans for social reform that Zaius promised in Exile have yet to take shape, and he still has to struggle to pull rank in this issue. It feels like an abrupt reversal.


minor detail:

- I'm assuming apes Cassia and Val are named after Cassie and Val, the protagonists of Freelancers, a new Boom! title receiving a lengthy write-up at the back of this very issue. Otherwise, that's quite a coincidence.

- It is now 8 years prior to the first film (not 5, as I surmised in the previous review). This means only two years have passed since Exile.


plot synopsis in one sentence:

Ape City is burning in the wake of the previous issue, Zaius is the only member of the council accounted for and assumes new authority to take control of the panicked military, Val and her mother wind up in Prisca's attic, terrified of the humans living there, while the waters of the river rise and threaten to drown them.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #3
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: C+


Boy do I wish I was more into this series than I am. For the millionth time, Bechko and Hardman begin with an entirely too brief flashback to some mysterious event in the past that will presumably prove to be important by the end, then lots of fast paced destruction continues from the previous issue, no real characterization comes through (which makes Cornelius' appearance in this series an utter waste), and somehow, amidst all the death and destruction, none of the main characters die. It's unlikely Cassia actually died in this issue, and Val and her mom are rescued from drowning at literally the last moment for the sake of dramatic convenience.

Decent art, decent writing, break-neck pace, no characterization, and no focus beyond destruction.


Details worth noting?

no.


plot synopsis in one sentence: We have a brief flashback to one ape priest killing another ape priest a week earlier at the Green Creek Monastery, we fast forward back to the present and are told Cassia probably drowned, Val and her mom are rescued from drowning at the last moment and develop a sympathy for humans from the ordeal, there's a question of who is shooting and killing ape and man alike, Prisca is being held by rebellious humans in a building that is collapsing, Cornelius and Val's mom try to help and get stuck in there, Val goes into labor, and the ape guard who was shot in the first issue identifies Zaius' fellow councilman (I think. I lose track of who's who so easily in this comic) as the ape who attacked him and launched the Omega bomb.

[MRP]

I keep seeing the Boom! Apes books and thinking maybe I should give these a try, then I read your reviews, and I have second thoughts.

-M

[shaxper]

I keep seeing the Boom! Apes books and thinking maybe I should give these a try, then I read your reviews, and I have second thoughts.

-M

They're not bad. They just aren't anything all that special, either. The main series had some really good shock value at times (though the pacing was uneven), but now I just feel like we're spinning our wheels. The best Apes books to read are the original Marvel mag and the 2005 Revolution on the Planet of the Apes series, in my opinion.

[MRP]

They're not bad. They just aren't anything all that special, either. The main series had some really good shock value at times (though the pacing was uneven), but now I just feel like we're spinning our wheels. The best Apes books to read are the original Marvel mag and the 2005 Revolution on the Planet of the Apes series, in my opinion.

I have a handful of the Marvel issues and I have an odd BOOM issue here and there picked up in dollar or quarter bins, but nothing resembling a run I can dive into yet. I have a few more odds and ends of series to finish off before I expand my want list just yet, but I will definitely keep those in mind.

-M

[shaxper]

***NOTE: As we get closer to current day comic book releases, I am trying to be more mindful of spoilers. I will give away some vague details (otherwise, the entire review would have to have spoiler tags around it) but the BIG giveaways are protected by spoiler tags.

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #4
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: B-


Both the best and worst issue of the series yet, and it all comes down to the revelation about who fired the Omega Bomb at the moon, and why.

I call it the best because the action and dramatic tension are thoroughly enjoyable as Zaius goes so far to learn the truth as to fire a bullet through the chest of his suspect, proclaiming "Ape does not kill ape. Therefore, you are not an ape." And I was also enticed by the final suggestion that spoilers:

the ape in question is a human mutant in disguise, and that others of his order may have similarly infiltrated Ape society.

end of spoilers

I call it the worst because they took the easiest way possible out of solving the mysteries put forth in the first issue. So there really ARE two Omega bombs, meaning we are in the continuity of the first film series despite the (I believe intentionally) misleading nature of the Omega Bomb's presence in the first issue, and firing the bomb at the moon has nothing to do with humans firing from the moon to create the initial great disaster (as shown in the first issue) other than the fact that (presumably) it was already targeted to fire back at those coordinates when the US govt. lost the ability to fire it in the flashback in the first issue. Nothing to it beyond that; no elaborate mystery to unravel beyond an unfocused desire for anarchy and destruction.

And I have to ask what the purpose was in spoilers:

killing off Val only one issue after she was miraculously saved by drowning in the most unrealistic of timing coincidences last issue. Was it just so her child could be born?

end of spoilers

It feels like a cliche move, and what is Val's child going to amount to anyway? What memorable Orangutans were in the original three movies other than Zaius? This kid can't grow up to be Virgil because that time period has already passed.

So where does this storyline have left to go? Obviously, the mutants are not going to launch the real Omega Bomb because it's still there in the second film, and obviously no one is going to make peace with the humans because we've all seen the first film. It seems like, with half the series left, we're now on story clean-up duty, finding a way to stop the group that is shooting apes and humans, and looking for a way to make that interesting with no unsolved mysteries nor conflicts (internal nor external) to address otherwise.

This issue showed Bechko and Hardman's entire hand a little too early, and there wasn't all that much there.


Minor Details:

- If Couceiro could draw all of his apes faces as distinctly as Cornelius', maybe I would have realized that I was supposed to know which Orangutan got attacked in the flashback at the beginning of the previous issue. That might have been helpful.
- Lucius is shown for the first time
- Cornelius meets Zira for the first time, though it's far from a memorable or even well characterized moment.


plot synopsis in one sentence: spoilers:

Val's child is born, Val's mom leads a bunch of apes on an escape journey on a flimsy raft, Zaius confronts the priest who launched the bomb (though, for the life of me, I still have no idea what "Brother Corvin"'s role was in Ape City if Zaius is the Defender of the Faith), it turns out that Corvin has mind control powers, Val's mom is severely injured when a bunch of humans try to climb aboard the raft and, being rebuffed, one impales her with an oar, Zaius shoots Corvin and learns that he's really a mutant human, that there may be more of them infiltrating the apes, and that this was not the Omega Bomb that they worship under the city, we learn that Val died during childbirth but her child is fine, and we cut to the mutants under the city, chanting and watching the Omega Bomb.

end of spoilers

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #5
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: C+


After doing far too little in the previous four issue, Bechko and Hardman go into overdrive to do far too much in this one. It truly seems as though this was supposed to be the start of a fourth mini-series, not the continuation of the third one. Perhaps keeping it as one long series has something to do with the declining sales of these books.

Anyway, there's a lot more plot and a little more characterization in this issue. Still, with the first film less than 8 years ahead of the events of this story, it's difficult to understand the point in following what's going on. We know how it's all going to end.

So Vitus, Zaius' now widowed son-in-law, makes his first appearance here and is sent along with Cornelius and Dr. Milo to investigate the ruins that will feature heavily at the end of the first film, Zira is now responsible for Lucius and is struggling to find a place to live, we've got the not really at all long awaited reunion with apes living on the other side of the barrier created by the explosives detonation at the end of the first mini-series, and there's some mysterious monster out there that the long lost apes aren't worried about.

I can't say I care.

I mean, I want to, but I don't.

I'm not sure what it would take to make this series interesting to me at this point, but the characters still aren't deep enough, the story still isn't complex enough, and we know how it's going to end. Heck, there still isn't even a focus. Who's the protagonist? What's the central conflict? Five issues in, I have no idea.


plot synopsis: pretty much covered above.

[shaxper]

By the way, does anyone know if Cataclysm has an intended end-point? Is it an ongoing? Boom! is showing solicitations up to issue #9. Eventually, I may just need to drop this series.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #6
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
inks: Mariano Taibo
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: B-


A little more progress this issue. We now have some definite conflicts around which to center the story progression, and some characterization is beginning to surface (largely for Dr, Milo), though I don't see anything about Cornelius or Zira (POTA's hands-down most compelling characters) that I find distinct nor familiar yet. And then there's still the problem that all this is moot. We know where things will be left by the time of the first film, and we know the entire world gets blown up by the end of the second film, so why bother? Without rich internal conflict, all the exterior drama going on is meaningless in this context.

Can this series help me to understand who Zira, Cornelius, or Zaius was to a better extent, thus enhancing my understanding and enjoyment of the first film? I doubt it.

And everything goes "boom" (no pun intended) in eight more years.

So, if Bechko and Hardman aren't going to hit me in the heart strings, this is going to be a pretty worthless read unless the writing or plotting somehow becomes far more brilliant than it has been.


Minor detail:

- Zaius is now the de-facto leader of the council. Who else is still on the council, anyway? It just seems to be Zaius making decisions by himself now.


plot synopsis:

spoilers:

Milo and Cornelius grow suspicious of the village at Painted Rocks while Vitus tries to make a deal for food as quickly as possible so that he can get back to his newborn, Prisca takes in Zira and Lucius, Milo and Cornelius, concerned about mutations in the food supply, sneak to the cave that serves as the water source for the town, Milo determines that the monster guarding it is an illusion and suspects more mutants are responsible, they follow the water to its source and discover an entire band of mutants there.

end of spoilers

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes Special #1
writer: Drayl Gregory
art: Diego Barreto
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: A

My big objection for the core Boom! POTA series has long been a lack of consistent pacing and focus. We'd spend issue after issue on nothing but fight scenes and retreading old philosophical ground before anything of substance would occur. Fortunately, given a restricted length for the remainder of the story (a previous interview indicated there would be a total of 3 specials), relieved of a fixed deadline, and given a new artist to work with, Gregory really packs it into this issue, making each page count and giving a powerful momentum to the series without it ever feeling too rushed. We're too far into the series for me to suddenly find myself falling in love with it, but this was the best darn installment of the Gregory POTA series that it had the potential to be. Heck, only one actual fight scene is shown in the entire issue (Brother Kale's colleagues taking out the ape guards), and it was both brief and truly awesome.


Important details:

- I'm assuming the narrator of this story, reflecting upon the contents of this issue in the past tense, is Julius as an adult. The art suggests as much, which therefore makes it fascinating how he discusses Aleya and Sully both with complete detachment.

- The story similarly suggests that Mak will ultimately be completely destroyed by this war, and thus there will be no winner.

- Mak was the technological capital of the continent, helping to explain why the Ape City depicted in the films was less technologically advanced than Mak. Presumably, centuries of decline under a traditionalist theocracy also helped.

- spoilers:

Nix dies

end of spoilers

- First appearance (or at least addressing of) Doolan and Della, so far as I can tell.

- One of Brother Kale's sisters asks Julian who his father is in a particularly knowing way. This might explain the order's interest in Julian, made clear in this issue.


Minor details:

- I wonder if the image of the partially destroyed Gateway Arch was an intentional reference to Killraven's most memorable post-apocalyptic setting and storyline (from Amazing Adventures #31). The damage done to the arch in this issue looks remarkably similar.

- Sully dresses in high heels while leading the invasion of Mak?


plot synopsis in one sentence:

spoilers:

A man (presumably Julius) is on a raft, approaching a partially destroyed Gateway Arch, he tells the tale of the creation and destruction of Mak (of which the events of this story are a part), we learn that the Golden Khan intends to conquer Mak immediately after Sully does and take it for himself, we're finally baited with the mystery of who Julian's father is (asked in a knowing way by one of Brother Kale's sisters who is also luring Julian into following her to the battle), Sully and her forces take all of Mak except the city tree and are about to invade when she discovers Nix and feels compassion for him as he dies, The Golden Khan's queen assists Hulss in escaping and warning Sully of the Khan's plans (though she refuses to explain why), Kale's order cuts their way into the city tree, Brother Kale seats Julian on the throne and suggests he become emperor, Khan's troops proceed towards Mak, and Aleya is to be executed via guillotine.

end of spoilers

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #7
writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
inks: Mariano Taibo
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: C-

Nothing particularly interesting about this issue, which spends most of its time re-emphasizing the semi-shocking revelation about Painted Valley that we learned last time around.

On the other hand, there was definitely something that I didn't like about this issue. You see, while POTA has always been a franchise concerned with political allegory -- with promoting messages about social justice through thinly disguised metaphor -- that approach only works well when subtle. Otherwise, it's called preaching, and it lacks art. We saw this briefly in the second film when the Chimps were staging a demonstration with anti-war posters, and it creeps back again in this issue, in which Zaius' wife comments that the only way to get the economy back up and running is through "a big public works project". I mean, seriously, what are the chances apes would even use the same phrase? Add to this some angry chimp conversations that clearly echo sentiments we heard from Katrina victims and Occupy Wall Street protesters, all while portraying the chimps as unquestionably sympathetic and in the right while the gorillas who oppress them are unquestionably wrong, and the message starts to feel VERY heavy handed and totally lacking in art and subtlety. I'm pretty leftist myself, but this comic embarrassed me. Politics should never be depicted as being this simple.

Important details:

- First appearance of Cadmus


Minor details:

- Did the first film EVER suggest that Zira and Lucius had any kind of a close relationship? It seems to me that he would have been hanging around her a lot more, and we would have seen some affection pass between them, if anything like what Bechko and Hardman are trying to do here had been intended. Zira wears her personality on her sleeve in the film franchise, but she portrays little consideration for Lucius there.

- If, at the end of the previous issue, Milo and Cornelius had seen lights up ahead in the cave, why would they have fallen asleep? Were we to infer that the mutants made them fall asleep?

- Clarifying point: the mutants didn't fire on innocent apes during the flood. They made the gorillas do it. I must have missed that before.

- So all the previous beings who had been tossed into the pit Milo and Cornelius were tossed into, who spent years slowly dying (presumably of hunger) down there, never managed to find the secret passageway that Milo and Cornelius uncover within a matter of minutes? Or are we to infer that the bones were just tossed into the pit after they had died?

- What was the purpose in tossing Milo and Cornelius into the pit anyway? Why not just kill them right there, or tie them up and hold them for questioning right there? This is like those overly complicated traps that villain cliches use that allow hero cliches to escape when a bullet to the head would have sufficed.


plot synopsis in one long sentence:

spoilers:

Cornelius and Milo are captured by the mutants and tossed into a pit, Vitus is blindfolded and abducted by the Painted Valley Chimps in response to Cornelius and Milo entering the cave in the first place, Zira and Lucius follow Prisca to a secret meeting of Chimp revolutionaries, Cornelius and Milo find an escape passage from the pit and discover some ancient hieroglyphics suggesting that the mutants ruled the apes in Painted Valley until they revolted (unless this is supposed to be the general history of the ape revolution), Zaius and his wife debate about how to rescue Ape City from its depression, the Chimp revolutionaries begin planning and are interrupted by a guard, their leader (Cadmus) gets himself arrested on purpose, and Milo and Cornelius run headlong into mutant children who force them to fight each other until the Chimps arrive with Vitus as prisoner, and Vitus instructs them to run.

end of spoilers

[shaxper]

...and, for the first time ever, this thread is actually up to date with the current issue!

See you with more reviews next month.