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

[shaxper]

Because of the casting of the leads, we referred to this series as "Starsky and Hutch on the Planet of the Apes."

And I thought I was the only one who couldn't help making that association!

I never got into the magazines, though. I remember picking up an issue while on a family vacation and thought it was too creepy for my tastes.

I can see that. It actually ties into what I love so much about Moench's work on this series -- He took the basic premise and ran headlong into strange new territories, feeling absolutely no compulsion to retread familiar ground. I think that was the magic of how the magazine was balanced -- familiar film adaptations for those looking to re-experience the familiar, and something strange and new for fans looking for something more. In the age of home video, I think most of us return to these mags only looking for the strange and new, but back in the '70s, readers inevitably would have looked at the new content with a few more raised eyebrows.

I wonder if the Jim Whitmore who wrote those articles is the former actor (Baa Baa Black Sheep) and current director whose father (The Shawshank Redemption) appeared in the original Planet of the Apes.

I've been trying to look the guy up since he clearly has a lot of passion and creativity, but he seems to have fallen off the radar beyond the scope of this mag. I've confirmed that he is not the POTA actor, and I have to assume that if he were the actor's son, he'd be credited as "Jim Whitmore Jr." or something. My guess is he's a fanboy who mailed in a contribution, got the editors' attention, and was never considered again once the mag was cancelled.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread

Not at all!

[Kan-Man]

And I thought I was the only one who couldn't help making that association!

One of the leads from the TV series, James Naughton (Pete Burke) has had a very successful stage career, winning two Tony Awards for City of Angels and Chicago. Plus he's done a ton of TV and VO work. And his brother is David Naughton, best known for An American Werewolf in London.

And I'm not positive, but I think one of my cousins is Ron Harper's (Alan Virdon) agent.

[inferno]

The animated series is on hulu plus... might have to check that out soon....

[Kan-Man]

Have you seen this? They screwed up Brent's picture but otherwise it's kind of amusing...

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Curtis/Marvel) #29

Ah, the final issue of this incredible run. Of course, scripts for #30 had already been completed, Moench was planning as far ahead as issue #60, and there's no indication that sales were lagging. Rather, at this point, APJAC Productions/20th Century Fox significantly increased its licensing fees (though we don't know how much or why), making the continuation of this series unprofitable for Marvel, and thus it was cancelled quickly and without warning. Oddly though, if anything, POTA was becoming a less sought after commodity at this point, with the movies finished, the TV series cancelled, and the animated series merely limping along. The toys and licensed products had been selling well since the film revivals a year earlier, so maybe that was enough of a reason for Fox to feel it had something it could exploit here. Of course, neither Fox nor Marvel could have foreseen what would be happening less than a year from now -- that Star Wars would redefine mainstream media's idea of and preferences toward Science Fiction, utterly replacing POTA as the mainstream Science Fiction legacy series that appealed to all ages and was known in all households across America. POTA would never again achieve the level of profitability and noteworthiness it had experienced from 1974 to 1976. So, I have to assume, this series wouldn't have lasted that much longer even if Fox hadn't raised the licensing fees. Oh well.

And, as an odd side note, I have to wonder how the Brown/Watson POTA Annuals, based upon the TV series and published from 1975-1977, continued in spite of Fox's new greediness. Perhaps they were more "off the radar"?


"Future History Chronicles V: To Race the Death-Winds"
writer: Doug Moench
art: Tom Sutton
grade: B

This works nicely as the final published installment of the Future History Chronicles because the primary cast of four characters finally comes together this time around, with Starkor and Greymalkin and Alaric and Reena finally making peace and finding comradery with each other. Sutton's visual premise for this issue, with them engaging in hot air balloon dog fighting, was pretty fun too, as was the band of environmental extremists/anti-industrialists in top hats and British accents riding giant frogs they found waiting for them on the ground.

However, as usual in Moench's scripts for this title these days, there were moments that made little to no sense:

- Alaric and Reena making up: Their fight in the previous chapter had felt so inevitable, so irreconcilable, that I found it upsetting how easily they made up and moved on in this one. Yeah, real married couple fights feel inevitable and irreconcilable a lot of the time and end up seeming silly with the light of day (I was actually really impressed with how authentically Moench captured that), but this reconciliation felt way too easy and entirely dependent upon Reena letting down her guard and conceding her faults with Alaric remaining blameless. Sometimes the way Moench writes women really bothers me.

- So they rise above the deathwinds in order to survive but, upon encountering a lightening storm above, let out gas from the balloon and drop below. Wouldn't that take them right back into the deathwinds?

- The fall: Our protagonists fall out of a hot air balloon and land comfortably on the ground. No clear indication is made of how high up they were from the ground, but they clearly weren't right above it. Later in the issue, they jump from a small cliff that appears about three stories tall and Greymalkin explains that they'll be safe because the vines are soft. You can't tell me that hot air balloon was less than three stories up from the flat, hard ground they ended up falling upon.


Sutton's art -- I feel the same way I always have about it. It's gorgeous, meticulous, and extremely difficult to follow.


Supplemental features:

- Two random full page drawings by Pat Broderick, the second of which seeming disturbingly homo-erotic as a naked muscular barbarian male with emphasis on his butt cheeks is brought, bound and gagged, before cruel ape overseers.

- Three articles by Samuel James Maronie. Not sure why they felt the need to replace Jim Whitmore with this new guy, but I don't like his energy as much. His articles lack Whitmore's enthusiasm and feel a bit insulting as they take pages upon pages to tell us things about POTA that we already knew. His first article, "10th Anniverary of the Planet of the Apes" tells the cursory story of how/when the five films and two TV shows were released. I guess this might have been news to someone, but certainly not someone who'd read previous issues of this very magazine. The second story is a thoroughly uninteresting bio on Kim Hunter, which is disappointing considering how lively she is. Tell us something about her as a person or (gasp!), you know, interview her. Finally, he interviews Richard Zanuck, the head of Fox Studios at the time. It's a perspective Apes fans hadn't previously heard but, as anyone who's seen his interviews on the subject since now knows, Zanuck doesn't seem to have much understanding of nor appreciation for the Ape franchise beyond its profitability.


And that's it. The end. If I didn't have the unpublished scripts and finished pages for four remaining Moench stories in this series, I'd feel pretty empty at this point. Instead, we can still look forward to my reviews of "Forbidden Zone Prime," "Future History Chronicles VI: The Captive of the Canals," "Journey to the Planet of the Apes" (starring Derek Zane), and the final scripted chapter of Terror on the Planet of the Apes, "Toomeet the Makers."

Reviews coming shortly...

[shaxper]

Here comes the first of the four unpublished Moench stories for the Curtis/Marvel POTA volume. Unlike the other three stories which survive in script form, this one only exists as pages of finished artwork that have turned up over the years. As a result, this story is incomplete, missing pages 4,5,7,12-14, and (I suspect) a 17 and 18.

"Forbidden Zone Prime" (unpublished)
writer: Doug Moench
art: credited to Sonny Trinidad, though he apparently denies this
grade: C- (based upon the pages that have been discovered)

(special thanks to Rich Handley, Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive, and Edward Haber for making this material available on the web).


This is an odd and seemingly disjointed story, and not only because of the missing pages. It takes place in a time presumably after "Terror" and before the original POTA film in which Apes have begun to dominate humans (who are becoming more simple minded). It begins with Zandor discovering the remains of Washington DC and leaves us to conclude both that this is Forbidden Zone Prime and that its discovery will be the basis for this story's conflict. However, missing pages 4 and 5 would have transitioned away from this and to the married couple of Vira and Julius, an Architect and Poet having a disagreement about the general direction of Ape civilization toward single-minded expansion and domination and away from beauty and art. It doesn't help that Julius is a terrible poet (it seems that Moench delights in having characters rhyme in his works, and the result is always pretty disastrous).

At any rate, some parallel is apparently implied between Vira (the Architect) and Zandor (the simple minded gorilla who hates his life and perceives enemies everywhere he looks) in that they both stubbornly advance without any concern for joy and beauty. Julius and Steena (the girl Zandor attempts to victimize) on the other hand, have the souls of artists and believe both in stopping to smell the roses and in co-existence between apes and humans. The parallels are, of course, loose, and I'm not sure restoring the missing pages would help much in this respect.

On page 11, Julius prevents Zandor from harming Steena, and it's hard to tell whether missing pages 12-14 would have included an expanded conflict between Julius and Zandor or whether they would be spent entirely on Steena interacting with Julius and Vira. I'm assuming a clear contrast of ideologies would be drawn between Steena and Vira at this point.

By page 16, the story's focus has steered away from ideologies to a moral about resisting marital infidelity, as Steena makes it abundantly clear that she'd like to be with Julius, and he turns her away. So is infidelity the prime forbidden zone that means death to all intruders?

My sense both of the average length of these stories and of Moench's writing style is that there were two final pages missing, making this an 18 page story. And I suspect those final two pages would frame the story by ending where it began, with Zandor and the remains of Washington, more overtly drawing a parallel between that and the events of this story through extensive narration. Was the "Forbidden Zone Prime" hate, mistrust, blindness, betrayal? Were we now seeing seeds that this civilization would fall apart just as that one had? Only those final pages could have made this clear.

Still though, what we do see of this story is relatively unimpressive. It lacks the scope and imagination that have been the trademarks of Moench's stories for this title thus far. Pages 4, 5, 17, and 18 could have made this a more powerful tale by better connecting the events of those first three pages to everything else that transpires and capping it off with a powerful observation about mankind (and apekind). But, if I'm left to grade this on what I've actually been able to read, I'm not that impressed.


Minor detail: It does disturb me that, through this story, Moench essentially shows us that the civilization seen in "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" will ultimately fail to achieve the harmony and co-existence it has been striving for all along. Jason's descendents will become every bit the terrorized slaves that he fears they will be. It sure makes all the hard lessons and growth he's experienced, learning to understand that all apes and all gorillas aren't evil oppressors, meaningless and misguided.

[shaxper]

And now the first of three unpublished Doug Moench scripts intended to be used in upcoming issues of the Curtis/Marvel POTA magazine:


"Future History Chronicles VI: The Captive of the Canals" (unpublished)
writer: Doug Moench
grade: A

(Thanks to Rich Handley and to Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive for making this script available online)


In Doug's note to Tom Sutton at the beginning of the script for this issue, he notes: "Hubris or not, I think this is the most imaginative one yet," and I agree. All along, it seems the primary appeal of these "Future History Chronicles" stories has been in finding one outlandish sci-fi visual around which to build a story, from a city on the sea, to a marine animal controlled as a submarine, to a series of interlocking ships forming a larger city on the sea, to a cathedral on the sea, to airship dog fights. That tradition continues this time with the Sexxtann, a six sided fortress with a jungle in the middle and a 41 story tall canal system running throughout (and you really need to read the script to fully appreciate the imaginative power of this setting). However, there's a lot more to this one as well, as Moench works to infuse great imagination and symbolism into this structure and into its final fate. This is a story about industry attempting to prove it can dominate the wild (which, as Moench so astutely notes in this script, is the entire reason why mankind has front lawns), nature's superiority to man (depicted via the amphibians who comfortably exist both within and outside of the Sexxtann whereas its inhabitants cannot, and playfully seeming to scoff at their seriousness/self-importance), new civilizations blindly repeating the mistakes of the old (African industrialized society living within the Sexxtann scoffing at the errors that first world industrialized nations made, leading to their demise, all while making the same kinds of errors born of hubris, fear, and hatred of those who they perceives as threats), and noble savagery and the danger of blind fear (though Moench has beaten this final theme to a pulp by now).

I feel like this story was virtually perfect until we got to Her Midgitey, an oversized simple-minded ape that the Industrialists of the Sexxtann had experimented upon. For the third time, Moench puts the spotlight on a noble savage who is unnecessarily killed as a result of man's inhumanity to man. In fact, it's a virtual replay of the savage that cared for Lightsmith a few issues back, nursing him like a mother and then killed by our protagonists because they foolishly believed she was kidnapping him. The exact same thing happens to Her Midgitey when she takes Greymalken in this one. Her final moments were touching, but the final twist at the end, in which we realize that "Her Midgitey" = "Her Majesty" and that she'd been the leader of the environmentalist ape tribe we met last issue until the Industrialists caught and experimented on her, feels unnecessary, not all that shocking (we could easily infer she was from that tribe, though not that she was their leader) and pretty much upstages the other impressive themes running throughout this story.

It's fascinating to read this issue in script form. I expected to enjoy the story less as a result but was instead surprised to see just how clearly Moench envisioned the visuals on the page and how pure and undiluted his concepts came across here. It must have been frustrating for Moench to constantly depend upon artists to filter his ideas onto the page. Surely, Sutton's art, while amazingly detailed, was never as clear as what Moench envisions here. Funny. I'd always assumed the visual concepts had been Sutton's (or whichever artist was working with Doug at the time), but this might be the best visual of the entire series, and it comes all from Moench. Moench does mention at the beginning of the script that the writer providing page layouts is a new style being required from Marvel (Archie Goodwin's idea?) as opposed to the traditional Marvel style in which writer and artist created together, but this still invites doubt as to how many of the great visual premises of this series came from the artists working with Moench.

Similarly surprising to me was the fact that this script contained no straight dialogue. Moench's stories carry a definite signature, both in dialogue and in narration, but there was no dialogue nor narration here. So how does it get added later? Is the finished art sent to Moench so that he can then write a script for the letterer?

Whatever the case, having the opportunity to read Moench's pure script was an absolute pleasure and a rare opportunity to understand how the man really envisioned and created. I wonder if most of his scripts were this strong and were merely diluted by artists who didn't have the time or imagination to properly translate his ideas.


Minor details:

- It's interesting that the Sexxtann is not destroyed in the end, but instead must work hard to balance the water both inside the walls of the Sexxtann and in the lake now in the middle of it. Whereas the Industrialists put the jungle in there to prove they could dominate over nature, now they must literally achieve balance with nature, constantly working their pumps to balance the levels within and without.

- Of course, that ruins some of the message of this story. If the purpose in making the Industrialists resentful descendants of Second-World African Nations was to show that they could repeat the First-World Nations' mistakes even while scoffing at them -- they didn't. The Sexxtann still stands and so does the civilization within it. This is hardly a clear microcosm of the apocalypse that has ravaged the planet and hurled civilization back into the stone age.

- I feel like Moench tried to play up the skin color of the Industrialists a bit too much. If he wasn't going for a racial message, what was the point? Why would Alaric and friends never have seen a black human before?

- A misfired flamethrower can break the whole complex (specifically gouging out an entire chunk of wall)? How would the physics of that work? Wouldn't it melt or disintegrate the chunk instead of pull it out? And surely, if the Industrialists' flamethrowers could do this to their own walls, I have to believe they would have known this and been more careful about using them within the walls of the Sexxtann.

- The name "Sexxtann" is just terrible. Moench claims it is derived from being six sided and making a weird homage to Exxon, but even he seems to imply he's aware the primary connotation readers will have is with the "sexx" part. Also, WHY make a nod to Exxon? Yes, they're a big industry, but in what way do their business practices specifically relate to that of the Industrialists in this story? It's a very very weak connection, resulting in an outright terrible name.

- Speaking of names, I'm still not sure why this series was ever called "Future History Chronicles." Nothing about this series suggests that it's specifically further in the future than "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" unless it's supposed to be the same civilization of apes and humans, and it can't be anyone's history chronicles if the entire civilization perished in Chapter 5, save for four characters (only two of which can procreate together). Then again, "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" ceased to be an appropriate name for the series roughly seven chapters in when Brutus' reign of terror in Ape City came to an end.


In conclusion, AWESOME story full of tremendous potential, only slightly upstaged by a repeat of Moench's noble savage theme.

[shaxper]

"Journey to the Planet of the Apes (unpublished)
writer: Doug Moench
grade: B

(Thanks to Rich Handley and to Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive for making this script available online)


Originally entitled "Return to the Planet of the Apes," but changed when that became the title of the animated series, "Journey" would have taken the place of the film adaptations that had now concluded, featuring Derek Zane in a series of adventures that would have been written/drawn like adaptations to films that didn't exist, at least according to Moench's initial vision. Moench suggested the idea of even eventually having the protagonists go off into space in a sequel and encounter aliens. Knowing Moench, that probably would have ended up being a far cooler idea than what it sounds like. Indeed, Moench was projecting basic story concepts as far out as "issue #60 or so."

However, I'm not sure he really had this concept worked out. After all this time, I'm still not sure what the appeal of Derek Zane is. He began as the outcast with something to prove but evolved into a simplistic action hero far too quickly in his first story. Since that time (and since achieving the acceptance and belonging he'd always desired in his private little kingdom), the character has bored me. I'm not sure why Moench feels the need to keep pulling this character out of a well-earned retirement.

Worse yet, his new compatriot, Fallon, who is supposed to be a "Roddy McDowall/Cornelius type, but hopefully with a little more characterization" feels pretty flat and with stilted dialogue to boot (note: if you click on the link at the top and read the script, make sure you go all the way to the end and read Moench's finalized dialogue -- it's significantly improved). Not sure what this character would have added to the series as he doesn't seem to have any innate needs or desires beyond living and showing someone what he saw. What drives this character?

I do like the addition of our two time travelers. Mara doesn't really get a chance to establish any characterization in this first story, but it's still impressive finally giving a human stranded on the Planet of the Apes a fellow human to help him feel less out of place, and I like the challenge of Moench finally adding a female lead who isn't just a romantic interest. He was getting there with Rena in the Future History Chronicles, but Mara is starting off as her own woman from day one.

In contrast, Brock (sounds a little too much like "Breck")'s dialogue is so over the top, it's laughable, but I do like Moench's vision for him -- a man scarred by his own insane actions, looking to lead a revolution for his own interests. I enjoy finding concepts that Moench recycles from one story to another across the years (presumably because he enjoys them so much), and if Brock isn't a prototype for Silver Simon (from the Electric Warrior series), then I'll be the monkey's uncle.


Minor details:

- Why would the general public of 1976 know who Derek Zane was or be concerned with his disappearance? People vanish all the time.

- I wish Moench had skipped the 1976 portions entirely and simply had the "temponauts" arrive and explain everything that had come before in passing.

- Note to self: If going on a time traveling expedition with the intent of "raping time" for personal gain, do not randomly explain all of this to your traveling companion for absolutely no reason the moment you get there.

- Another note to self: If, on the other hand, your traveling companion does do these things and is also waving a gun, do not threaten to tell everyone what he's trying to do when you get back. That gives him a pretty good incentive to make sure you don't.

- I like the pacing towards the end -- the teasing flip-flop between revealing what Farron has discovered and showing what's happening with the temponauts.

- Apes living in modern day -- it was inevitable, and it would have been delightful to see. Judging by the covers alone, it looks like Malibu's 1990s POTA franchise finally got around to this idea with its Ape City mini-series. Definitely looking forward to that one.

- Who is writing back to Doug on that unfinished script? An editor? I find being able to see this aspect of the process fascinating. So Doug sent the initial page-by-page concept out to the artist and editor, had it sent back with comments, and then added specific dialogue? Or was this one treated differently because it was a pitch for an entirely new feature?


So I can't say I'm sold on this concept for a new ongoing feature. I still wish Moench would have consolidated all his cool ideas for weird civilizations on the planet of the apes into the one "Terror" storyline featuring Jason and Alex. Still, I've no doubt I would have enjoyed this in spite of the initially weak main cast, and perhaps Mara and arch-nemesis Brock would have brought something to the series that "Terror" and "Future History Chronicles" lacked.

[shaxper]

"To Meet the Makers" (unpublished script)
writer: Doug Moench
grade: C+

(Thanks to Rich Handley and to Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive for making this script available online)


I'm assuming the title of this final installment in the "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" series was supposed to be "To Meet the Maker," and not "Toomeet the Maker," which is what is written at the top of the surviving script.

I've been awaiting this final "Terror" story with much apprehension because, from the time I read issue #4, I knew that I was in love with this series and would never want it to end. It's precisely why I saved this, the final installment in the largest (and my favorite) ongoing series in the magazine, until last. I suppose that, in this light, it would be incredibly difficult for a script to live up to my expectations. Still, I can't help but thinking that we were better off ending with the previous chapter, as this one is far more flawed and even exposes some weaknesses in the general direction of the series that might not have come to our attention otherwise.

There are the obvious problems, like Smashore, the new cyber-enhanced albino gorilla antagonist who literally shoots missiles out of his belt, lasers out of his finger tips, and death beams out of his eyes.

There's our being invited to laugh along with Lightsmith as his bumbling attempts to pass himself off as an expert nearly result in the death of the Lawgiver, and laugh even harder as he attempts to cover this up afterward.

There's Jason's odd behavior in this issue that Moench seems to see as character evolution, with his initial utterly meaningless confrontation with Brutus at his jail cell (neither character grows or is further revealed at all through this potentially heavy interchange), his ultimate decision that he owes Brutus an apology (Wha..huh??), and that odd final moment where Brutus is free and laughing maniacally in the storm while Jason stares at him, realizing he is free again, and just seems...alone. I just don't get it. We've all been waiting to see Jason grow as a person, but this progression made no sense to me.

And, of course, we have the abrupt resolution to the story of young Thaddeus, the idealistic youth who risked everything to try to save the Lawgiver. While his luck had taken a tragic and moving turn in the previous issue, this one utterly discards him and makes his entire sacrifice irrelevant. The Lawgiver just gets better, abruptly and for no apparent reason beyond the sound of explosions outside. Thaddeus' sacrifice was meaningless, and even this pathetic fact could have been moving if given attention in the issue -- but it isn't. Thaddeus just dies -- arbitrarily, without having made ANY contribution to the series, and without any attention having been given to his passing. We've mourned the loss of savages, mutants, and monsters in this series, but the passing of a mere child who was trying to selflessly help others goes almost entirely unnoticed. I truly hope Moench had envisioned giving some attention to Thaddeus' passing in the next issue.

Finally, considering that Gunpowder Julius and Steely Dan (our only likable supporting cast members at this point) have served their purpose, show no signs of progressing as characters, and only seem to be hanging around (temporarily) for nostalgia at this point, I really wonder what momentum this series would have had beyond issue #30. Surely both the addition of "The Makers" and the escaping (again) of Brutus feel like desperate attempts to create new conflict and rekindle momentum as well. As much as I have truly enjoyed the ride more than not, I still feel like the series has never really recaptured that energy it had at the beginning before progressing too far too quickly and solving all the initial conflicts of the series in the span of only the first seven installments. A certain momentum was lost at that point, and I'm not sure we ever got it back. At least issue #28 felt like it was headed back that way. Intended or otherwise, it was a strong send-off to the series. This issue was not.


The minor details:

- Really, what's the appeal of "Lightsmith?" Is he supposed to be that bumbling mad professor type, because he's even less useful and his sense of pride makes his bumbling idiocy a lot less forgiving.

- Moench missed a major opportunity with that old man who remembered caring for Jason when he was a child. There was Jason's opportunity to connect with someone again and find a sense of family once more. I think that could have been a powerful external device for driving Jason towards the path of healing/enlightenment.

- Yeah, I think anyone who would have read this issue would have immediately known the secret behind the hooded figures who tried to execute Alex's parents. The symmetry with Jason's past experience was too perfect; it had to be humans committing the same atrocity that Brutus and his followers had committed in the first issue. A little too over-the-top unsubtle (and unlikely) in its tidiness.

- What is the goal of the inheritors? Why did they want Ape City before, and why DON’T they take it now? And did "The Makers" create them? I assume Moench would have gotten around to explaining these things down the line, but explanations would have been the most appropriate in this story.

- Dan and Julius trying to drop a rock on Smashore and failing miserably while Jason is left as the frustrated bait – okay, that was cute. Sort of makes up for the other stuff in this issue.

- I expected Moravius to be a little more noble in his dealings with Jason. He lost his temper awfully quickly whereas I would have hoped he'd give Jason a little more benefit of the doubt for having so recently lost his parents at the hands of the previous occupant of his office. Of course, if he were perfect, that wouldn’t leave much room for Jason to be the potential long-term hero of this series.

- What happened to that sense of newfound leadership and peace we saw Jason begin to develop last issue? It seems like Moench sets him back to square one in terms of rage and lack of direction in this story.

- What’s with Malaguena’s “feeling” that Jason and Alex are suddenly in danger, and why does everyone accept it at face value?

- Another random connection between POTA and Moench Electric Warrior (published ten years later): both series feature a discovered ancient underground library from the reader's modern day.



So, all in all, an issue I'd rather forget. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely an "in between" issue that shouldn't serve as a bookend to the series.

[shaxper]

Well, sadly, that wraps up the original Curtis/Marvel series. For those that don't know, the second Marvel series ("Adventures on the Planet of the Apes") was just reprints of the film adaptations included in the first volume, and the Marvel UK comic contained the same content as Volume 1, only with the addition of Apeslayer.

About the Brown/Watson "Annuals
(1975-1977)

The second original Apes series published in English was the UK Planet of the Apes "Annuals" which tied into the television series and contained a mixture of articles, fiction, and comics. Since I'm interested only in comics that expanded the original POTA universe into new territories and premises, I've no interest in the UK series both because it's really just a continuation of the TV series and because it's tied to the TV universe, which is not the same as the original POTA film universe (as I've explained towards the end of this post).

Still, for those who are curious, the Planet of the Apes TV Series fan site has done a fantastic job of making scans of these nearly impossible to locate stories available for your viewing pleasure. Below are the original comic stories contained in those volumes:

Journey into Terror (1975 Annual)
When the Earth Shakes (1975 Annual)
Pit of Doom (1976 Annual)
Ship of Fools (1976 Annual)
Blow for Blow (1977 Annual)
Breakout (1977 Annual)
From out of the Sky (1977 Annual)

I haven't read these, (heck, I'm still only halfway through watching the TV series) but I may eventually give them a whirl.

[shaxper]

From out of the Sky (1977 Annual)

Just read this one, and I must say, if you're a fan of the TV series, it's must reading. An excellent bookend to the series!

[shaxper]

Summary of Planet of the Apes Vol. 1 (Curtis/Marvel)
(1974-1977)

Overview: Dazzling artwork from some of the industry's best, solid Doug Moench scripts, and some tremendously fun characters and concepts that took the basic premise of Planet of the Apes and charged boldly into strange new territory with it. For the more traditional readers, Moench served up some really solid adaptations of the films that often added a lot of new depth via narration and added dialogue, and for those looking for a little more excitement, Moench provided the following ongoing storylines that took both the basic sci-fi premise and racial disharmony theme into wild new area of imaginative fancy: "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" was the main series which strived to balance some strong characterization with far out new lands and civilizations beyond Ape City. "Future History Chronicles" focused more on introducing one new whammy of a visual sci-fi concept each issue that would leave you breathless. The Derek Zane stories were designed to be more cinematic in scope -- action and visual intensive with less reliance on narration and dialogue. The articles content was never as strong, but it does present a genuine glimpse into Planet of the Apes fandom at its height (1974) until right before its decline (1976).

Worthwhile To Read?: Absolutely, even if you're not a Planet of the Apes fan. If you enjoy good science fiction/fantasy, then you will be entertained.

Key Issues/Highlights?: #1-6 and 8-11 are probably the strongest issues, containing the first (and best) story arc for "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" and the awesome stand-alone "Kingdom on the Planet of the Apes". The unpublished "Captive of the Canals" also wowed me.

Worth Re-Reading?: Truly all of it. There's one story in this entire run that I wouldn't consider worth reading (#22 -- "Quest for the Planet of the Apes") and even the issues only containing film adaptation installments (#7, 16, 18, and 25) are quality in their own right (well, maybe not #25).

Also Worth Noting: The second Marvel volume "Adventures on the Planet of the Apes" was just a reprint of the film adaptation content from the first volume. Additionally, this was the third Planet of the Apes comic publication (Gold Key's "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" film adaptation was first, and the Power Records series of film adaptations was second), but this was the first volume to contain original content, and thus I've dubbed it "Vol. 1".

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #1

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

grade: C-


1990 seems like a strange time to launch a new Planet of the Apes series. From the time Star Wars came on the scene in 1977, the Planet of the Apes franchise became largely irrelevant to the wider popular culture. As an adolescent growing up at the time and buying my first comics, I can tell you that my only knowledge of Planet of the Apes came from the ending of the Mel Brooks film, Spaceballs ("Dear me, what are those things coming out of her nose?") On the other hand, a young company looking to get its hands on some relatively inexpensive properties at the time might see POTA as a perfect opportunity. Indeed, a write-up in the first issue indicates that there was already so much response coming from fans who had waited 14 years for new POTA material that they would be releasing an off-shoot mini-series in only a few months' time.

So maybe 1990 wasn't such a strange time to launch a new Planet of the Apes series after all.

I must say that I was pretty excited to start this series. So many of the covers I'd glimpsed seemed so playful, fun, and full of innovative new ideas. I therefore had high expectations for this first issue. Unfortunately, it ended up feeling amateur in just about every way, from the half-assed introduction by the author that seemed like it took two minutes to write, to the crude and inconsistent artwork, the flat and over-the-top characterizations, the total lack of pacing in the story (I honestly thought it ended halfway through when the Ape City ads came in) and even the poor lettering (I honestly couldn't tell that was an "8" and a "9" on page 12). More than that, though, I truly have no idea what this story is about. It seems like Marshall was just throwing as many characters and subplots at us at one time as he possibly could, hoping they would all stick, even without providing any unifying shape to these events.

Perhaps, though, the saddest aspect of this first issue is its desperate attempt to align this series with the movies by making virtually every key character a descendant or carbon copy of someone from the films.


Here's what we get:

General Ollo -- The over-the-top evil gorilla leader that resembles Aldo (Battle for the Planet of the Apes) in his brazen desire for absolute power, but even more over-the-top evil, having apes fight to the death because he's bored. Zero depth, zero believability. He outright states that he's a follower of Aldo, though one has to wonder how he'd even know anything about Aldo other than the wrongs he committed. It's not like Aldo had a disciple who could record his thoughts and exploits.

Alexander -- Grandson of Caesar, but even more self-doubting. Leader of Ape City until he wanders off to the Forbidden Zone for inspiration, knowing full well that it will descend into chaos while he's gone.

Jacob -- son to Virgil, but even more of a rational sounding board for the leader of Ape City (I'm detecting a pattern here).

Coure -- a willful chimp looking for her lost mate who seems modeled after Zira, but even more pregnant (I'm not kidding. Her condition is far more of an obstacle to this group of adventurers than it was to Zira while she was outrunning government agents for her life in the third film).

Max -- the mute man-servant to Coure.

Simon -- Human boy whose family is murdered by gorillas. Possibly a nod to the most overt and memorable aspect of the Curtis/Marvel series, but even more innocent and tragic than Jason (In terms of intended effect; not in terms of what is accomplished).

Grunt -- The only character introduced that actually interests me at all, largely because he doesn't feel like a blatant rip-off of another established character. Grunt is the mute son of General Ollo who the General hates and wishes to kill. Grunt seems peaceful enough but becomes a highly effective killer when attacked.


Plot synopsis in one quick sentence: Alexander doubts himself and decides to go find himself in the Forbidden Zone, Jacob follows him even though they both know Ape City will fall without them, they meet Coure and Max, and they come along, seeking Coure's missing mate, Simon's family is killed, Ollo seizes control of Ape City and gives the order to have Grunt killed, but Grunt doesn't seem to like that idea.


Minor details:

While it seems a bit hard to accept the idea that most humans have mysteriously begun to lose the capacity for speech while Simon and his mother are fully articulate and well read, it's a decent attempt to draw attention to the difference between the humans in Caesar's time and in the time of the first ape film (assuming, as this series seems to, that Caesar didn't change history as much as we would have liked to believe). For what it's worth, this pretty much boots "Terror for the Planet of the Apes" out of continuity since it couldn't have come before this series (there were no descendants of Caesar in that series), and it couldn't come after (all humans could still speak).

For that matter, I suppose Alexander's purported heritage suggests that Caesar and Lisa had at least one more child after Cornelius died. Either that, or Alexander isn't really Caesar's grandson.



In the end, no; there's nothing about this first issue that ruins the overall potential of the series. No real damage is done, but this series is going to have to mature quickly. Right now, every aspect of it feels sub par.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #2

"Escape!"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C+


Issue #2 is still an amateur comic, with poor art, awkward pacing, writing that clearly thinks it's better than it is (at one point, Alexander begins crying in reaction to another character's speech, and I can't figure out how the hell the speech was moving to him), and a lack of rich characterization, but this issue did win me over in one respect -- the teaming of Grunt with Simon, the orphaned boy. I see real value to this friendship, true give and take, as Grunt can protect Simon, Simon can teach Grunt, and both have good reason to hate the gorillas. This single aspect of the story won me over, and it also borrowed and enhanced upon two favorite concepts from Moench's POTA run -- the orphaned human and the noble savage. I'm really looking forward to their continued adventures.

As for the rest -- bleh. It was stilted, overly dramatic and overly inflated with a false sense of purpose/meaning, and it depended upon too many coincidences to boot. Still, if one aspect of this story could win me over in a major way, I have to believe there's hope for the rest.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: The gorillas are hunting humans like deer, Alexander narrowly saves his group from murderous mutants by conveniently finding a "auto seal" control panel at the last moment that was apparently there the whole time, Simon is found by the gorillas, is saved by Grunt, and begins reading The Hobbit to Grunt, Alexander and the gang find a group of Apes who have been locked in the old Ape Management complex ever since Caesar's revolution and frees them, they defeat the mutants, Coure delivers her child, Alexander feels a renewed sense of purpose, a prophet tells them that their city "faces its darkest hour," and they head back for home.


Definitely not a quality series yet, but Marshall is certainly trying, and he seems to be passionate about what he's doing. Now if only he could make his ideas work as well as he apparently thinks they're working so that we can be in tears along with Alexander next time around.

[shaxper]

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #3

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

grade: C-

A more action-intense issue, and since Burles' art is severely deficient, that makes this a less than fascinating issue to read. Fortunately, with less dependence upon story and dialogue, Marshall's writing manages not to offend this time around. However, there are some serious logic problems in this issue:

- Ummm, when did Coure's lover die? His death, and their discovery of his body, seem to have occurred between issues, and yet these events are presented as if we'd been witness to them.

- By showing the mostly buried statue of liberty from the first film, Marshall and Burles are suggesting that the thousands of years of geographic shifting that led to the planet Taylor visited in the first film have already occurred only two generations after the ape revolution that occurred in the 1990s. If Caesar and his followers were able to weather the atomic war in tree houses without a scratch, then there's no way the land a day's ride from them rose over-night to the point that the statue of liberty is up to her chest in cracked and hardened earth.

- Joshua, Coure's lover, was from another village, and she was from a third village, and there are other villages that eat humans. So it would appear that Ape City is surrounded by a number of other Ape territorial governments. How come, then, Ape City seems to have lost contact with such societies by the time of the first film? They had never even wandered as far as the Forbidden Zone, which is a day's ride from Ape City.

- At one moment, Simon is terrified about Grunt taking on the apes on his own. At another, he reassures Jacob that Grunt can easily take care of himself. I suppose this is the first time he's seen Grunt in action, so maybe seeing him fight reassured him?

- Here's the biggie: In the first issue, Simon and his mother were discussing why humans were suddenly losing the ability to speak, but, in this issue, Dr. Moto explains that humans haven't been able to speak for a full generation now. Alexander further expounds that "humans were rendered mute in the Great Plague." Interesting.


Beyond all this, we see the introduction of Dr. Moto, General Ollo's sadistic mad doctor assistant. He may have some potential. However, I wasn't wowed by Simon and Grunt in this issue (as I'd hoped I'd be). Simon is a little too quick to smugly use Grunt like a weapon, and Grunt is nothing more than a brute enforcer in this issue. Not the dynamic pairing of unlikely friends I'd been hoping for, and Simon forcing tears while talking about his mother's death (tears flow waaay too generously in this series) does little to humanize him and make him more emotionally accessible to the reader.


The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Ollo is still committing unspeakable acts of evil (every issue seems to start this way), Coure's lover is now apparently dead, and her baby is now named after him, we learn a little about the lover and get a partial origin for Coure (she was expelled from her village for speaking against the village elder), Jacob is assaulteb by Ollo's men while leading the way back to Ape City, Simon and Grunt intervene and rescue him, the cast of characters is finally united, and Alexander, upon learning what has happened to Ape City, over dramatically pledges to take it back.


Minor details:

- Does a wishy-washy leader who chose to abandon his duties, knowing full well it would result in the fall of Ape City, have a right to take it back? Aldo needs to go down, but why are we rooting for Alexander again?

- Some of Burles' most laugh-out-loud bad moments yet: Page 6, panel 6 -- are they going to eat that baby? Page 25, panel 4 -- Jesus' soup is too hot.

- Okay, I get it now. The title of each issue is taken from the title of each film sequel in chronological order. Cute.



Yeah, still not good. Not painful to read for some reason, though, so I'll keep pushing through in the hopes that something improves.