Planet Of The Apes

I realize that this is a review, but first a history lesson is in order:

For those of us who have been apefans for a long time, there has been a dearth of good Planet of the Apes (PotA) comics. The Marvel stuff from the mid-to-late 70s was fun. After that, the comics property lay fallow for 15 or so years until Malibu comics picked up the license under their Adventure imprint in the early 90s. For apefans, the fruit of their labor was largely hit-or-miss.

Dark Horse, with a successful track record of licensed comics, made a foray into PotA comics about 10 years ago, but set in the continuity of Tim Burton’s poorly received film. The comics themselves were surprisingly terrible.

The next holder of the license was Canadian outfit Mr. Comics, about 5 years ago. Under Ty Templeton’s watchful eye, the best PotA comics in 25 years were produced. They reverted back to the continuity of the original 5 films and captured the “feel” of those movies. But, Mr. Comics was a small publisher…people didn’t know how to get the issues. After six issues, they let the license go.

That brings us to today and Boom! Studios efforts with PotA comics.

These aren’t just good Planet of the Apes comics, they’re good comics period!

Set in the continuity of the original 5 films, the current story takes place shortly after the epilogue of “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”, some 1,200 years before Charlton Heston made his fateful landing. One of the questions in the minds of Apefans has always been, “What happened in those 1,200 years?” In the epilogue, humans and apes were living together in harmony…

How did that change?

Writer Daryl Gregory and artist Carlos Magno give us the answer. Even a reader with no knowledge of the films will not be lost. All of the various elements of the film continuity are there, but presented in a surprisingly reader-friendly fashion. Gregory chose a very fetile ground in the PotA timeline for telling new stories. Magno does an excellent job of making the appearance of each ape main character distinct, so that one can easily tell them apart. The characterizatons are what make the story work. The social commentary elements are somewhat downplayed in favor of a more straight forward action/adventure, but that does not seem to make the comic any less enjoyable.

Here’s hoping that Boom! can maintain the quality and consistency of these comics for a long time.

The first four issues have been collected in a discounted trade paperback:

http://heavyink.com/graphic_novel/21033-Planet-...

With the HeavyInk discount, you get four issues for $8. Not bad, eh?