Cornelius and Zira discover a much larger world.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Alvaro Lopez
Colors: Alex Guimarase
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
THREE STRIKES, YOU’RE OUT! The search for Lucius brings ape scientists Cornelius and Zira, along with their human guide Nova, deeper into the Forbidden Zone – which is forbidden for a reason. What never-before-seen dangers await them in the ruins of the old Yankee Stadium? Find out in the next installment of the thrilling new series by Marc Guggenheim and Álvaro López!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Planet of the Apes is one of those core properties as a kid growing up in the 1970s in seeing the movies broadcast on weekends on TV, having the playsets and action figures, and then understanding their context more as I got into my teens and an adult revisiting them. There’ve been a number of comics over the years but they never caught on all that well for various reasons, though I’m always game to give them a try. This series brings in prolific writer Marc Guggenheim as he looks to tell a story from before the original film. The has him paired with artist Alvaro Lopez and colorist Alex Guimarase who give this a pretty good feel that in some ways captures the color palette of the original works, the ape designs, and just the kind of emptiness of the world pretty well. It feels authentic while also realizing that the original is pretty much a nature-based work with little to stand out beyond the apes themselves.
With a lot of basics brought into the first installment, there’s a kind of wonky nature at times to this second issue that’s hard at first. Mostly, it’s the prescient elements where we have Layla seeing glimpses of Brent and Nova in the future with the bomb worshippers. It’s interesting to lay some of that foundation now and to have Layla show that to Nova while trying to communicate with her through telepathy. There are some dark aspects to doing that to poor Nova who is often just trying to grapple with all the situations she’s in. And being in a place full of people who can talk when she can’t but also having them be telepathic is definitely not an easy adjustment. That’s on top of all the time spent with Cornelius and Zira at this point as they’ve kind of played at things.
When it comes to those two, they’re able to be brought into Yankee Stadium by Layla since one of her guards ends up shooting Cornelius in the shoulder. She does her best to try and ease the situation overall but Zira’s just astounded by basic medical care while Cornelius can’t help but to rebuff all the history that he’s learning here as well as architecture and language. That there may even be other Ape cultures is surprising to him, though that is something that they get to see for themselves which is frightening in its own way. The book is trying to reconcile a couple of different films and elements in this one particular place in time and it’s a bit chaotic because of that but it’s also surprisingly engaging and intriguing. It just feels like it needs another pass in the structure of it the story.
In Summary:
I feel like I want to like this more than I am but the way the story is unfolding is keeping me from doing so. I want to know about the larger world of this property but by tying it so closely to the existing things it feels like it’s limiting itself by trying to ease into this particular timeframe and familiar characters. I’m enjoying it but I hope some future works move us away from here and try to do something new and original but I’m just afraid that’s either not what’s allowed under the license or it’s just not something that people are interested in, either in creating or reading. I do enjoy the expansion we get here on the world we know but I want to zoom out a bit and look elsewhere more than anything else.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 14th, 2023
MSRP: $5.99
