The only way to survive is to go on the offensive.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Alvaro Lopez
Colors: Alex Guimaraes
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
A NEW APE EMPIRE REVEALS ITSELF! Chimpanzee scientists Cornelius and Zira believed their city of apes was the only form of civilization on the planet. They were wrong. Has their journey to the Forbidden Zone brought war to their own borders?!
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 Guimaraes 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.
While I’m still feeling weird about some of the events going on here and figure that some of the characters will be mindwiped so that the film story goes forward without conflict, it’s definitely interesting to see more of this small part of the world and how it unfolds. Zira and the others have found Lucius being held in this Hominidae city and that this is very much a militaristic Gorilla city. Zira’s intent on getting her nephew back but the reality is that she needs to get Ivana and her people to attack. She’s not wrong in painting it as though Jarl and his forces won’t come after them eventually because once you start a path of conquest for territory and power, you can’t let a lot of things stand in your way. But Zira is also doing this largely because she wants her nephew back first and foremost and admits it easily to Cornelius. These people are still just people and it’s Apes over all in her eyes.
It does take Ivana some time to be convinced but it helps that most of the other senior leadership in Hope’s Place are on the same side as Zira and believe that the threat will come for them eventually. They also have the advantage of the psychic abilities that they use to essentially sneak in plain sight into the city and commence their attack with significant numbers. It does lean into things we know from the past films so it’s not exactly out of place but it does feel a bit weird and makes me wish this was a six-issue series so that we had more time with these characters and locations to be more fleshed out and invested in. It works well enough, however, and the ensuing fight is pretty intense to watch play out as the bodies fall and threats mount as Jarl and his gorillas are not to be trifled with.
In Summary:
With one more issue to go it’s pretty easy to see how things wrap up so that it gets the pieces in place for the main storylines to unfold. I’m really curious as to what Marvel intends to do with this property as there are a lot of places to go and hopefully, they’re not being forced to adhere to too many rules in order to tell stories in this world. It’s a prime space to open up to new things and expand on what we know and just run with it in interesting ways. This one taking place before the original film but touching on future elements is interesting and I’m curious to see if they do bring it to a close like I expect but hopefully with a surprise or two. It’s definitely fun to watch play out at least.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: March 20th, 2023
MSRP: $5.99
