Well, it took forever and a half, but I finally built up the nerve to return to this tedious series. How odd to be trudging through at issue #8 with full knowledge the series just ended at #12 three weeks ago due to low sales. Ah well. The completeist in my pushes forward...


Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #8



writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: C


With #5 of this series, I surmised that Bechko and Hardman were still plotting their stories as 4 issue limited series, but that Boom! was pushing it as a regular title for sales reasons. I get that feeling again with #8, where the storyline comes to a full ending with the conflict resolved and all mysteries explained, and just a hint of the next conflict to be faced.

It looks like I had Painted Valley figured wrong all along. It is NOT an area that we'd seen previously during the General Aleron storyline, but rather an entirely different sealed off area in which Chimpanzees apparently overthrew Gorillas and Orangutans a century earlier. The big reveal turns out to be that the mutants are not humans, but rather their own apes who have been poisoned by contaminated drinking water coming from the Forbidden Zone.

Not a bad twist, I suppose, unless you've been reading from the beginning and know that such a twist was already tried in Vol. 1, #5: "Evolution's Nightmare," one of the better known stories from the original volume. I'd chalk the whole thing up to coincidence, except that we'll see more borrowing from Vol. 1 in three more issues.

The focus, at this point, and which appears to be the crux of the remaining four issues, is a quest for chimpanzee rights in the face of Orangutan oppression. Do we really need this story? It's just taking every other POTA story and replacing the word "human" with "chimpanzee". So the Orangutan, and Dr. Zaius specifically, just believe in oppressing anyone who isn't them? It's a little far fetched for a villain who was played remarkably sympathetically in the films (and, indeed, at the start of this run).


Important Details:

-Prisca is now leading the Chimpanzee resistance group

-Cornelius tells the resistance about Painted Valley and the Chimpanzees who threw off their oppressors there, but Vitus reports to Zaius that the entire population there was killed after the Moon exploded.


Minor Details:

- still no significant environmental consequences from the moon's destruction? Still no real purpose behind having the moon destroyed in this storyline other than to give Zaius a second opportunity to rise to power?

- If those who are mutated by radiation can use their power of illusion to the extent that they can each individually change how others perceive their faces, why did the mutants need to wear masks in the second film?

- As usual, the covers have nothing to do with the content. It's obvious Boom! has no interest in even trying.


plot synopsis in one sentence:


Cadmus is in prison and doesn't like it, Cornelius and Milo discover the mutants at Painted Valley's water source and are captured, Zaius promises big public works but really means Chimpanzees will be forced to do farm labor and kept in camps, it turns out that the mutants at Painted Valley are chimpanzees, affected when an earthquake from 20 years ago changed the course of their water supply through the Forbideen Zone, Cornelius also figures out that the Chimpanzees overthrew the Orangutan and Gorillas and killed them all 100 years ago, and the town leader's mutant daughter pleads for Vitus, Milo, and Cornelius to be released unharmed, they return to Ape City and intend to tell everyone that Painted Valley was destroyed with no survivors, Zira encourages Prisca to form a Chimpanzee resistance movement, and Cornelius tells them what happened at Painted Valley.

I've said it before: where can this story go from here? We know exactly what Ape City society is going to look like in eight more years, with Zaius and the Orangutans still in control. Unless we get some serious character building soon, this entire run has been a pretty drawn out waste.

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #10



writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
art: Damian Couceiro
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Deron Bennett
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: B-

On the one hand, things are finally beginning to come together. Aleron's story at the beginning of Bechko and Hardman's work is becoming central to events playing out now. On the other, our writers are expecting us to clearly remember events from a year earlier. I honestly had no memory of who Timon was and, even looking back at the review I wrote for Exile on the Planet of the Apes #3 now, I have no idea what the circumstances behind Timon betraying Aleron were. And yet that's incredibly pertinent to what is unfolding.

So, to answer my question in the previous review, Zaius is Defender of the Faith (I'm sure we knew that from earlier), but he's certainly not wearing the Lawgiver on his sleeve the way he does in the films. Theological concerns seem pretty far from his immediate concerns until Timon shows up with the Book of Aleron.

Additionally, Marcus, who received an odd amount of focus in the previous issue, is apparently the head of the police, but quickly losing power to Ursus, who Zaius depends upon to act with less moral concern.

Really though, there are three things that are important about this issue...


Important Details:


1. The Auger is actually Timon, one time betrayer to Aleron, who has now apparently come to decide that betraying him for his own good wasn't for his own good after all, and thus has turned Aleron's story into a religion. Pin is the child he rescued from the rubble in Exile #4 who, I assume, is Tern's daughter.

2. Zaius commands Ursus to begin violent attacks against the Chimpanzees, including Timon's new followers, and this results in the possible death (or at least silencing) of Pin.

3. Cadmus has been corrupted by Zaius' wife and is now free again, trying to induce the Chimpanzees to go back to work.

I do respect the tying up of old plot points from the first two limited series into the concluding storyline of this limited run, especially with subtle comparisons and contrasts between Cadmus, Timon, and Aleron. Still, is it enough? Is any of this really all that interesting when we know how it's all going to end up eight years later anyway, and, worse yet, that it's all going to get blown up soon after? Better POTA writers have stuck to emphasis on telling new sides to the old story in terms of motivations and revelations of deeper characterization, played with time paradoxes to suggest that the fate seen in the films may not stick, or at least stayed far away from the time period of the first two films in order to alleviate this problem, but Bechko and Hardman are right in the thick of it.


Minor Details:


- This issue would seem to suggest that "The Scroll," from Planet of the Apes (vol. 4) Annual #1 may have been Timon's retelling of Aluren's origin, as opposed to a factual account. Unless a Raven truly did peck Aluren's eye out, of course...


Plot synopsis:

The Auger tells an idealized version of Aleron's story from Betrayal and Exile, he turns out to be Timon (from Exile) and explains that he and Pin are from Aleron's community before it was destroyed by the Orangutans and Gorillas, ravens appear, and the Auger is quick to call them a sign from Aleron (he'd already conveniently mentioned Aleron lost his one eye to a raven and that gave him wisdom), Pin (a human)'s ability to talk is widely attributed to trickery, some chimpanzees attempt to free Cadmus from the Reef, but they see Zaius' wife already taking him somewhere, Zaius confronts Timon and tells him to leave, at Tomon's next gathering, the gorillas, led by Ursus, attack and massacre the followers, Cornelius rescues General Marcus' daughter, and Pini's throat is slashed, Cadmus shows up in the chimpanzee camp preaching co-existence and getting back to work, Ursus (leader of the military) and Marcus (leader of the police) have a power struggle, while some chimpanzees decide it's time to go the route of Painted Valley and resort to violence.

Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #12



writers: Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
pencils: Damian Couceiro
inks: Mariano Taibo
colors: Darrin Moore
letters" Deron Bennett
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: B-

It's not a bad idea. With sales lagging badly, it's clear that this series was forced to come to a conclusion faster than Bechko and Hardman had intended, and so they try fast-forwarding and taking us through the events of the first two films, up to the destruction of the planet, through the eyes of Dr. Milo, our favorite under-developed blank slate of a character from the film series that writers seem to love playing with. From a narrative perspective, it's always fun to watch familiar stories play out from an entirely different perspective -- this time the perspective of someone largely outside of Ape Society. However, this final conclusion to the series has two significant problems:

1. It depends upon a lot of silly conveniences. I'd always wondered how the heck apes in a pre-industrial society repaired Taylor's spaceship, synthesized its fuel, and launched it back into space. They spend FIVE pages on this, but never bother to provide any reasonable explanations. Milo just mysteriously knows how to do it all, constructs great mechanisms to dredge the ship out of the ocean and also builds a rocket launchpad BY HIMSELF in a matter of days, and Behcko and Hardman fly through all of this to instead have him worried about a single damaged piece he can't repair that then conveniently arrives in the form of Brent's ship. Now I have to ask -- could the most advanced NASA engineer have repaired such a shuttle completely by him/herself in a matter of days? How about without the aid of computers? And yet a smart and learned ape in a pre-industrial society can magically repair micro-processors with a magnifying glass.

2. The second problem is a larger one. Namely that, while the events of this story are fun and do a decent job of connecting the Milo we've been following in Bechko and Hardman's run to the Milo we know from the second film, this conclusion to their 20 part series has no thematic relationship to any of the stories/conflicts that came before. Nothing about who General Aluren, nor Prisca, nor Timon, were, nor Zaius having fallen so far from his younger ideals, bears any weight at all on this story. The destruction of the moon in Cataclysm #1 factors in in the most marginal of ways, but that's about it. This is a cute epilogue to the series, but hardly a satisfying conclusion.


Important Details:

You already know the events of the second film, and we already know the gist of what Dr. Milo was doing during this time from explanations offered in the third film, so there isn't all that much mystery here.


Minor Details:


- Okay, explain this whole Ursa as imposter business to me. His entire purpose was to agitate the apes towards war, but it's been clear all along (not just during Milo's revelation at the end) that Zaius was the one truly pushing for war, yet we definitely saw last issue that Ursus is the imposter -- so why did the humans need an infiltrator? Zaius was already doing their job for them. All they had to do was send him a letter that essentially said "come get us."

- Wait -- so you want to convince us that Zira was like a mother to Lucius AND that she saw him get brutally murdered immediately before being launched into space...and yet she NEVER brings this up in the third film??? For Pete's sake, she cries about Dr. Milo's death, yet that was an accident, and he was practically a stranger. This really ties into the larger problem that the Zira, Cornelius, and Zaius of these comic books never really connect with their film selves; they still feel like very different characters, even as they catch up with the timing and events of the films.

- How does the moon's destruction ultimately lead to Earth's destruction via environmental consequences? Environmental catastrophe? Perhaps. Wholesale destruction? I seriously doubt it.

-Why would an ancient race have written down a solution for what to do if the moon is ever destroyed and thus endangers the Earth's existence? That's a little outside of Nostradamus' line.

- This book goes out of its way to always provide the name of the location for every single scene change (it's quite annoying) yet there's NEVER any indication when five years abruptly pass while Dr. Milo appears to spend a couple of days as the mutants' prisoner.

- If Ursus knows that Dr. Milo knows he's really a mutant infiltrator, how can he allow him to live? Yes, friends walk by just as he's about to kill Milo, but he can't go back for him later that night? He can't follow him into the Forbidden Zone and kill him then???

- No letter at the end about the Boom! POTA franchise ending? Wow. I guess truly no one was reading these anymore.

- For what it's worth, the original Curtis POTA volume lasted for 29 issues. Boom! produced 39 POTA books before calling it quits, though some were published concurrently.


plot synopsis in one sentence:


It's now three years later (5 years before Taylor) and Dr. Milo, convinced the world is going to end because of long term ramifications from the moon's destruction (how would that work?), goes into the forbidden zone hoping to find solutions written by the great ancestors (the ancient humans, but he doesn't know that), he accidentally discovers the mutant humans living below ground (that was convenient), is made to be their prisoner and tortured for five years, is finally rescued by a sympathetic human who wants to prevent world destruction, he gets back to Ape City, but Zaius isn't interested, and Ursus tries to kill him for knowing the truth about him (but friends conveniently walk by at just the right moment, so Ursus just kind of forgets about it -- what?), Milo learns about Taylor (who is now gone) and goes looking for his ship to see if it can get people off the planet before it is destroyed, he dredges it up and repairs it (how convenient that he knows how! And so quickly!) and the convenient sympathetic mutant once again moves the plot forward by psychically sending Zira, Cornelius, and Lucius to his aid, they take off as the war between Apes and Mutants begins, Lucius is killed, and we get to the beginning of the third film, with Milo, Zira, and Cornelius arriving on the beach.

Cute idea, but a lot is lost in the execution. I had higher hopes for this final issue.

Summary of Betrayal/Exile on the Planet of the Apes, and Cataclysm (Boom!)
(2011-2013)

Overview: What began as a group of limited series portraying events leading up to the first Planet of the Apes film eventually spawned into an ongoing series. The initial focus was on both the new character General Aleron, a respected Ape leader fighting for human co-existence, and on Dr. Zaius, his rise to power in Ape City, and the corruption of his ideals that occurs in the process. It was a solid concept, but it never quite hit its mark, the film characters (primarily Zaius, Cornelius, Zira, and Ursus) never quite felt authentic to the films, and the series quickly lost its focus when it went to the ongoing Cataclysm title.

Note: Though these series were published concurrently with Planet of the Apes, Vol. 4, there is no shared continuity between the two series. Both occur on the Planet of the Apes, but in different times, in different geographical locations, and were written by two different writing teams.

Worthwhile To Read?: Not bad. It wouldn't hurt you.

Key Issues/Highlights?: Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes #1-4 (the first volume) is as strong as the series gets, though it ends with a cliff-hanger of sorts. Exile on the Planet of the Apes #1-4 (the second volume) is still relatively captivating. The climax falls short, but the series at least arrives at a firmer ending than Betrayal did. Planet of the Apes Cataclysm (the third/final volume) loses all sense of what the series were building to and also progresses at a snail's pace. I think most readers could do without reading it, but, again, it's not bad; it wouldn't hurt you. The final issue, Cataclysm #12, is a cute but unimpressive attempt to fill in gaps between the second and third films, yet it functions as a poor and disconnected conclusion to the series.

Worth Re-Reading?: Maybe Betrayal #1-4 and Exile #1-4. Probably Cataclysm #12 if you're a fan of Dr. Milo.

These volumes include: Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes #1-4, Exile on the Planet of the Apes #1-4, "The Scroll," from Planet of the Apes (Vol. 4) Annual #1, and Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm #1-12.

Planet of the Apes Giant #1



writer: Daryl Gregory
art: Diego Barreto
colors: Darrin Moore
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban

grade: A+

Well here it is: the final issue.

I have such mixed emotions about this one that it's going to be a challenge to put into words. There were aspects of this issue that were truly the finest moments in the entire Boom! POTA franchise. There were others that were not. And Diego Barreto still has no business doing art on this book.

Without providing any spoilers yet, most of this issue made up the PERFECT resolution to this series, with tons of loving but unforced nods to so many earlier events, storylines, and even notable lines of dialogue in the run, one loving nod to the first film, and lots of beautiful and fitting resolution to the interpersonal conflicts and character progressions from throughout the series. I still have no read on who Sully and Aleya were as individuals, but their relationship and all its history and complications couldn't have arrived at a better/more touching end. Best yet, as a means of wrapping up the overarching conflict of the entire run, we receive these amazing lines:

"The Golden outnumbered us and outgunned us, but I will say this for them...they united the apes and humans of Mak as no one and nothing else had done before."

But then we get to the ending, and here's where things fell apart for me. Without giving anything away, it's abundantly clear Gregory had major plans for a new direction this series was going to take and simply copped out on the last page due to lack of time. It's not a surprise/twist ending because it isn't earned. Looking back, everything we saw in the previous issue was leading to something very different than what we received on that last page. Gregory should have just left that doorway open rather than try to tie it up with a hastily tied bow.

And Barreto's art was truly still disruptive in my enjoyment of this issue, especially when he put expressions on characters' faces that weren't appropriate. Aleya, for example, should not have been wearing a goofy smile when appearing in soldier garb before the climactic battle, especially when you consider what had taken place between her and Sully only a few pages earlier.


Important Details:



Let's revisit the questions I posed in my review of the last issue and see what got answered:


- What is Brother Kale's agenda?

Apparently, nothing more complicated than putting humans in power in Mak. How disappointing for such a shadowy, conspiring character.


- Who is Julian's father?

Never answered, and not even purposefully avoided. It isn't even mentioned again in this issue, yet Brother Kale's people were hinting at it back in the Special. How infuriating.


- What is motivating The Golden's wife?

Never answered. Self-preservation? Loyalty to fellow humans? We just don't know.


- How will Mak get destroyed?

Yup. We got that answer in spades. Pretty darn cool, actually.


- Where is Julian in the future, and why is that important? Why is he writing all of this down? Is he, perhaps, re-revising the Lawgiver's passages that Aleya had previously revised?

Really not answered in any kind of satisfying away. Again, I think Gregory ran out of time and just tried to toss this all aside in favor of a saccharine happy ending.


- What will Gregory's final thoughts be on racial co-existence? Can the dream be attained to any degree, or is it foolishness? Does he really believe we are all animals, concerned primarily with protecting our own, as this issue would seem to espouse?

Not really addressed beyond the idea implied that factions will always rally together against a more pressing opponent. I suppose the ideal family we see on that last page provides some sort of message about co-existence, but it felt so forced and arbitrary that I refuse to accept it as a solution to the hard questions being posed in these pages over the past two years.


- Is this storyline intended to have any significant connection to the core film series? Will we discover that Julian is about to play some vital role in the events of the second film or something? Or is this a self-contained storyline, also existing elsewhere on the Planet of the Apes (as it has appeared to be, thus far)?

No tie-in to the films beyond the Order obviously being a subset of the mutants seen in the second film. Maybe a more substantial connection would have been established if Gregory had been given more time to explore Julian's destiny.


- All three of the previous unresolved issues can be answered if Julian IS rewriting the Lawgiver's words, essentially making him the Lawgiver whose words were passed down for generation after generation, ultimately creating the society we see in the first film. Perhaps Zaius and others misinterpreted his ideas, believing that humans were animals, but apes were not.

But, apparently, he wasn't.


So I can't say I'm satisfied that so much of this went unaddressed. Gregory probably could have used the Spectacular better and maybe fought to get four special issues published instead of three in order to resolve future Julian's arc successfully, but, given the corner he wrote himself into with the Giant, he did as well as he could have within such constraints. I just would have left Julian's ending open instead of forcing a resolution.


- One more idea here -- why couldn't one of Brother Kale's order have gone to the Golden, presented the warhead as a gift, and then nuked him and his army, meanwhile providing distraction so that much of Mak's population could move safely out of range? Are we to presume that Sully and Aleya suspected the order could have saved them, yet sacrificed this option for the sake of attaining some final peace? If so, that could have been played up far more powerfully -- choosing peace in death rather than conflict in survival? Or did they (and/or Gregory) simply not consider that something more could have been done to avert conquest with the Order's help?



plot synopsis in one long sentence:


Julian is leaving the city he was just in and headed into the country while reflecting on the importance of hope, back in the past The Golden gives Sully and Aleya 48 hours to surrender the city to him or he will raze it to the ground, the humans and apes discuss strategy, old secrets come to light causing them to fight again, Julian stops the fighting, revealing that he has embraced the teachings of the Lawgiver and feels that both Sully and Aleya have strayed from that path, Aleya decides to ask Brother Kale's order to leave for the sake of alleviating distrust between the races, The Golden betrays his promise and commences an attack, Brother Kale is killed with the first shots, Hulss is given custody of Julian and told to flee with him, the Golden win, Nix, Aleya, and Sully have a touching moment as they fight and die together as a family again (bookending their childhood rescue at Red Creek), the Order approaches The Golden with a warhead and detonate it as a message to other would be attackers, taking all of Mak and its inhabitants with them while uttering the famous lines spoken when the Lawgiver was killed ("Thus to tyrants"), Julian reflects on the Lawgiver's legacy, and we discover the destination he has been heading towards is his own remote home, with a small family happily awaiting him including a wife, children, an aging Hulss, and some other ape.

A very disappointing last page and Barreto's art aside, this was a BEAUTIFUL conclusion to the series that soared far higher than I ever thought it could.

Been going through this thread again, updating the images/links/etc, and have decided in hindsight that, while virtually every other POTA comics volume was a sincere pleasure, I now firmly believe that The Adventure Comics volume is truly the worst run of comic books I have ever read.

And yet, going back to read the reviews for that series has been tremendously entertaining in hindsight

Overall!