Planet of the Apes (Curtis/Marvel) #15



The shortened page length can really be felt in this issue as the 30 page lead feature (written before the page cut decision was made) leaves no room for supplemental materials, instead running directly into the film adaptation segment.

Future History Chronicles II: "Dreamer in Emerald Silence"
writer: Doug Moench
art: Tom Sutton

grade: B

I didn't realize that the Future History Chronicles stories made up one continuing storyline. I had hoped each would be a stand-alone science fiction island unto itself.

Oddly enough, I feel exactly the same about this story as I did about Future History Chronicles I (from POTA #12). There was a fantastic concept at the center of the story (in this case, Dwelleron, the living underwater ship piloted by Ambrosia), but the story itself didn't do much for me (the co-existence message felt far more forced than usual this time, and the characters were less than remarkable), and Sutton's work still flip-flopped between being impressive and frustratingly difficult to decipher. I must say, though, I really enjoyed Ambrosia and Alaric playing chess while discussing the fate of the ships above them. Cliche as they are, dramatic chess matches in comic books and films always go over well with me.

Truly though, I absolutely cannot see the appeal of writing a third chapter in this saga. I simply do not care about these people. And now that we know that the apes have a homeland and that there are many city ships out there, the initial concept has lost some of its unique charm as well.


Supplemental features:

"In the Cradle of a Father's Sins" (Escape from the Planet of the Apes film adaptation) by Moench and Rival. This chapter includes Hasslein interrogating Cornelius and Zira, reporting the findings back to the commission, and the commission ruling that the pair be sterilized and the birth aborted.

Planet of the Apes (Curtis/Marvel) #17



Future History Chronicles III: "Graveyard of Lost Cities"
writer: Doug Moench
art: Tom Sutton

grade: B+

Once more, this Future History chapter is based on one central visual concept -- in this case a floating city made up of a variety of tethered city ships, all rotating around a central pivot point. As usual, it's an impressive idea, though I wish we'd had more of an opportunity to explore it's many sides and cultures. My biggest criticism of these "Future History" stories is always that I don't find the characters particularly interesting or well developed. This time around, Moench tries to give a little more attention to the characters that are proving to now be our protagonists -- Alaric, Greymalkyn, Starkor, and Reena, though there still isn't much there. I think the larger problem might be that Moench is trying to force so much into these chapters -- an entire story arc in 22 pages, whereas the first "Terror" story arc took 7 chapters to complete.

Sutton's artwork still alternates between inspired and indecipherable, though I'm now growing to hate how he does human faces (especially Reena's). Also, I may be grasping at straws here, but I think Sutton's got some kind of issue with women, sex, or maybe both. Even putting aside his creation of Vamperella, I find his choice of how to draw Reena fascinating. Moench is clearly trying to show that she is capable and not to be dismissed, yet Sutton depicts her just sitting on a bed in Alaric's quarters while he's away, ready and waiting for sex when he returns. Also, check out Grimstark's tower, especially on page 15 -- it's a giant hairy penis.

So I liked this chapter of "Future History," actually seeing more potential in it than I did in the first two, but it still feels rather limited, even while the central concepts that drive these stories are outrageous and compelling.


Supplemental features:

We finally get the long promised Glossary of the Planet of the Apes by Jim Whitmore. A fun idea in an age before the internet. It's pretty limited, but it's a nice start.

"Slaves," the first chapter of the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes film adaptation by Moench and Alcala. A pretty literal adaptation thus far. I'd hoped Moench would shed some further light on the pet virus and link it to a rise in ape intelligence (as Whitmore did in his Timeline of the Planet of the Apes), but no such leaps are taken here. Aldo does appear as a gorilla instead of a chimp and gets a little more attention though. I can't say I like the faces Alcala gives to Caesar and Lisa. I understand that they were legally prohibited from drawing resemblances to the actors' faces, but I'd hoped at least the apes could maintain a resemblance. Apparently not.

Planet of the Apes #19



Terror on the Planet of the Apes, Phase Two: "Demons of the Psychedrome"
writer: Doug Moench
art: Mike Ploog

grade: C

There's always that moment in the horse race where you have to accept that the one you had your money on won't be coming in first. That's how I'm suddenly feeling about "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" (the horse my money is riding on) and "Future Chronicles" (the horse that's winning). It sure seems like Ploog's constant delays have led Moench to pour into "Future Chronicles" the serious imagination that once made "Terror" shine with potential, and now he and Ploog are just having fun with the remaining "Terror" chapters.

I'm actually a bit surprised that Moench and Ploog found a way to outdothe silliness of the previous chapter, which involved climbing up Abe Lincoln's nose and throwing grenades out of his eyes This time around, the crew falls in with peaceful mystics who get them high, Jason goes on a bad trip, and flying monkeys attack them (AFTER Jason has sobered up!). One weird story every now and then is fun, but this is all getting a little too goofy for my taste.

I am curious about the underground world of the pscyhedrome with a lake on its ceiling, though very little of it was glimpsed in this issue, and nothing else we saw this time around was particularly compelling.

Beyond what I've already stated, important events in this issue include Brutus and his forces (already including the mutants and their war machines) joining up with the Assimians, Lightsmith getting taken to the pscyhedrome and mentally reprogrammed, and Jason and Alex getting stuck in the underground world of the psychedrome without any possibility of escape.



IMPORTANT DETAILS

- On page 10, Lightsmith verifies what I'd always suspected -- there are numerous "forbidden zones" on the planet, not just one.

- On page 11, Jason contradicts what we learned early on in this story. Now apes are still naturally stronger and faster than humans, and not the reverse.



Minor details:

- How does Brutus know his map is now missing? He left it behind when he fled Ape City and would not have had the opportunity to return. Did he forget it?

- Mutant drones can calculate percentiles? Are they drones or are they robots? And, if Brutus doesn't know what a percentage is and doesn't expect the mutant drone to provide him with one, then why does he ask the mutant drone the chances that Jason is headed in the same direction as them? Why not ask his second in command?

- Dynamite sticks can blow through a high tech blast door entryway into an advanced subterranean civilization when said door survived the atomic apocalypse?

- I could care less about the Jason/Alex/Malaguena love triangle. These are the three least interesting characters in an otherwise profoundly character rich series.

- What's up with the entryway to the Psychedrome on page 18? Why would such an advanced chamber have such a weird way of entering from the ceiling through what looks like cardboard box flaps?


All in all, I'm not sure I like where Moench is taking this series. Here's hoping the next installment is a little more serious and a lot more imaginative than this one was.


Supplemental features:

- Jim Whitmore provides a review of every Planet of the Apes book on the market, including film adaptations and original novels. I can't imagine feeling the need to read these now, with 5 films, two TV series, and a whole mess of Apes comics at my disposal, but I may eventually find this article useful anyway. At the very least, I love Whitmore's enthusiasm. Until he came along, the article contributors felt less than passionate about this subject, but Whitmore is clearly an Apes geek.

- The letters column indicates that there have been technical issues that have delayed the release of the animated series.

- The "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" film adaptation by Moench and Alcala continues with "The Savage is King!" an installment that covers Armando's death up to the moment that Caesar reveals his intellect to McDonald.

Before the Beginning
Reviews of the Planet of the Apes films and television series that preceded the comic adaptations.


While the Planet of the Apes comics are written in such a way that viewing the films is not a necessary pre-requisite for following most of the stories, it might help to know what had come before the writing of these stories. And, if you’ve already viewed and remember all of these works, it might be fun to compare your memory of them with mine.


Planet of the Apes (1968)
Director: Franklin J. Scaffner
Writers: Michael Wilson and Rod Serling

Grade: A-

The classic that started it all. In this film, three astronauts are hurled into the future and find themselves on a planet in which Apes are the dominant civilized species and man is persecuted as a mindless pest that destroys crops. Only one astronaut, Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) survives the initial introduction and then spends the film searching for his freedom, aided by chimp scientists Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter) and persectured by Orangutan governer/Defender of the Faith, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans).

The Pros: Intelligent, subtle critique of McCarthy era politics and religious theocracy, strong filmmaking, outstanding acting by all apes cast members, a strong mix of humor, legal/political drama, and action, and one heck of a surprise ending (everyone knows what it is these days, but it’s still powerful to watch).

The Cons: Painfully slow start to the film, Charlton Heston comes off as an outdated ham actor, and his character comes off as so unlikable that it’s hard to understand why Cornelius and Zira actually want to help him. His love interest, Nova (Linda Harrison), is played by the then girlfriend to the head of 20th Century Fox, and it shows.

Worth noting: This is the basic template for the entire apes franchise, with a city and chief antagonist who are often resurrected or duplicated in later stories.

Glitches: This film makes it clear that the astronauts undertook their journey with the clear understanding that the time difference caused by lightspeed travel would result in their being thousands of years in the future, never able to return. What, then, was the point of the journey? Who were they going to report back to? Were they planning on returning to a future Earth once their journey was complete?



Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1969)
Director: Ted Post
Writers: Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams

Grade: D

A sequel that had no idea how to be a sequel. This film spends the first third of its running time attempting to replicate the first film with a new stand-in for Taylor who has similarly journeyed forward in time to find him. It eventually finds new footing with the underground world of the human mutants, but its compulsory need to reinsert the apes as antagonists by the end feels forced. Ultimately, Charlton Heston agreed to come back for only the very beginning and ending of the film, and with the guarantee that he’d get to blow up the entire planet by the close so that no more sequels would be made (oops. Didn't work).

The Pros: The mutant civilization is somewhat fascinating, even though the acting is poor and much of their civilization feels like a rip-off of the pilot episode to Star Trek. I must also add that the odd mockery of organized religion in this film is actually quite fun, if entirely distasteful.

The Cons: Roughly 80% of this film is terrible and comes off like B movie fare. The acting is weak, the writing is weak, and neither Taylor (Charlton Heston), Taylor-stand-in Brent ( James Franciscos), nor Nova (Linda Harrison) are particularly likable/compelling. Plus, the ending in which the world is blown up comes off as completely ridiculous. The strongest characters from the first film, Cornelius and Zira, are thoroughly underused in this one, and Cornelius isn’t even played by Roddy McDowall this time.

Worth noting: Whereas the first “Planet of the Apes” film only showed us one city, this film expands our view of the “planet,” showing us that other civilizations exist outside of the boundaries and knowledge of Ape City, and with different cultures and levels of technology. Essentially, this film more than any other laid the groundwork for what Doug Moench attempts to do in the first POTA comic series, exploring what these other places and cultures on the Planet of the Apes would have been. Also, this is the first film to feature a power-hungry, ape supremacist leader of the gorilla military as a chief antagonist. This archtype will be resurrected in the fifth film (Aldo), the TV series (Urko), the “Terror on the Planet of the Apes” storyline in the first comic book volume (Brutus), and the major storyline in the second comic book volume (Ollo).

Glitches: This is the first film to create the oft perpetuated misunderstanding that Taylor and the other astronauts were somehow lost in space. The first film made it clear that they’d always intended to go on a one way course into the future, only believing that they’d arrived at a different time and location than they were initially aiming for. Based upon Dr. Hasslein’s theories explained by Taylor in the first film, it would be impossible for Brent or anyone else to rescue them and take them back without the aid of a time machine (thus Derek Zane’s rescue attempt in POTA (vol. 1) #9 and #10 is the only rescue attempt that ever made sense).



Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
Director: Don Taylor
Writer: Paul Dehn

Grade: C+

As the Apes sequels continued, 20th Century Fox continued to slash the budgets for each ensuing sequel, and that probably drove the premise of this film (set in modern day California) more than anything else. In this film, Cornelius (again played by Roddy McDowall), Zira (Kim Hunter), and Dr. Milo (a new character played by Sal Mineo) narrowly escape the destruction of the planet in the previous film, having repaired Taylor’s spaceship from the first film and taken it for a flight at the time. The explosion somehow shot them back in time, leaving them to spend this film in a full reversal of the first film, with apes now being hunted and persecuted by man on man's turf.

Pros. Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall are the true stars of this series, always playing lovable, sympathetic protagonists that make you smile and warm your heart at the same time. They’re hardly action heroes, instead feeling like real people, and that makes us root for them even more.

Cons: Fans of the sci-fi aspects of this series aren’t going to find anything all that exciting about a political drama set in 1970s America. Whereas the first film was a fantasy with undertones of political implications, this film lacks both the fantasy (it’s modern day) and the political undertones since the outlandish behavior of the American government against the chimps does not clearly reflect any real moment in American history.

Worth noting: Cornelius provides an explanation for how apes first came to power, with apes being used as servants, and “Aldo” being the first to speak and say “no” to a human. More importantly, whereas the second film was a direct sequel to the first, the remaining films in the POTA series function as sequels to this film. Essentially, the entire franchise is rebooted with this film, and the focus shifts from that of stranded astronauts on a world of apes battling for their freedom, to apes on a world of men battling for their own independent destiny.

Glitches: How in the world did three apes in a pre-industrial society dredge Taylor’s ship from the bay, repair it, and fly it again? Where did they get the fuel? Did they build a launch pad and mission control? And how did they get thrown back in time to the precise age from which Taylor left?



Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Writers: Paul Dehn

Grade: A+

The fan-favorite film of the entire POTA franchise is set in a near future world in which apes have become slaves to humans and exude limited intelligence, though they are still not capable of speech. The son of Cornelius and Zira, Caesar (played by Roddy McDowall, who previously played Cornelius) has survived and witnesses the mistreatment of apes, ultimately leading them toward revolution.

Pros: Solid science fiction and political undertones, just like in the first film. Lots of action, fantastic acting from Roddy McDowall, who brings Caesar to life in a compelling, unforgettable way that feels entirely different from his father, Cornelius (also played by McDowall). The underlying message, critiquing slavery and segregation in an age in which racial hostilities were arguably more potent than ever, was the most controversial and powerful one yet.

Cons: None really, aside from the numerous glitches in this film.

Worth noting:

Armando explains in this film that a virus brought back from space caused the death of all housepets, ultimately resulting in apes being brought into domestic situations and gradually taking on the roles of servants. James Whitmore, in his “Outlines of Tomorrow” article in POTA (vol. 1) #11, will make the argument that this virus also caused the accelerated evolution of apes and potentially the gradual de-evolution of humans. This explanation has been largely accepted by POTA fans.

It’s also worth noting that a chimp named “Aldo” briefly appears in this film, though the script called for him to be a Gorilla. In the film adaptation in POTA (vol. 1) #17, Alfredo Alcala appears to draw “Aldo” correctly as a gorilla.

Finally, this film was originally supposed to end with Caesar deciding to build a civilization in which apes dominate humans, thus creating the civilization we saw in the first film. However, negative test-audience reactions (remember the racial parallels here) resulted in the final lines of dialogue being inserted at the end in which Caesar tempers his attitude and decides the two species should co-exist. Doug Moench’s adaptation of the film in POTA (vol. 1) #21 leaves the original speech intact, as does the recent Blu Ray release of the film.

Glitches: How did the apes suddenly become so much more evolved only twenty years into the future, and why isn’t this change at least acknowledged? What are the consequences of Caesar starting the ape revolution so much sooner than it was supposed to be? In changing the events of the past so drastically, isn’t he throwing a giant monkey wrench into the events of the future, altering things to the extent that he probably never would have been born in the first place?



Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Writers: John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Paul Dehn
Grade: A-

Though largely dismissed for its low budget and lack of political subtext, this is a powerful film in which Caeser struggles to establish his ideal society in a newly post-apocalyptic world, while the gorilla militia led by Aldo (Claude Atkins) attempts to usurp power and create the ape supremacist society seen in the first film. Meanwhile, some early ancestors of the mutants from the second film show up for added conflict.

Pros: Great characters. Caesar gets his best moments as a conflicted leader forced to battle his heart and conscience constantly and ends up making some surprising choices (far from the ideal we’d expect, yet still a fully sympathetic character), his advisor, Virgil (Paul Williams) is one of the most fun characters in the entire series, the idea of having the guardian of the armory be a pacifist who also functions as the guardian of Caesar’s conscience is brilliant, Aldo plays the first truly convincing and terrifying villain of the franchise, and John Huston finally depicts the oft referenced Lawgiver. Additionally, the tragedy and revenge that unfolds between Caesar and Aldo is unforgettable.

Cons: Low low low budget film! Caesar’s “nation” consists of maybe forty citizens, and mutant forces are even smaller, and their war machines consist of an old car and school bus. With access to all the remaining resources of the demolished city, they couldn’t unearth one tank?

Worth noting: The seemingly tacked on twist ending of seeing Caesar’s statue cry makes no clear indication of whether or not Caesar has managed to prevent the old future from repeating itself by the end.

Glitches: Apes have evolved far further in this film, all now able to fully articulate themselves as well as humans whereas none could speak only a few years earlier in the previous film.

Seemingly unable to get the actor who played McDonald in the previous film to return, the actor in this one is said to be his “cousin,” even while he has effectively the same personality and role.

Of course, we never see nor learn about how the nuclear holocaust between this and the previous film occurred, though it is the subject of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes.



Planet of the Apes (TV Series, 1974)

Grade: C+

This series was airing at the same time that vol. 1 of the comic book series launched. It features two more astronauts who are somehow taken off course and end up thousands of years in the future on the Planet of the Apes. They are aided by chimp sympathizer, Galen (Roddy McDowall’s third role in the franchise). This series is generally considered to take place along the same continuity of the other Apes films, though I would argue that it cannot for two simple reasons:

1. We see dogs in at least two episodes of the series (episodes 1 and 5), but all house pets were wiped out by disease prior to the 1990s in the original Apes series.

2. The 2nd and 5th films clearly establish that the Ape City is one small, isolated community, surrounded by other lands and cultures that they have never previously encountered, including the mutants who were only a day’s ride away. Yet the TV series establishes the Ape City as a capital (actually called “Central City”) to an entire empire of surrounding ape communities, some of which many days’ travels away by horse.


Pros: Many very powerful episodes (The Trap, The Good Seeds, and The Legacy, The Surgeon, The Deception), and no particularly bad ones (Note, I have only viewed the first eight of fourteen total episodes at this point). Mark Lenard plays a very convincing and well-rounded antagonist who has real reasons to fear and hate the human protagonists. Also, Roddy McDowall takes on his third ape character and once again makes him memorable and different from the ones he’s played before. It would have been very easy for Galen to resemble Cornelius, and yet they are far from the same. I absolutely adore whenever Galen is confronted by astonishing future technologies and whines, “Is it mag-ic?”

Cons: In a world in which every village they meet follows the same hierarchy and class structure, there is only so much range for the entire series. Also, the humans are a little too clean-cut perfect. Beyond the fact that one is a family man who wants to get home and one gives up a little easier, there really isn't much to either's character.

Worth Noting: Nothing, really, beyond McDowall’s and Lenard’s performances.

Glitches: Once again, this cannot be in the same continuity as the rest of the original POTA franchise for the reasons stated above.

Planet of the Apes (Curtis/Marvel) #22



Quest on the Planet of the Apes, Part I: "Seeds of Future Death" and Part II: "Keepers of Future Death!"
writer: Doug Moench
art: Rico Rival

grade: D-

(NOTE: I've since learned that many of the continuity errors that appear to exist in this story are the result of Moench using for reference a shooting script from Battle for the Planet of the Apes that was radically different from the final film).

This is an ambitious attempt to create a bridge between the fourth and fifth apes films, chronicling possibly the most demanded unfilmed story in the entire franchise -- the death of the human world and the rise of the ape world. However, it does this in recaps, instead depicting the main action of the story in the early days of Ape City, particularly on the struggle between Caesar and Aldo for control of ape destiny.

Unfortunately, I don't get the sense that Moench watched the fifth film more than once (I wonder if he'll smack himself once he starts writing the adaptation for it and realizing all that he screwed up). Before getting to all the minor (and sometimes not so minor) details Moench got wrong in attempting to align this story with the fifth film, though, let's take a look at the questions this storyline finally answers for us...

Facts Established
-Caesar's ape rebellion inspired similar rebellions in cities across the country
-foreign enemies used the distraction as an opportunity to wage nuclear war (this directly contradicts the "Terror" chapter in POTA #14, which established that the rebellions began after the bombs had begun to drop).
-America retaliated, creating a world-wide nuclear holocaust with only small pockets of survivors left behind
-Ape City was built by human slaves
-The mutants of the forbidden zone began as slaves in Caesar's city
-Aldo was the one who brought guns to the apes (from the wreckage of the city)
-Caesar declared it "The Forbidden Zone"


Now, the problems with the story:

- Caesar is already of the belief that humans and apes should co-exist in this story, yet he doesn't appear to have ever given it a second thought at the beginning of "Battle." While he allows them some freedom, he does not believe in allowing them equality and true coexistence until the end of the fifth film.

- If Caesar already knows Aldo has made two attempts on his life in this story, why in the world would he allow Aldo to continue to lead the militia, why would he turn his back on Aldo so often, and why wouldn't he tell everyone that Aldo tried to kill him? After all, they were stunned to learn that Aldo would kill another ape in the fifth film, and this proved to be his undoing.

- If Aldo had been the one to bring the guns to ape city, wouldn't he seem a little more entitled about breaking into the armory in the fifth film? His only justification at the time appeared to be that he wanted them.

- Where the heck is Virgil in this story? Not only is his absence suspicious, but it denies Moench of one of the most compelling characters in that film.

- Alma and Mendez couldn't have originally been slaves in Ape city because they don't even know Ape City exists until Caesar, Virgil, and MacDonald show up on their territory in the fifth film.

- Breck warns Caesar that, "I have a feeling we'll meet again..." and Moench's narration says "...but could he see into the future and know that Breck's last words were highly prophetic." But Breck doesn't come back after this. He isn't in the fifth film!

- When Caesar appoints Mandemis to guard the armory, he never once asks him to be the keeper of his conscience.


For all these reasons, this story doesn't work as an effective bridge between the two films. Perhaps more annoying than that, it still fails to depict the actual end of man's civilization and the beginning of the ape one, revealing all the info we've wanted in summaries and instead wasting the focus of this story on a power struggle between Caesar and Aldo that should not have appeared this early on.

All in all, then, I call this ambitious story a near total failure. Too bad. I was really looking forward to it.


Supplemental features:

"13 Decades of the Apes" article in which Jim Whitmore explores the pop-culture presence of apes since the time of King Kong.

"From Shakespeare to Simian!" a brief look at Maurice Evans' acting career by Robert Cleveland.

(No film adaptation in this issue, as both the lead and backup feature were allotted to "Quest" this time around).

Killraven
Well I'll be a monkey's second cousin

At this point, I have to put my POTA reviews on "pause," since I've not yet been able to track down affordable copies of the next three issues (I already have the rest). While we wait, let's talk about Killraven and how he relates to the POTA comic franchise.

While the POTA series was being produced in America on a (first) bi-monthly and (later) monthly schedule, its Marvel UK counterpart was published weekly. However, the UK edition was still only setup to reprint American content; it had no staff of its own. So, in order to maintain enough content for weekly publication, the UK title resorted to incorporating Killraven into the Planet of the Apes universe. By replacing all instances of the word "martians" with "apes," making some alterations to the artwork, and changing Killraven's name to "Apeslayer," this run became a new source of content that allowed the UK Planet of the Apes series to keep pace with its American counterpart.

So, while Killraven isn't techically a part of the POTA franchise and universe, it's a second cousin worth noting.

I've thus begun reviewing the Killraven series here while I continue the search for the remaining POTA issues I need. Check it out: classiccomics.boards.net/thread/450/killraven-bronze-age?page=1&scrollTo=25690


A Bit More About "Apeslayer"

Here's an image of the "Apeslayer" version of Warlord. It's the exact same drawing from Amazing Adventures #20, only with an ape head and more hair on the body:



And here's the first panel of (presumably) the second "Apeslayer" installment. This page appears to be a cutting and pasting of frames from the previous installment in order to create a recap page.



The story will go on to show "Apeslayer" experiencing the same tormented youth that Killraven did, only with "The General" (on behalf of his resistance group) planning all along for Killraven to break free and fight against his conquerors.

Also, please note the editor for "Apeslayer." Apparently, all these changes were made and/or approved by Marv Wolfman.


Finally, here's a wiki entry about Apeslayer, though I've already found at least one inaccuracy in it (as discussed in this thread, Yolande Pijcke only did one Killraven story), and it offers a lot of unsubstantiated opinions. Still, it's a perspective worth considering.

planetoftheapes.wikia.com/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes:_Apeslayer


EDIT: I've found scans of the complete Apeslayer adaptation online:

pota.goatley.com/marvel-ultimate/ultimate_pota_apeslayer_1.pdf
pota.goatley.com/marvel-ultimate/ultimate_pota_apeslayer_2.pdf

Planet of the Apes (Curtis/Marvel) #25



I have not been able to acquire this issue but, since it doesn't contain any non-film adaptation stories, I've decided to skip it. The GCBDB informs us that it contains two chapters of the Battle of the Planet of the Apes film adaptation written by Doug Moench and pencilled by Sonny Trinidad (though, apparently, one page was done by Marshall Rogers). No indication of other supplementary features.