Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern #1 (Boom! and DC, 2017)




story: Robbie Thompson
writer: Justin Jordan
artist: Barnaby Bagenda
colors: Alex Guimaraes
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban
assoc. editor: Alex Galer

grade: B-


Its...not terrible.

The crossover premise seems a bit ridiculous, and yet it's not as shameless and shallow as Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Prime Directive. Bagenda's art is hard to look at, and I have no doubt this crossover will ultimately prove entirely forgettable, but the writing and layouts are decent, and the nods to each property are far more restrained, the only obvious one thus far being when Hal first washes up on the planet after an encounter with Sinestro:




We don't have much in terms of a concept yet. There's some sort of special Oan ring that appears to change its color from time to time, and Cornelius has uncovered it. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is doing what he does in pretty much every Green Lantern comic: namely uncovering some past mistake the Oans don't want to acknowledge that somehow threatens the well-being of the universe while fighting other colored Lanterns. At one point he says:


So do I, and that's why I stopped reading Green Lantern comics a decade ago. Would have been nice to get a more classic depiction of Green Lantern to match this classic depiction of the POTA franchise, but I guess DC wanted this to match what's currently happening in the books (and there is no current POTA book).

Anyway, so much of the success or failure of this story line will hinge on the explanations we are offered next issue.


Plot synopsis: In flashback, someone is defeating the Yellow Lanterns until they strike back and send the mysterious figure careening into the surface of the Planet of the Apes. Of course, this happens exactly where Cornelius is excavating for his archaological research. Meanwhile, the Green Lanterns get an automated message through their rings, informing them of a "crosschronal distruption," followed by the Oans immediately informing them to disregard it. Of course, that makes Hal seek it out on the Planet of the Apes. Arriving there, he is ambushed by Sinestro, while Cornelius finds a ring at the site of the earlier crash and takes it back for research. After studying it (and we definitely see it switch colors several times), Cornelius becomes tempted to put it on and, upon doing so, is confronted by the mutants from the second film. He blasts one in a Red Lantern fit of rage and then immediately wonders what he has done.

because there is a segment in fandom that wants it (and comics is a business that caters to niches in fandom these days). Otherwise you wouldn't see things like this all over the place...










much of which predates the announcement of this cross-over series and may have been a factor in inspiring BOOM! to see out the cross-over with DC. The Apes cross-over series sell better for BOOM! than the straight Apes series did, so why wouldn't they put out more of them?

-M

Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern #2 (Boom! and DC, 2017)



story: Robbie Thompson
writer: Justin Jordan
artist: Barnaby Bagenda
colors: Alex Guimaraes
letters: Ed Dukeshire
editor: Dafna Pleban
assoc. editor: Alex Galer

grade: B-

We get the backstory in this issue, and it's almost impressive. The Oans needed to hide a weapon of great destruction, so they decided the ideal place was an alternate reality caught in a time-loop (a widely held fan theory about POTA that gets best explained in Revolution on the Planet of the Apes). Cool concept, except that Sinestro seems to find that reality pretty easily, and the Green Lanterns are given convenient equipment that never gets explained, allowing them to enter the POTA reality with ease as well. Also, what were the chances that, of all the places within that reality where you could hide a single ring, they would choose Cornelius' excavation site? I mean, this is a version of Earth, within a version of our solar system and galaxy, right? So why not hide it on Venus?

The larger problem with how the story is progressing is its means of making these two disparate franchises work together. Instead of having the characters and premises intersect, Thompson and Jordan essentially just swap them out. Cornelius is depicted as a corrupted Lantern who seamlessly fits within the world of the Green Lantern Corps but in no particular way resembles Cornelius:




And Hal Jordan becomes Taylor (more or less) and in no particular way resembles himself:




So we're stuck watching a retread of the first POTA film and pretty much every major GL event, but the two are told in parallel and aren't actually overlapping.

And the big clever reveal at the end of the issue is that they are bringing in Gorilla Grodd to deal with the apes. It's cheap fan service, but it doesn't make much sense.


So I respect the basic premise of this story, but the execution hasn't earned any accolades as of yet. It still hasn't done anything particularly wrong, and it's still light years better than Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Prime Directive, but (like all of these crossovers) it's a wasted opportunity for more time in an incredibly special and woefully under-utilized sci-fi universe.


Important Details:

Welp, Taylor's dead.



Cornelius' mere presence with the ring caused the mutants to interrogate and kill Taylor, and Cornelius then proceeds to destroy the Omega bomb, so the time loop is now seemingly broken.



Plot synopsis: Hal gets captured by the apes and resists them, Cornelius gets worshiped by the mutants and decides to make them all power rings, we get the backstory on how this super powerful ring ended up on the Planet of the Apes, and the GL Corps is going to bring in Gorilla Grodd to help them.

Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty Vape!




shaxper

Lawsuit anyone?!?

A couple of new Apes anthologies coming this fall from BOOM! for you shaxper















There's more int he article including an interview with the editor of these two projects.

-M