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Post by tarkintino on Sept 18, 2018 11:11:13 GMT -5
Personally I can go back and read this one again shaxper every so often. The artwork alone is worth the read over and there is enough in the initial writing to have me want to check it out once more or twice or thrice more. A regular read not so much but for certain it is worthwhile reading again more than many of the current monthly big two stuff. This is great rainy day reading with an Apes or Kong movie running on the television  Fair enough. I look at it in comparison to the larger body of POTA works. Does it do anything to stand out from the crowd? Mango's art is worthwhile, but Ferrier's writing ultimately isn't. I'd much rather revisit Moench, Ploog, and Sutton's work in the Curtis magazines or several other earlier POTA series than retread this one. Agreed. The Curtis/Marvel magazine series was created while the original franchise was still active (issue #1 was released one month before the live action TV series' debut), so they were operating in the energy of a "living" series of possibilities, not going over one nostalgic trip after another with fan service call-outs/backs seen in series from more recent times. The Curtis/Marvel creators not adapting the movies were influenced by the films, but only used it to spring off into creative avenues or "what ifs" hinted at (e.g. all of those eras between films, or the centuries before Taylor landed, etc.) without plotting of convenience where everything had to point to the movie events (sort of like the Star Wars Prequels). |
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Post by brutalis on Sept 18, 2018 11:36:51 GMT -5
Fair enough. I look at it in comparison to the larger body of POTA works. Does it do anything to stand out from the crowd? Mango's art is worthwhile, but Ferrier's writing ultimately isn't. I'd much rather revisit Moench, Ploog, and Sutton's work in the Curtis magazines or several other earlier POTA series than retread this one. Agreed. The Curtis/Marvel magazine series was created while the original franchise was still active (issue #1 was released one month before the live action TV series' debut), so they were operating in the energy of a "living" series of possibilities, not going over one nostalgic trip after another with fan service call-outs/backs seen in series from more recent times. The Curtis/Marvel creators not adapting the movies were influenced by the films, but only used it to spring off into creative avenues or "what ifs" hinted at (e.g. all of those eras between films, or the centuries before Taylor landed, etc.) without plotting of convenience where everything had to point to the movie events (sort of like the Star Wars Prequels). A different time and a different kind of "fan" community. The times they are a changing and what comes out now in comic book related to movies/television series is going to do whatever they think the current "fans" will buy. Boom comics for awhile tried an ongoing series "within distance" of the original movies with new characters in the existing world which had a smaller readership one presumes or why else go and switch over to the cross-over/mini-series with other companies/characters using the original POA characters for hopefully larger sales? |
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Post by shaxper on Sept 19, 2018 10:36:05 GMT -5
Connecting Kong on the Planet of the Apes to Planet of the Apes (vol. 4)I hadn't caught this until now, while re-reading old reviews, but we learned in Planet of the Apes (2011) #14 that an ape race known as The Golden believed their tribe descended from King Kong. Both volume 4 and Kong on the Planet of the Apes are Boom! publications, and both were drawn by Carlos Magno. I would need to re-read both series to probe any deeper than this, but an intended connection may exist.
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Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2019 17:37:08 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #1 (January 2018)  Script: David F. Walker Pencils: Chris Mooneyham Inks: Chris Mooneyham Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Ed Dukeshire Grade: B- David F. Walker's previous work for Boom! was on the War for the Planet of the Apes comic book tie-in (part of the new cinematic universe, and thus beyond the scope of these reviews), so I was amazed (upon finally reading this story) to see it acknowledge the previous continuity of Boom!'s Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes / Exile on the Planet of the Apes / Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm. Don't get me wrong, I found those stories generally uninteresting and forgettable, but I still respect Boom!'s attempt to maintain a continuity and universe in the wake of all the ridiculous non-continuity crossovers they've been publishing for the past few years. And it's not the old creative team writing it, so maybe it will be good this time? Anyway, whereas those previous stories were set decades prior to the events of the first Planet of the Apes film, this story coincides with the events of the first film, showing more of what is happening from the perspective of the apes, and it teases that we'll finally get to see what happened to poor Landon as well. But what this issue is trying its hardest to sell us on is a sympathetic view of Ursus, hinting at a frightening backstory and lost love beneath all the anger:  but it feels forced, and not at all earned at this early point. Ursus is still a one-note character; he's just a one-note character who has now had stuff happen to him. Ferrier did a far better job of making Ursus sympathetic with the previous year's Kong on the Planet of the Apes, in which he didn't do anything new to the character -- he just gave him more time to explain his already established viewpoint:  (from Kong on the Planet of the Apes #6) As is common with the first part of many of these Boom! limited series, there isn't a whole lot going on in the first issue, and it depends upon a shocking twist to keep us reading into the next one. All we have thus far is a food shortage in Ape City, Ursus furious that the High Council wants the soldiers to become farmers as a way to make up the difference, enigmatic flashbacks to some horrific past event for Ursus and Zaius that is only hinted at, and the shocking final panel in which Ursus and Zaius watch a very much alive Landon, imprisoned in a cell. Not much to go on as of yet, but the art is vibrant, and the plot and writing haven't done anything offensive yet. Minor Details: - I don't recall if this was established in the previous volumes that share a continuity with this one, but the first two POTA films implied there was only one Ape City, even while the television series and Moench comic book series both defied this. This current series takes the latter approach, implying the existence of other cities, perhaps in an effort to also keep it in continuity with Boom!'s now dormant Planet of the Apes Vol. 4, which is largely set in the neighboring city of Mak. - The very best thing about this issue:  Sergeant Moench isn't just a throw-away reference either. He's a significant character who reappears several times in the issue and gets mentioned by name three times. I wonder how many readers got this reference. - The very worst thing about this issue:  ummm...yikes. To be fair, a dark-skinned human plays some critical role in the traumatic past event we are being teased about, but not fully shown yet:  But even putting aside the (purposefully?) unfortunate wording of that statement, Walker is then saying black people just full-out didn't survive the apocalypse. So only the strongest survived, and they were all white?? Come to think of it, have we ever seen an Asian on the Planet of the Apes (and why does that sound like an upcoming Boom! limited series)? |
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 12, 2019 18:19:22 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #1 (January 2018) Script: David F. WalkerWhat. The. Hell. David F. Walker is either an up-front racist, or he has such a all over the place, on-the-surface, pop-culture idea of what sociopolitical commentary ran through the original film series, that he's completely missed the point that the apes' only recognition of Dodge's color is that it was supposed to be rare--not a commentary on his race in general (as one would see among humans). Moreover, racism--as practiced by humans (the for the purposes of the original POTA script) certainly not a belief system shared by the apes, since in the first two movies, all humans were considered a destructive, threatening animal species that would be better off if they were killed. In Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), one of Kolp's mutants "Alma" was portrayed by France Nuyen, an actress of French/Vietnamese racial background. Since the film didn't say she wasn't Asian, one could simply take the actresses' background to be that of her character. |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2019 18:33:50 GMT -5
In Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), one of Kolp's mutants "Alma" was portrayed by France Nuyen, an actress of French/Vietnamese racial background. Since the film didn't say she wasn't Asian, one could simply take the actresses' background to be that of her character. Totally forgot about Alma. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 18:35:13 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #1 (January 2018) Script: David F. WalkerWhat. The. Hell. David F. Walker is either an up-front racist, or he has such a all over the place, on-the-surface, pop-culture idea of what sociopolitical commentary ran through the original film series, that he's completely missed the point that the apes' only recognition of Dodge's color is that it was supposed to be rare--not a commentary on his race in general (as one would see among humans). Moreover, racism--as practiced by humans (the for the purposes of the original POTA script) certainly not a belief system shared by the apes, since in the first two movies, all humans were considered a destructive, threatening animal species that would be better off if they were killed. In Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), one of Kolp's mutants "Alma" was portrayed by France Nuyen, an actress of French/Vietnamese racial background. Since the film didn't say she wasn't Asian, one could simply take the actresses' background to be that of her character.  Walker is one of the leading voices for African American creators in the industry. -M |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2019 18:37:42 GMT -5
Walker is one of the leading voices for African American creators in the industry. -M Interesting. I guess he hasn't factored in the large number of readers who buy an issue #1 and don't stick around for the rest who are clearly going to walk away with the wrong idea about what he is saying. That being said, I'm deeply curious what the pay-off message about race is going to be. |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2019 22:44:22 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #2 (February 2018)  Script: David F. Walker Pencils: Chris Mooneyham Inks: Chris Mooneyham Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Ed Dukeshire Grade: B- If last issue's cliffhanger gave us the impression we were going to get any kind of additional time with Landon, the fellow astronaut who disappears after the first scene of the film, only to show up again, late in the film post-lobotomy, David F. Walker is happy to disappoint. Ursus quickly beats him to the point that he crushes his skull  And, upon learning that he'll recover, Zaius promptly decides to order a frontal lobotomy. End of Landon story. Oh well. And, if you got the impression Walker was going to say anything more about race in this issue, sorry. He doesn't. And, if you got the impression we were going to develop any more understanding of, and sympathy for, Ursus, you can forget that too. We get a brief, inexplicable origin, in which his "uncle" awakes from a dream and tells a teenage Ursus it's his lawgiver-given duty to kill all humans, and (literally within minutes) he begins doing so with zero hesitation or thought:  There's just no nuance, subtlety, realism, or even pacing to any of this. And, at the end, Walker again hints that a tragic lost love in Ursus' past will help make him more sympathetic to us  but I am not trusting in his ability to get us there. However, there are two things really working in this story, thus far. The first is absolutely Chris Mooneyham's art. I don't have any particular love nor hate for how he handles most of the art in this issue (it looks a lot less spectacular than the first issue in many places...sometimes like he sped through it), but the texturized style he has developed for the flashback sequences is gorgeous and evocative:  I can almost touch past innocence on those pages. It's amazing. Is there a name for this kind of rendering? I really hope it wasn't just a select-and-click photoshop function. The other thing that's really working for me is Walker's love for continuity. Last issue, he linked this story to the Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes / Exile on the Planet of the Apes, and Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm continuity while also making a nod to Doug Moench and suggesting neighboring ape civilizations that were depicted in both POTA vol.1 and POTA vol. 4, but he absolutely outdoes himself this time with the otherwise uninteresting scene in which Zaius decides to order Landon's lobotomy:  You've got to be a true POTA nerd to know that Galan was the lead ape in the 1974 Planet of the Apes television series. I can argue why this probably shouldn't be the same Galan (he never mentioned having seen a talking human previously), nor the same city depicted in that series (it's called Central City in the TV series), but Walker is trying to make it work anyway, and damn if I don't respect him for that. If he could somehow merge EVERY series set in the original POTA universe into one continuity, I will be his fan for life, regardless of the quality of his writing. So it's still not a series that's utterly wowing me, but it's continuing to do some things that are memorable and worthwhile. I'm not giving up on this series just yet. Important Details: - This story is set in the same universe as the Betrayal/Exile/Cataclysm stories from Boom!, as well as the original cinematic universe, as well as the universe of the television series. A pretty audacious undertaking! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2019 23:40:05 GMT -5
Mooneyham is a Kubert school graduate and does most of his pages as pencils only and they are colored directly from scans of the pencils and not inked (I looked into buying some of his original art from Five Ghosts and he stopped doing inks about halfway through that series to speed up his process and I didn't want to buy uninked original art). A lot of the texture comes from his pencil renderings. He's credited as artist, but he's not inking those pages. Here's an example of his finished page for Five Ghosts #9  as opposed to the issue before (#8) where he was doing inks before scanning for coloring...  looks like he is back to inking with his Nightwing gig, but it looks like he used a different technique on the POTA book, here's one of his original pages-looks like it was done on brown paper with whites used to provide the contrast... issue #1 pg. 13  but the paper texture and color will contribute to the look. But he is also doing some pages more traditionally, with inks as here is the original art for issue 1 page 5...  but back to the colored paper technique for the start of issue 2 (here's the 2 page spread for pages 2-3...  it looks like one technique may be used for flashbacks and the other for current as some pages mix techniques like this one...  which uses the traditional technique for the final panel but is drawn on a separate page. you can see more of his pages at Felix art his art dealer's website. Looking ahead to issue 3, it looks like another new technique...  So, while I am sure the coloring process adds to the texture you note, it looks like a lot of it comes form Mooneyham's choice of materials and techniques. -M |
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 13, 2019 1:32:18 GMT -5
What. The. Hell. David F. Walker is either an up-front racist, or he has such a all over the place, on-the-surface, pop-culture idea of what sociopolitical commentary ran through the original film series, that he's completely missed the point that the apes' only recognition of Dodge's color is that it was supposed to be rare--not a commentary on his race in general (as one would see among humans). Moreover, racism--as practiced by humans (the for the purposes of the original POTA script) certainly not a belief system shared by the apes, since in the first two movies, all humans were considered a destructive, threatening animal species that would be better off if they were killed. In Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), one of Kolp's mutants "Alma" was portrayed by France Nuyen, an actress of French/Vietnamese racial background. Since the film didn't say she wasn't Asian, one could simply take the actresses' background to be that of her character. Walker is one of the leading voices for African American creators in the industry. -M Then what point is he making, since the idea that apes would make a racial distinction that's only a feature of a human problem makes no sense at all. POTA addressed racial issues, yet its creators knew enough to have the far future apes play class and suggestive racial politics amongst themselves. They did not judge humans through the negative racial construct lens as humans do, hence the aforementioned situation with Dodge. Even when the films shifted the series into the past/more contemporary timeline of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, race was a factor among humans (with Caesar even appealing to MacDonald as one who came from oppressed people), but the apes never use, refer to or apply human constructs of race to/about humans, as seen in the treatment they received in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. It was the standard judgement of all humans are bad/a threat, not one racial group is more dangerous than another. That comic panel comes off as misguided as it seems like a complete misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately so) in order to make social commentary that is not in line with the way the ape characters were created/presented (at least) in the original films. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 13, 2019 4:04:41 GMT -5
Mooneyham is a Kubert school graduate and does most of his pages as pencils only and they are colored directly from scans of the pencils and not inked (I looked into buying some of his original art from Five Ghosts and he stopped doing inks about halfway through that series to speed up his process and I didn't want to buy uninked original art). A lot of the texture comes from his pencil renderings. He's credited as artist, but he's not inking those pages. Here's an example of his finished page for Five Ghosts #9 as opposed to the issue before (#8) where he was doing inks before scanning for coloring... looks like he is back to inking with his Nightwing gig, but it looks like he used a different technique on the POTA book, here's one of his original pages-looks like it was done on brown paper with whites used to provide the contrast... issue #1 pg. 13 but the paper texture and color will contribute to the look. But he is also doing some pages more traditionally, with inks as here is the original art for issue 1 page 5... but back to the colored paper technique for the start of issue 2 (here's the 2 page spread for pages 2-3... it looks like one technique may be used for flashbacks and the other for current as some pages mix techniques like this one... which uses the traditional technique for the final panel but is drawn on a separate page. you can see more of his pages at Felix art his art dealer's website. Looking ahead to issue 3, it looks like another new technique... So, while I am sure the coloring process adds to the texture you note, it looks like a lot of it comes form Mooneyham's choice of materials and techniques. -M I'm fascinated by this, but none of your images are showing. |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 13, 2019 4:35:25 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #3 (March 2018)  Script: David F. Walker Pencils: Chris Mooneyham Inks: Chris Mooneyham Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Ed Dukeshire Grade: C+ One thing that's becoming increasingly apparent to me is that, regardless of who is doing the writing, just about every Boom! Planet of the Apes story for the past half-decade has had the same pacing problems. It truly feels like Walker went to editor Dafna Pleban (the only common factor across all of these series) with a four or five issue outline, and Pleban said, "Not bad, but let's stretch it out to six, and add a shocking twist that is a blatant nod to the original film to the final page of each one". I mean, every nod or connection Walker had made to the Apes films has been subtle and intelligent...except for his final page teases, which are every bit as tacky and forced as the final page teases we repeatedly saw in Boom! POTA works going all the way back to Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive. Sure seems like Boom! is playing a pure numbers game and wants to make sure a comic book respecting the fan base plays loudly and obviously to the casual Apes fan who barely recalls the first two films. And so, we are halfway into the series, and still not much is happening, but we sure get Taylor yelling "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty apes!" by the final page. In the meantime, Walker is eloquently weaving together the events of the first and second films, with Sergeant Moench and his apes marching into the Forbidden Zone while Taylor causes all out havoc in Ape City. Additionally, we get some further flashbacks about a younger Ursus and Zaius tracking down a group of intelligent/organized humans who appear to be killing apes, but that story isn't exactly building to anything yet. Really, this would be a surprisingly uneventful third issue (of six) if it weren't a Boom! POTA series. MINOR DETAILS: - Much as I love Walker's subtle references, even I'm not picking up on these:  I'm assuming he wouldn't be mentioning Coelum and Sapientia by name if they weren't references, but to what? Did these cities appear in the 1974 television series, or the Boom volume 4 series, or in Moench's volume 1 series? I honestly don't recall. Terminus, on the other hand, is Walker's invention and is mentioned repeatedly across these first three issues as the place where something bad happened with humans a long time ago. - Now here's a reference I DO get and appreciate:  So where's an ape named Ploog already? |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 13, 2019 5:17:58 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #4 (April 2018)  Script: David F. Walker Pencils: Lalit Kumar Sharma Inks: Lalit Kumar Sharma Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Ed Dukeshire Grade: C- This essentially could have been issue #1. All the backstory and hinting at we've been given for three issues now pays off with something utterly simplistic and cliche that takes literally two panels to establish:  Ursus has been raised to hate humans, but the love of his life is trying to change him, and it's all going to end in tragedy. We really didn't need three issues of backstory to get us to this contrived plot point. Walker tries to sell us on Ursus' newfound love, but it's utterly one-dimensional. There is never any sense of how they came together, what connects them, or even a moment where we see a convincing bond between them. The writing never reveals the light that Qama claims to see in Ursus. The two just say I love you a whole lot, though Sharma (replacing Mooneyham) does his best to sell us on the romance visually:  But, in the end, it's a plot point and nothing deeper. I will say that I like Sharma's different approach to visually portraying the past. Whereas Mooneyham used textured, fiberous-looking artwork, Sharma is either using watercolors or the likeness of watercolors. Whereas Mooneyham's approach worked for (almost literally) fuzzy memories, these watercolors show clearer memories from adolescence with a heavy tinge of (now lost) idealism. It works. I also respect that this issue FINALLY doesn't end in a twist that is a blatant nod to one of the films. Instead, it's a foreshadowing of sorts as we see Ursus kill an innocent human without a second's thought, even though he's been doing this all along, so it's not as significant a moment as Walker would have us believe. But I guess it's an important bookend from the start of this issue, with Ursus' lover pleading to him not to kill humans anymore. Instead, the only real nod we get in this issue is (finally) to the later films, which so often get ignored when pandering to the masses who never watched that far into the series:  But any true Apes fan knows these were the best films in the series  We still don't have that much of a story yet. It took four issues to get us where we should have been with issue #1. Now Walker needs to reveal what happened with the humans at Terminus city, finally define the complex relationship between Zaius and Ursus that he keeps hinting at, get back to and clarify the weird racial message he began trying to make in the first issue that he's never once returned to, and give some kind of climax to the non-story we've been watching develop off-stage of the first and second Apes films that helps us to see Ursus in a different light. You've got two issues, Walker. Tell us a damn story, already. MINOR DETAILS: - It's been a while since I watched the second film, but I'm relatively certain the mutants were either not particularly aware of, or not particularly concerned with the events of Ape City. Here, Walker has them (apparently) constantly monitoring the inner-workings of Ape City via telepathy:  Doesn't feel consistent with the film, somehow. - Yeah, nothing bad could possibly happen in a place named "Terminus"  |
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Post by shaxper on Jun 13, 2019 8:14:50 GMT -5
Planet of the Apes: Ursus #5 (May 2018)  Script: David F. Walker Pencils: Lalit Kumar Sharma Inks: Lalit Kumar Sharma Colors: Jason Wordie Letters: Ed Dukeshire Grade: C When a decompressed story arc spends the first four issues being enigmatic, you can be pretty sure the final payoff is going to be rushed and unsatisfying, and so there's no real surprise here, as the two remaining mysteries in this series come up pretty much empty. We've been waiting for five issues now to figure out what Ursus meant when he said "These dark-skinned beasts, they are the most vicious--the most cunning. I have seen humans like this before" and how David F. Walker intends to spin that into a positive message about race. Well...it was one dark-skinned human, and all he did was lead an attack and kick some butt in it before getting killed.  Not multiple "dark-skinned beasts," not particularly cunning, and no further exploration of any kind of commentary about race. And, once again, literally one black person survived the apocalypse? The pay-off to the mystery surrounding Zaius and Ursus' bond is similarly disappointing. Essentially, Zaius killed the black human when Ursus failed to.  That's the whole thing. I do like how Walker connects that defining moment for Zaius to his constantly destroying evidence that conflicts with his version of the truth. In fact, Walker connects that first moment of destruction with Zaius' words to Cornelius near the end of the first film:  It works. And it's only at this moment that I suddenly realize Zira and Cornelius have not appeared once in this series prior to this moment, and even here they are off-panel. Pretty much every comic that has ever tried to connect to the first movie has done so through Zira and Cornelius, and Walker has succeeded in telling the tale from the point of view of the less developed characters in that well-trodden story. But...did he succeed in giving them more characterization? Not really. Speaking of which, the efforts to humanize Ursus are still feeling like forced plot points rather than true characterization to me:  MINOR DETAILS -Just when you thought Walker had made connections and references to every Apes work possible, he nods to the twist ending of the largely forgotten 2001 Tim Burton Planet of the Apes remake:  Heck, I was starting to think he was making a reference to the obscure Revolution on the Planet of the Apes series when we got to this panel:  But Zaius is holding a book, not a magazine. Yeah, Revolution on the Planet of the Apes might be too obscure even for Walker. So now all we need is a scene at Mount Rushmore... |
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