Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #7



"Survival of the Fittest"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Clem Robins
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C


So far, the one aspect of this entire series that's won me over is the transformation of Simon, and yet he, as well as General Doda, seem totally ignored/forgotten by this point. Last issue was filler, and this one takes some new directions that are only marginally interesting. A brawler named Roto comes into town to cause trouble, Alexander and Coure are on a getaway and get robbed/left for dead, and then an earthquake strikes, forcing Roto and Grunt to become friends as they work to save endangered children and causing Alexander and Coure to be mistaken for dead, with Jacob set to take Alexander's place. Not particularly exciting, and (once again) the tears start flowing by the end of the issue as Alexander's will is read, and I felt none of it. Still, nothing particularly badly done about this issue.t

Minor details:

- Max is dead. Wow. That was out of the blue. I was really starting to like the guy, and we don't even see him die. We just see Dr. Moto talking to his severed head.

- Joshua was left with the one person in Ape City who died during the earthquake, and no one realizes this. What's going to happen to that baby?

- Coure leaves her newborn with others a whole lot, doesn't she? Does Ape City have a Children's Services bureau?

- Jacob makes the decision to revise written ape history so that humans were never the dominant species and (presumably, by logical extension) there is no Caesar. Combine that with the Defender of the Faith assuming total control over the city, and you have all the necessary prerequisites for the society we saw in the first film. Is Alexander going to be able to do something to stop this, or are we stuck in a time loop? And, while I doubt Marshall would ever entertain an idea this complex, if Alexander does manage to prevent history from repeating, wouldn't preventing the society to come also mean preventing the creation of an ape named Caesar and the circumstances that would lead to his being born in the past?

- Alexander, Coure, baby Joshua, Grunt, Simon, Jacob, Ollo, Doda, Dr. Moto, Vonar, Frito, Jojo, Heston; is there any chance of Marshall keeping up with all of these characters? It seems like some will have to get forgotten/discarded as others end up taking center stage. Too bad so few of them are showing any true potential at this point.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Roto comes to town and causes trouble, Grunt tries to stop him, Alexander gives Jacob the scrolls of Caesar to copy and Jacob decides to revise them so that apes are never depicted as having been a lesser species to humans, Coure goes looking for Max, and we learn that Dr. Moto killed him, Alexander and Coure go on a trip and get mugged and left for dead, an earthquake strikes, Roto and Grunt work together to save some children and become friends, Alexander and Coure are mistaken for dead, the women who (for some reason) only we know was watching baby Jacob is reported to have been killed, Jacob is given control of Ape City as a result.


Again, not a bad issue aside from a few weak Burles panels, but nothing about this issue won me over either.

So, as quiet as this thread has been, the view count shows about a hundred people reading this per day. I'm just wondering how many of you reading this have actually read the Malibu/Adventure Comics series. I wonder if I'm the only one disliking it this much since, judging by how long it ran and how many mini spin-offs it launched, it must have been doing pretty well at the time.

Anyway, I digress...


Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #8



"Here Comes Traveling Jack"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C

It's a pretty cute story. As a nod to Christmas (though, clearly, Christmas isn't celebrated on the Planet of the Apes -- well maybe in the Ape City spin-off...), Marshall introduces Traveling Jack: an ape who explores far out places with his horse and wagon and returns, bringing exotic gifts for all. There may be a subtle nod to Moench's "Lightsmith" with this character, but probably not. Instead, it would seem that, while Christianity is dead and gone on the POTA, the spirit of the ever-commercialized Santa Claus lives on in an ape. Take that message for what you will. Disturbing implications about Santa living on while Christ and humanity do not (and, for what it's worth, I'm not a Christian, yet I still find this strange) aside, there's something touching and comforting about the presence of Traveling Jack, so much so that it doesn't even feel all that cheap with Jack somehow knowing about Coure and Alexander's plight for survival in the desert, "accidentally" leaving them a box of emergency supplies when it falls off the back of his wagon.

Still, this issue was full of problems once more. I think Charles Marshall has potential as a writer, but it's damn right frustrating having to watch him grow ever so slowly as a professional across these issues. On so many levels, it feels like an extraordinarily imaginative twelve year old is writing these stories.


Problem 1: Baby Joshua

We were explicitly told last issue that Coure was leaving Joshua with the seamstress and then later explicitly told that the seamstress died and that everyone thought Joshua was with Coure and Alexander. Though the dots were never explicitly connected, we knew that baby was in trouble. Now, magically, he has been with Coure and Alexander all along. WTF???


Problem 2: "You've been cold and distant lately, to me, to everyone"

Once again, Marshall presents as fact in hindsight events that we NEVER saw take shape. In this case, Coure is describing a change that apparently came over Alexander that we never saw. And let's not forget, we never even saw Alexander and Coure fall in love in the first place. What should have been depicted subtly and through careful characterization was simply told to us in hindsight a few issues back. It's like Marshall is rushing to hit plot points and missing the entire journey along the way. He's not spending any time developing these characters and allowing them to be, instead outright telling us his plans for them as if we were reading the Cliffnotes for this series.


Problem 3: four pages of Frito and Jojo

I'll admit that they were better this time around, almost funny, but it still feels like Marshall is forcing them upon us and going "Aren't these two hilarious?! They're your new favorite characters!" rather than featuring them briefly and leaving the fans to demand more if they like what they see.


Problem 4: Still absolutely no idea who Simon really is.

So we thought he was an innocent victim, he ended up trying to kill Alexander, and we still don't really understand how the two connect. We've been waiting three issues to see more of Simon and finally get a sense of how he ticks, and instead he's giving Doda the silent treatment all throughout this issue, barring us from gaining any further insight and, in fact, confusing us further since he apparently wants to kill Doda even though he voluntarily went with the guy, and Doda seems to be trying to mentor him.

Problem 5: So do bad gorillas follow Aldo or Ollo?

Apparently, Doda was the one who took a knife to his face back in issue #5 out of allegiance to Ollo, but he didn't gouge out his eye (as it appeared that he had). Rather, the scar running right next to his eye is "The Mark of Ollo." So is Doda an Aldonite, an Ollonite, or what? And do we really need TWO Aldo wannabes running around this planet as chief antagonists? Couldn't Doda be a different kind of enemy on some level? Maybe his attempting to mentor Simon suggests that he will be?


minor details:

- I keep wanting to call him "Traveling Matt." Anyone else ever watch Fraggle Rock as a child?


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Traveling Jack shows up and seems to have exactly what everyone wants, he's told Alexander and Coure are dead, Frito and Jojo fight over a wheel that they have been told is a fruitcake, Coure struggles to keep Alexander alive in the desert, Doda attempts to mentor Simon against his will, and Traveling Jack "accidentally" drops a box of emergency supplies for Coure to discover -- an easy out from a conflict we didn't care much about anyway.


Not a bad premise for the issue, but lots of problems still holding this story back.

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #9



"Changes"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: D

Thirteen issues in and, with the knowledge that Marshall remains on this book up to the end, it's become evident both that Marshall's writing isn't going to improve anytime soon, and that we're just going to have to get used to it. Truth be told, Planet of the Apes stories are a lot like pizza for me -- even bad POTA stories are better than no POTA stories. So we marshall on (get it? Sorry).

So what's actually working in this story: Jacob. I feel he's the one character that Marshall has had marginal success in depicting as a slowly evolving character. In this case, a semi-likable good guy has transformed into the bad seed that will poison all Ape society if left unchecked. In the first film, we were impressed by the fact that, though we hated Dr. Zaius, we could also understand where he was coming from. Jacob takes the opposite approach, gaining our understanding and approval before going down that dark path. It isn't written very well by any standards other than Marshall's, but it's a good concept.

What isn't working in this story: nearly everything else, including the now familiar over-the-top drama (I love Coure's "KHAAAAAN!" moment on page 12, as well as all the otherwise tough-as-nails gorilla guards who are so shocked and moved by the execution of a human -- even though their society regularly treats humans as a lower species), and the random explanations of past events we never saw the first time around (now Joshua had a fever? When did Max injure himself, and why was this funny to Coure?). And, of course, there's Burles' artwork. I mean, was that gorilla in Alexander's dream supposed to be Ollo or Doda? It looked like Doda, only with the scar on the wrong side of his face, but it sounded like Ollo? If Ollo had a scar, and that's why Doda scarred himself in Ollo's name, then Burles' entirely unclear art caused me to miss that detail in all five issues that had Ollo featured prominently in them.


And, while I'm almost impressed by Marshall finally taking another page from Moench's book and depicting a society outside of Ape City, the whole "the king has amnesia and falls in with another group/society" bit felt waaaaay too cliche for my taste. And really, could a fever cause all this (especially now that it appears to have broken)?

Finally, what the heck was that last page? Was that part of this story, or was it a preview of some other comic to come? I had absolutely no idea what was happening.


So ultimately we have a generic plot, no likeable characters to care for, bad writing, over-the-top drama that's mostly unearned, and potentially an interesting hero turned villain. Maybe, when we finally get back to Simon, Marshall will take an interesting approach with him as well.


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Jacob sentences a human to death for stealing food and everyone is shocked and appalled by this, Alexander has fever dreams, wakes up with amnesia, and joins another society that randomly and indiscriminately wants a total stranger to lead their army to war in the Forbidden Zone, an ape named Jeeta tries to extort Dr. Moto and pays the price, Coure figures out (inexplicably and waaaaay too late) that Dr. Moto killed Max and wants revenge, Grunt finds Coure and takes her back to Ape City, and some astronauts are counting down to blast-off on the last page, discussing how they're in a world of trouble. Can I get a WTF on that last one?

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure Comics) #10



"Return to the Forbidden City"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: B


Marshall begins this issue by conceding, on his letter to the reader page, that he struggles with his writing and hates doing it much of the time, but gets clarity of vision on other occasions and really enjoys it. It makes a good intro to this issue because Marshall's writing sucks donkey dung much of the time, but it was a little better this time, finally seeming to have a sense of vision and bringing things together. We've got those prisoner apes from the first story arc back and now apparently controlled by Ollo (yes, he's back), Alexander facing off with Ollo again, and Simon back in the picture as a raging human supremacist who doesn't think twice about leaving an ape to die. Essentially, it's probably as good as a Marshall story is going to get.

That being said, there were still problems:

- I absolutely hate Coure. The second she gets back to Ape City, she hands her infant off to Grunt and instructs him to "leave him where you know he'll be safe." Her baby just survived being exposed in the desert wilds for a prolonged period of time while living on rations and braving a dangerous fever, and she ditches him (again) the first second she sees an opportunity to do so because it's more important to her to expose Dr. Moto (and, please note, she arrives well ahead of the authorities -- that's time she could have spent ensuring suitable arrangements for her child). And, of course, her rashness in confronting someone she knows to be a heartless killer and expert liar with absolutely no ace up her sleeve was just plain stupid. And let's not forget her total lack of concern for what's happened to Alexander (supposedly the man she loves). Yeah, she's a moron. Marshall may love her and see protagonist potential in her, but he's not relaying any of that through his writing.

- Okay, so just as we finally get it explained that all followers of Ollo mark their faces (okay, so that WAS Doda), we find out that the guy that's been training Simon for all these issues wasn't Doda (oh, I guess not), but instead a totally new follower of Doda following Ollo following Aldo named Pato. Yeah, that's not confusing.

- And I don't care how determined he is. A small, mal-nourished boy should not be able to defeat a gorilla military leader in hand-to-hand combat.

- What the heck was the point of Coure discovering Dr. Moto killed Max if that was all going to get discarded this issue by Dr. Moto pulling out a pocket watch and totally non-sensically brain-washing Coure against her will? Yeah, that would never work, by the way.

- The letters page is full of letters praising Marshall for issue #6, but we KNOW from his own concession in his letters to the reader for Ape City that he was receiving about 50% letters of criticism for his approach to POTA. I find it hard to believe that everyone unanimously agreed that issue #6 (in my opinion, the second worst issue in the series) was brilliant.


Minor aside -- I should also mention that, while Burles will never be a competent artist, I do enjoy the Kirby-inspired machinery with which he fills Dr. Moto' lab.



So a pretty good issue by Charles Marshall standards. Things are coming together, and Simon still lacks depth but is at least becoming a clearly defined character of dynamic action.

Ape Nation #1



"Plans"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: M.C. Wyman
inks: Terry Pallot
letters: Clem Robins
colors: David De Vries
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: C

Wow. Malibu is really trying to cash in on this property. First it was one mini series at a time running concurrently with the main title so that there were always two POTA issues on the shelves each month. Now we've got two minis running alongside the main series. Of course, POTA #11 is going to be delayed a month, so that at least leaves only two POTA titles on the shelves this month, but still -- three separate series at one time. It's a lot. And Charles Marshall definitely isn't the writer to be making it all happen.

M.C. Wyman is back and taking the art on this book a lot more seriously than he did on Ape City (and he had good reason not to take that one seriously). Apparently, he's replacing Burles as the regular artist on the main title after #11, and I couldn't be happier. He does a good job this issue and actually almost helps me to drown out Marshall's poor writing, under-characterization, and lack of logic at points in the story. My only gripe is that he made Simon about five years older, made of solid muscle, and blonde. He's supposed to be a small, dark haired boy. What the heck? Maybe he couldn't tolerate looking at Burles art long enough to notice this.

As for the story, I'm glad to see that Marshall is finally doing something with Heston, the Ape character who was arbitrarily introduced in POTA #6 and never really used after. Roto is finally getting an active role in the series as well, even if he is little more than an anti-hero brawler stereotype akin to Wolverine.

The whole aliens from Alien Nation involvement doesn't really make much sense. So they were slaves being traded to another world, were somehow permitted to command their own ships even though they were slaves, were engineered with superior intelligence and schooled in the science of time travel even though they were (again) slaves, and decided that traveling through time was the most logical form of escape in a ship that they controlled. Of course, they then landed near Ape City (how convenient). The editor writing the preface to this story explains that his only requirement for Marshall was to find a believable way to combine Alien Nation and POTA together without creating ridiculous convenience, but what do you call this?

Incidentally, I've never seen/read Alien Nation, so I don't know if any of the absurdity in the previous paragraph stems from the series itself and isn't Marshall's fault. All in all, it sure sounds like something right up Marshall's alley.

However, I don't even feel it's all that worthwhile to get into much of a plot synopsis. All you need to know is that Ollo, some aliens, and Simon are teaming up to take over Ape City and (somehow) the whole planet. Heston and his companions' only hope of survival (they've been captured) is in the former alien commander resuming control of his people from the dude who has taken over and concocted this ridiculous plan for conquest.

Minor details: in POTA #10, Simon left the soldier to die who was bringing him to Ollo, deciding that he wanted to be free. So how is he now in the room with Ollo, partnering with him in this plan for domination of Ape City? Also, Alexander was Ollo's prisoner at the end of Pota #10. Where is he now? And when we learn of Ollo's plans for revenge in POTA #11, will they be the same as the ones he's formulating in this title? If Marshall is going to write two simultaneous titles using the same cast, he'd damn well better watch his own internal continuity.

Note: the Diamond limited edition version of this issue contained a six page semi-prequel in which Heston and Caan, in parallel, recall to their future children moments in which they faced great fear. This prequel reveals to us that both lost their wives to illness, which is not otherwise noted in the story.

Planet of the Apes (Malibu/Adventure) #11



"Warriors"
writer: Charles Marshall
pencils: Kent Burles
inks: Barb Kaalberg
letters: Mark Moore
editor-in-chief: Chris Ulm

grade: F

Who knew this series could get worse?

Okay, so Ollo takes his revenge upon Alexander by beating him within an inch of his life and then walking away, assuming he'll die, the mutant apes we've known about since the first storyline suddenly (and conveniently) have the ability to heal others, though the leader of the mutant apes explains that doing so will cost him his own life, both he and Alexander are in perfect health in the very next scene, and then Alexander convinces both sides of a war to stop fighting by giving a prolonged and badly written speech that can be essentially summed up with "Can't we all just get along?" Best yet, he then aplogizes to Ollo for maiming him and invites him to come back to Ape City! WTF!!!!!!!??

Wow. Just....just wow. I mean...wow.

Nevermind trying to figure out how in the heck the events of Ape Nation (published concurrently) are supposed to tie into this timeline now that Ollo is coming back to Ape City.