Review: EXILE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1

EXILE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1
Written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Marc Laming
Release Date: March 14, 2012

Two years after the events of Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes and 18 years before Chuck Heston crashes there, Bechko and Hardman take us even further into the culture of Ape City.  I’m a tough audience for talking apes. I’ve read it all and seen it all. The best compliment I can give this book  is that it fits. Though they are telling a political story and hampered in some ways by non-verbal humans, the writers are creating complex characters with individual motivations. Far from the unified ape front presented in the original POTA, we see how fractured ape culture is before the rise to power of Doctor Zaius.

The risk of prequels is that the story ends are predetermined.  There is less of a sense of that here, particularly since Zaius is the only character we have met before (or later, as you parse your time travel). Instead Bechko and Hardman are telling an independent story in which I expect to see what led Zaius to his hatred of Taylor, but it will be a side effect of the narrative, not the core.

The art style suits the book and usually flows. I was quite aware of Laming’s effort to make Zaius in the comic resemble the Zaius of the film. My only distraction there was that since it is quite difficult to de-age an orangutan 18 years, I don’t see anything to denote that this is a younger ape. Laming does a remarkable job of using the large body of photo reference to make the locations of the book familiar to fans of POTA. The courtroom, human research facilities and outdoor areas are lifted directly from the film without any sense of directly copying.

This is good ape stuff. I would recommend reading Betrayal before diving into this mini. As a huge POTA fan, I am quite engaged in the story and learning how this evolves (pun quite intended).

Verdict: For Ape fans: 7/10, For non-Ape fans: 6/10

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