Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #1-6

Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #1-6

Originally released in 1975

Written by Doug Moench

Art by George Tuska

Sticking with the ape theme for now, I saw that Marvel had adapted the first two Planet of the Apes movies into comic books, with issues 1-6 covering the first movie.  I had seen a few Planet of the Apes movies before this, but not the original - the closest I had gotten to seeing the 1968 movie was the musical version that was shown on the Simpsons.  I did watch the movie going into this, out of curiosity and so I'd have some idea of how well it was translated into comic form.

It's a fairly faithful adaptation.  On a one-way trip to a distant planet, astronaut George Taylor enters cryogenic sleep along with his three fellow astronauts.  While only a year and a half has passed for them, over two thousand years have passed on Earth, so they're aware that everyone they've known is long gone by now.  However, they all have motives for going on the trip regardless - Taylor, fairly cynically, wants to believe that there's a better race than humanity out there.

The crew awakens to find that there was a malfunction that caused Stewart, the only woman of the group, to die mid-voyage, and they have crash-landed on an unknown planet.  The air is breathable, and there are mute human-like creatures, but they quickly discover the dominant species on this planet.

This is one of those movies, like the Sixth Sense, where the big plot twist at the end has become common knowledge, but both the movie and the comic do a good job with building up to it - the foreshadowing makes sense, but it's vague enough that an audience in the late 1960s might not have picked up on it. (the idea of aliens speaking English, or whatever language the movie or show was released in, was presumably commonplace)

Ape society looks down on humans, and even within their own society, there are still clear hierarchies - orangutans like Dr. Zaius are the ruling class, while gorillas are their enforcers, and chimpanzees like Zira (the human researcher who believes that Taylor's intelligence supports her theories) and her husband Cornelius (an archaeologist who became a laughingstock for his claims that materials found in the Forbidden Zone support the idea of a human society that predated apes) are looked down upon.

The comic stays true to the movie in terms of language and content for the most part.  Some of the dialogue is changed slightly, and any blood is coloured black; presumably that last part is a limitation of the time period that the comics were made.

As Taylor tries to survive in this mad world where apes are the dominant species and humanity are viewed as being little more than animals, he comes into conflict with Doctor Zaius, the Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith.  It's clear that Zaius takes the second role more seriously than the first one, as he goes out of his way to destroy any evidence of Taylor's intelligence or downplay and dismiss Cornelius's findings.

Even though things seem bleak, there's still hope.  Nova, one of the primitives, is revealed to be pregnant, with the implication that it's Taylor's child. (though this is only in the comic, as it's absent in the movie)  Even Zaius shows some honour, acknowledging Taylor's intelligence and allowing him to leave alive, though he can't return to ape society and is stuck in the Forbidden Zone, which humanity once made a desert out of.

It's a solid adaptation, and it works well as a summary of the movie, particularly in the early days of the home video market when the movie might not have been widely accessible.  Still, it's good to know that, no matter how far we travel in space, we'll never wind up on that terrible Planet of the Apes.

...Wait a minute.  Statue of Liberty... That was our planet!  You maniacs!  You blew it up!  Damn you!  Damn you all to hell!