Paying homage to the work of Doug Moench, George Tuska and Alfredo Alcala…
Ya mighta heard by now that for the first time since it got back the license, Marvel in January will release a new comics series based on the original Planet of the Apes universe — a 4-part miniseries called Beware the Planet of the Apes.
It’s a prequel to the grandape of them all, the 1968 classic starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans, and will focus on Cornelius, Zira (the franchise’s real hero)… and Nova!
Cover by Taurin Clarke
It’s called Beware the Planet of the Apes and what’s most intriguing to me is what writer Marc Guggenheim had to say in Marvel’s official release:
“I’ve been entertained and intrigued by Planet of the Apes ever since I got a Mego Doctor Zaius doll as a birthday present, and my local television station ran the original pentalogy every afternoon for a week in the summertime,” he said. “I’m particularly excited that we’re going to be reusing some of Doug Moench, George Tuska, and Alfredo Alcala’s original Marvel work on Adventures on the Planet of the Apes as a part of our storytelling.”
Yeah, that’s right: The series will use segments from the 11-issue comics series that reprinted the adaptations of the first two movies that initially ran in Marvel’s black-and-white Planet of the Apes magazine.
Nova gets noticed in 1975’s Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #1, by Moench, Tuska, Mike Esposito and John Romita.
How artist Álvaro López is going to do this — what’s going to be used — I don’t know, but I just love the concept to bits.
The series’ first-issue solicitation won’t be out until October, but this looks like more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
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MORE
— 13 Marvelous MARVEL PLANET OF THE APES Covers. Click here.
— Classic PLANET OF THE APES OMNIBUS Coming From MARVEL in 2023. Click here.
September 23, 2023
First that is incredibly cheesy. Those Adventures reprints were just inferior versions of what ran in the monthly magazines and they were abridged and looked a lot worse in color. Second the concept of Beware sounds lame. Nova with Zira and Cornelius? Before the first movie? Then why don’t they recognize her in Planet? And it can’t be that all humans look alike because they recognize her in Beneath. As with Marvel’s recent Adventures reprint book and it’s dull-as-hell tie-in to Rise/Dawn/War and its pointless POTA covers on its superhero books this looks to be yet another failure on Marvel’s part. Give the license back to BOOM Studio which did a great job before all those suck-ass crossovers.
September 23, 2023
OK
September 23, 2023
i wonder how many of us were introduced to POTA through a local television station’s airing of the entire series over a week. What a great way to get into it, like tuning in to a serial each day.