Three stories set during different time periods of The Planet of the Apes franchise in Planet Of The Apes: The Simian Age #1.

The first story is called Mother of Exiles.  Amy cleans the lighthouse everyday at dawn.  She doesn’t do it because it is her job or for history, but does it because it is her home.  Amy lives inside the Statue of Liberty.

One day someone washes up on the beach.  It is a human in weird attire and unconscious.  Amy had only seen a lost human like this once before.  It was a man and a woman on horseback who stopped at her lighthouse.  Eventually the angry man left with the woman and Amy sighed a sigh of relief.

Amy used to have a daughter named Helena, but she doesn’t have her anymore.  She decides to taken care of this lost human from a distance. Everyday Amy leaves some food and applies balm to the human’s wounds waiting if they will ever wake up.

I really liked this story.  Out of the three stories in the issue this is by far my favorite.  It was really easy to feel Amy’s emotions. I could feel her fear when seeing the human, feel her love when caring for the human and her pain as she thinks about the daughter she lost.

My only complaint is I wish the story was a little longer.  I wanted to know more about the human and would have liked to see Amy and the human interact more.  The ending was also abrupt and was not satisfying.

The second story is called Apex.  Apex went through military training and was prepared for anything.  Through repetition and muscle memory there was no challenge he could not conquer.

One day his unit was sent out to investigate an area infested with humans.  When they came upon the cave they were hiding in they saw some apes in a circle.  However, when they got closer the apes were killing a human.

A gun fight followed with the humans and apes attacking each other.  The situation was shorty resolved. However, Apex pointed his rifle at a human and when he looked into his eyes he saw something and an idea formed.

He saw humans in a new light from that point forward.  Apes had long lived by “ape shall not kill ape.” However, after that day Apex thought of a new law and one he hoped to start himself, “ape shall not kill.”

This story was also really interesting.  I enjoyed seeing the humanity in Apex and seeing the realization about humans.  Apex could see the fear and relief in the human’s eyes and it was conveyed very clearly.

Again I wish this idea was explored more and I wanted to see where this story would go, but it ended too soon.  I wanted to see exactly what Apex thought, why he thought it and what he was willing to do to bring about change.

Cloud and Rain are part of Caesar’s tribe during the Rise of the Planet of the Apes time period.  They are out with Koba collecting food for the group.

While collecting berries they see a human who hurt his ankle.  Cloud offers the human some berries, but Koba sees the man. Koba kills the human so he can’t bring more humans and endanger the group.

Cloud and Rain protest saying Caesar said no killing, but Koba does it anyway.  Koba spends the rest of the story covering up the murder.

I liked this story and it was cool to seeing the difference between Koba and two other apes.  Koba is going insane and he became a horror movie monster. I never knew when he was just around the corner.

This story felt complete unlike the other stories.  I liked this the least out of the three stories, but I did enjoy the story.

The entire issue was really well done and I loved it.  However, the issue would have greatly benefited from each story being an extra five pages.

Rating:

5/5

 

Written by: Jeff Jensen, Matt Kindt and Ryan Ferrier

Art by: Jared Cullum, Matt Smith, Joana Lafuente, Lalit Kumar Sharma and Gabriel Cassata

Cover by: Fay Dalton and John Keaveney

Release: 12/12/18

Issue: 1

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

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