-short review of Boom! Studios Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes #1 and #2: Boom! has not impressed me with other offerings (licensed and in-house). But, Dawn is one of my favourite movies, and the creative team was unknown to me, so I gave it a chance. The art is stylized, and might not be the best for a licensed book based on a movie franchise. But, it is technically sound. (This applies to the penciles, inks and colours.) The lettering is iffy, especially relative to the sign language. But, it is passable. The writing is a mixed bag. The scenes with the apes are thematically clear, and make sense given the setting (2 or 3 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes). Caesar is trying to build a long term civilization while Maurice and Koba each offer their advice. (The scenes contradict early drafts of the movie and/or tie-in novels. But, they are well written unto themselves.) Spoilers ahead: Koba is a high point of the first issue. The writer avoids the temptation to give a wink wink nudge about Kobas role in the 2014 movie. Koba is consistent with the movie, but the depiction is not obnoxiously self-referential. Pope (the ape who does the stuff that Koba cannot be shown doing in this series) is depicted sensibly. He has the potential to be a monster, but is more ruthless than evil. The problem with the writing (and it is significant) is with the human focused scenes. A common problem with movie tie-in comics is that there is a general imperative (either on the part of the writers or by editorial mandate) to include all of the characters from the movie, regardless of how much sense it makes. The result is usually a scene that shows the character doing nothing, or a drawn out (and thematically irrelevant) plot featuring the other characters. This comic opts for the latter, showing Malcolm and his family on the run from bandits. (It would have been better to show Dreyfus trying to build/maintain his settlement. But, not much good to be done by pointing that out here.) Grade: C Not terrible. But, very uneven, especially for something professionally done and derived from an established franchise. (I plan to read and post thoughts about the Apes/Trek crossover in the next few weeks.)
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:18:11 +0000
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