Terror on the Planet of the Apes, Part 3

 

cover art by Bob Larkin

Planet of the Apes #3 (December 1974) continued the "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" adventure with the art (by Mike Ploog) still superb and the pacing of the story (written by Doug Moench) still fast.

This issue is almost non-stop action, which makes me appreciate how effectively expository information is given to us. We learn more about the Forbidden Zone along with Jason and Alexander, with that information often being imparted in the midst of a fight scene. It is an example of expert script construction.

Last issue ended with the two protagonists trapped between Forbidden Zone robots and anti-human gorilla terrorists. (And I still love that I get to write sentences like that.) They merely step aside and let the two factions start killing each other, though the ray guns give the robots a definite example. Jason snatches one off a fallen robot before he and Alexander make a break for it.

Jason may not understand advanced technology, but as the saying in another Planet of the Apes universe goes: "Human see, Human do." He figures out the point-and-shoot part pretty quickly.

Alexander gets himself a ray gun as well. In the process, they discover the robots are only part machine. They are part biological as well. It's another item in the "We have no idea what's going on column" for our two heroes.

They steal a rail car, which has simple enough controls for them to figure out. But this doesn't end well and they are captured.

This is my favorite part. They are brought to the leaders of the living robots--the Inheritors. These guys are three oversized brains kept in large globes, each with its own bizarre personality. One talks in rhymes, another uses 1930s gangster slang and the third speaks in a refined, multi-syllabic manner. There's no information on their origin or what the exact purpose of their society is, but it's okay to leave all that stuff a mystery for now. In any POTA universe, the Forbidden Zone SHOULD be full of bizarre stuff. In the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes, it was telepathic mutants worshipping a doomsday bomb. This story just might edge out the movie in pure bizarre-ness.

The two heroes and a surviving gorilla terrorist are tossed into an arena, their execution taking the form of fights against a series of mutated monsters until they are killed. (I loved writing that sentence as well.) But they manage to kill the first monster, then find a way to escape the arena. They also find the Lawgiver a prisoner in a nearby cell. They spring him and find an aircraft, which they THINK they can fly because the controls are similar to the rail car they stole earlier.

The issue ends with them taking off in a flying vehicle they don't know if they can fly properly, with the gorilla taking the Lawgiver hostage and telling them they have to fly to the gorilla terrorist encampment. And, yes, I loved writing that sentence as well.

Ploog's art, especially the design of the Inheritors and the arena monsters, is fantastic. The first two issues were excellent, but with this issue, the story really takes off into wonderful and exciting science fiction territory. 

We'll return to POTA before long, but for next week, we'll visit with Shang-Chi as he discovers he can't even eat a quiet dinner without someone trying to kill him.