Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 1

Bridging the 10-year gap between the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES films, fans will bear witness to the fall of humanity and the rise of Caesar’s civilization. While the apes of the world have yet to advance as a species, Caesar must find a way to unify in them to one cause. On the other side of the country, Malcom must venture into the decaying Americas with his family to find a cure for the plague slowly killing his wife, Rita. World powers will shift as civilizations collapse and rise.

A great tie-in to the movie, if you’ve seen it.  If you’ve never seen the movie, you might be a little lost as to what is actually going on.  Taking place between the two newest Apes movies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes issue 1 helps to fill in what happened after the events of Rise.  Survival stories seem to be the thing lately and this one’s no exception, just replace the zombies with intelligent apes.  This series follows Malcom as he tries to find some form of safety for his family.  I take it, from the art stylings of Dan McDaid, that Malcom is supposed to be the main James Franco character.  As someone who’s never seen the movies, this didn’t really do anything for me.  I mean, if you’ve read one survival story, you’ve read them all.  The only thing that would make this issue and the whole series for that matter, even a little appealing is if you’ve seen the movies.  Aside from the lack of reference, the issue gets a bit confusing at times.  For instance, when the apes are communicating amongst themselves, they have two different word balloons.  Are these supposed to be for two different types of communication?  And there’s no real explanation as to what this virus is that Malcom’s wife has and what it’s actually doing.  I really can’t recommend this series to any newcomers.  If anything, go check out the movies first before grabbing this one.  It will just be a confusing read otherwise.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes issue 1 really only benefits followers of the franchise.  It’s not real friendly to new readers and the story just isn’t compelling enough to keep me interested.  So, I guess my point is, go see the movies before you even think of picking this one up.  I mean there isn’t even any ape fights to draw people in.  Ultimately the choice is up to you, but as for myself, I think I’ll be stopping here until I catch the movie.  For more info on where to find this issue, visit the Boom! Studios website, or the Boom! Studios Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.