Planet Of The Apes [2023] #4 - Marvel Comics

PLANET OF THE APES No. 4, September 2023

Entirely set upon a besieged ocean liner “one hundred miles east of New York”, it is hard to imagine just how a writer could better stir up an almost overwhelming sense of injustice within their audience as David F. Walker does with his narrative for Issue Four of “Planet Of The Apes”. For whilst Exercitus Viri’s merciless armed assault upon Juliana Tobon’s precious passenger ship doesn’t succeed in its mission to wipe-out the world’s last sizable population of apes in captivity. The terrorist’s attack does still cause the sea vessel to be “strewn with blood and death”.

To be honest though, this palpable hostility in any reader towards the irrational anti-simian group is generated well before this comic’s disconcertingly high kill count is even hinted at, and arguably starts with the book’s opening panel as the gas-mask wearing, holier-than-thou pirate leader arrogantly declares that “the human race is depending on us” just as his soldiers’ raid begins. Indeed, the conceit of these fanatics as they mercilessly gun down unarmed chimpanzees is genuinely distressing, and doubtless caused many a bibliophile to involuntarily cheer once the monkeys begin successfully fighting back against the smaller boats surrounding their transportation.

Equally as inspiring as the “award-winning” author’s penmanship however, are Dave Wachter’s layouts, which add a tremendous amount of dynamic and emotional energy to the chaotic scenes breaking out around the ambushed U.N. Peacekeeping force. At one point it shockingly appears to be all over for Tobon, and the illustrator takes this moment to pencil some serious determination upon the faces of the enraged primates as they realise that it is now or never if their species are to survive another day; “No one was giving orders, Everything the apes did – every action they took – they did on their own.”  

Far less pulse-pounding, but just as enthralling, is this publication’s secondary story “The Smartest Gorilla In The World”, in which Walker depicts a now talking Pug realising his band of simians in France need to visit the country’s surviving zoos and animal preserves to protect their inhabitants. Well-drawn by Andy MacDonald, this five-page tale is somewhat sensitively told by having a human prisoner suddenly realise that the Exercitus Viri’s propaganda is wrong and that his captors are neither animals nor savage.

The regular cover art of "PLANET OF THE APES" #4 by Joshua Cassara & Dean White