Beware The Planet Of The Apes #3 - Marvel Comics

BEWARE THE PLANET OF THE APES No. 3, May 2024

Desperately trying to depict the shock of Cornelius and Zira discovering they are no longer “alone in this world [as] the only sentient creatures left”, Marc Guggenheim’s penmanship for Issue Three of “Beware The Planet Of The Apes” disappointingly falls frustratingly flat on account of the Long Island-born novelist employing a number of contrivances to keep his story moving. Indeed, the entire twenty-page periodical’s central plot appears to incorporate so many manufactured moments, not least of which is Nova mentally wandering down the Yellow Brick Road of Oz, that many a bibliophile will be scratching their heads in wonderment as to just how this prequel's final instalment will neatly tie in with astronaut George Taylor’s imminent arrival.

One such unsatisfactory set-up is surely Zira’s ability to convince the leader of Hope’s Point that the Hominidae Empire will launch an attack against the mutant human settlement at some point in the future - so their best course of action is to actually attack the gorilla-only civilisation first. This sedentary, dialogue-driven discussion is soon unsurprisingly revealed to have simply been a blatant lie by the chimpanzee psychologist so as to bring much-needed aid to her imprisoned nephew. However, considering that Mistress Ivana can and does read the veterinarian’s mind, it seems rather unbelievable that she didn’t sense the ruse; “I think you’ll say anything to save Lucius.”

Even more bizarrely based though has to be the American author’s belief that his readers will accept a single person can mentally prevent an entire metropolis from seeing a large(ish) mounted army riding straight into the centre of their settlement. Lyla’s mind power is clearly potent. But considering the woman is later shown to be unable to shield just Cornelius from a beating before being butchered herself, it’s difficult to imagine how she is able to control so many minds – unless perhaps Guggenheim considers her to implausibly wield psionic abilities similar to that of the X-Men’s Jean Grey..?

Perhaps this publication’s most significant shortcoming though, can be seen in Ivana’s highly dubious plan of attack. Despite the plot clearly suggesting she has a sizeable force at her back, humanity is still clearly heavily outnumbered by the well-armoured gorilla soldiers. So just why the mind-reader believes chopping down a few apes with axes will defeat them debatably makes little to no sense; especially when the side-scheme to free Lucius consists of her just sending his unarmed relatives frantically searching the huge hostile community for him.

The regular cover art of "BEWARE THE PLANET OF THE APES" #3 by Taurin Clarke