Predator VS Planet of the Apes #1 Review

Overview

Writer: Greg Pak

Artist: Alan Robinson

Colorist: Espen Grundetjern

Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Cover Artist: Stonehouse

Spoiler alert! This review talks about a Predator making it hard for Apes to keep breathing. Sometimes, simplicity is perfection and it doesn’t get simpler than a Yautja (Predator) following his unfortunate prey straight to the Planet of the Apes where all kinds of entertaining hell breaks loose! Buckle up kiddies!

Seriously, though… minor spoilers are ahead, nothing too revealing but just a heads up.

Writing

Greg Pak is either a long time Planet of the Apes fan or he worked overtime doing research for this book. I could hear Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter riffing off of one another. I could hear Jerry Goldsmith’s incomparable score. Growing up, I must’ve watched the original Planet of the Apes over a hundred times and Pak just NAILED it!

Disney struck oil when they bought Fox, gaining, not only the fully-evolved-apes in question, but the most versatile bad-asses across the entire multiverse: The Predators! Seriously! They can put a Predator up against any character in their portfolio and it’s going to sell! Knowing this, Pak could’ve phoned in the script and just had a Yautja target the Apes and incite a bloodbath. It would even have been a fun read. But that’s not how Pak rolls. He blends the two IPs in a way that makes perfect sense and I swear they could make this canon and nobody would bat an eyelash! The Yautja is your traditional hunter, tearing through any living thing that poses a threat and being utterly dismissive of anything that doesn’t. While he’s living his best life, the story of the humans that are lost on this alternate Earth continues as Zira and Cornelius try to figure out what the hell is going on. It’s mayhem, it’s nostalgia, it’s simple and it’s perfect!

Art

Okay… I’m going to put on my villain hat for a minute. The art in this book is fine. There are things that Alan Robinson does extremely well: The Predator looks great as do Cornelius and Zira. Where I think he falters is with the Gorillas. Thinking about it, It might not really be Robinson’s fault here. It may be Espen Grundetjern’s color choices for the gorillas. See, Gorillas, both fictional and in real life, were always cool to me because their skin was like black, cracked leather that matched their black fur coats. Here, the skin is like a light warm gray and it really throws me off. It makes the Gorillas look a little cartoonish. Normally this would be a minor problem for me, but not in an otherwise perfect PotA story.

Final Thoughts

Pak delivers more than we could’ve asked for. A truly, well thought out, well executed joining of two legendary IPs that honors what came before while giving us something new and entertaining. The art was good and the colors were mostly great but the total package took a hit because of those damned dirty gorillas!

Overall Grade: 8/10

Have you checked out this run? Let me know your thoughts.