Category Archives: Planet of the Apes

Well, I guess Betrayal does change some things to make the ending more in line with the first movie. All apes can be scientists–doctors–but I don’t think there were any chimp doctors in the first movie. I think they were still stooges to the orangutans. Humans are banned from the city. Those two changes about cover it.

Bechko and Hardman establish Zaius as a bad guy at the end, not out of some willful evil but through his embracing of ignorance. Maybe if the comic had been Zaius’s story, how he became corrupt, the ending might have some resonance. But it does not.

There’s a set-up for a sequel, with a gorilla and a human hanging out. Sadly, there’s nowhere for the story to go. The secret ape prison is closed too. Bechko and Hardman are inexplicably reductive.

Great artwork though. Hardman’s art just gets better throughout.

I wonder if Betrayal got four issues because Hardman agreed to do four issues. There’s not enough story for four issues; there’s probably only enough for two. Bechko and Hardman are introducing all these characters–or, if they’ve introduced them before, they’re now giving them more page time. But there’s still the pointlessness.

So what if the good guys are in danger? I don’t even know the female chimp’s name. And the sympathetic Doctor Zaius stuff continues, but without any ties to other stories in the franchise, the character’s presence is far from imperative. For a second, I thought Betrayal might tie a little into the first Apes movie… but it doesn’t seem to do so.

Even worse than boring is the pacing. Bechko and Hardman don’t pace the story to take advantage of Hardman’s art. And there’s no other reason to read the comic, so the art should rock….

The second issue of Betrayal has fantastic Hardman art and still no compelling story.

Bechko and Hardman seem to think setting a comic near the original movie is enough, but they’re ignoring the years of Apes comics before this one. While truly original content is off the table, the Ape prison introduced here is a bore. Betrayal isn’t even an exercise in constraint–Hardman’s (great) art opens up the planet from the movie’s confined one.

Maybe the one interesting aspect–in terms of continuity and franchise–is evil Dr. Zaius from the first movie being… ahem… humanized. But I think the second movie already did something similar (and I know comics have in the past). Having a heroic gorilla general is pretty cool, but the narrative doesn’t even follow him. Instead, Bechko and Hardman check in on their pedestrian conspiracy.

I wish it were better, but it probably can’t be.

It’s almost like a mantra… there are no new Planet of the Apes stories to be told, regardless of title, creator or company. Betrayal is no different. There are pro-human apes, anti-human apes and a conspiracy against either or both. It’s the way Apes comics have always been.

Except the art.

Gabriel Hardman brings professionalism and talent to Betrayal. It’s the best Apes art in decades, whether it’s Hardman’s take on the apes themselves or the fantastic action sequences. He has this chase sequence and it’s absolutely stunning what he gets done in a page. The implied transitions between panels are sublime.

The script, from he and Corinna Bechko, isn’t bad. Like I said before, the plot’s nothing new, but the characters are well-realized and some are quite likable.

Unfortunately, the cliffhanger doesn’t particularly grab one’s attention, but it could be worse.

Great art, totally harmless story.