Predator vs. the Planet of the Apes #3
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Alan Robinson
Colorist: Espen Grundetjern
Cover Artist: Stonehouse
Publisher: Marvel Comics
A human, some apes, and a Yautja walk into the Forbidden Zone...
History Lessons
General Ursus and the human Arch have entered the Forbidden Zone, where they are attacked by a group of missing ape soldiers that have apparently gone mad with rage! The battle is paused when Drs. Zaius, Zira, and Cornelius arrive—with the injured Predator in tow!
The crazed soldiers refuse to disarm and stand down, so the Predator dispatches them. Soon it leads our motley quartet to a nearby cave, where they find the remains of New York City. Traveling through the ruins, the Predator leads them to a chamber where they meet a group of humans that have been heavily modified over generations of radiation exposure.
These mutated beings have in their possession a bomb with the power to destroy a world—and, thanks to their mind-altering abilities, they now possess the Predator as well...
The Enemy of My Enemy
This series has been fun so far. It has a lot more of a story to tell than I expected it to. Far too often, these Predator crossovers are just a bloodbath without much else to them. Here, there has still been plenty of bloodshed, but it's been spaced out, and there's plenty going on between the slaughters.
One thing that seems to happen in any Planet of the Apes crossover is that the "name" apes all end up together somehow, even though they are normally enemies. In the Fantastic Four crossover, they were all given the FF's powers and had to work together to control them. Here, it's the Predator that brings them all together. The adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" seems to apply as much to apes as it does to humans.
This portion of the story, taking place in the Forbidden Zone, unfolds some of the history of the Planet of the Apes for our leads. As we all know, the titular Planet is actually Earth following a catastrophe where man was all but wiped out, and apes rose in their place. When they step into the remains of New York, you can feel Arch's pain at what was lost through humanity's own self-destructive nature. For the apes, it was proof of man's savagery and vindication of their beliefs.
Where things get really interesting is when we meet the mutated humans, and they use their mind powers to reveal the Predator's secrets. Unlike what we're used to seeing in one of these crossovers, this Yautja is not a great hunter-warrior seeking glory. No, this one is considered to be "weak" and has lived a life of slavery and suffering. It has come to this Planet not to seek glory, but rather to find a weapon that will allow it to take its revenge.
Which is ironically what the mutates plan on doing with the Predator itself. Taking control of its mind, they turn it on our leads. So now we do get the standard "named characters are hunted by the Predator and must survive" story that you expect from these crossovers, but we've come to it a very different way.
The series has kept the bursts of violence to a minimum so far, but now that the Predator is fully unleashed, I expect things to ramp up considerably. The book still needs to earn its "Parental Advisory" label, after all. The question now is, will this be the kind of crossover that is willing to remove the "plot armor" of the main characters and allow them to be maimed or killed? Or will this be one of those times where the content is enjoyable but lacks any real stakes?
Damn Dirty Apes
Greg Pak is delving so much more into the Planet of the Apes lore here than he did in the Fantastic Four crossover, and that makes this series considerably more interesting as a result. He shows the same strong grasp of the Apes characters here, with the addition of Arch as our human lead. The Predator is the one who has received the least characterization to this point, but now we know more about it and how it differs from what we're used to seeing from its kind. The pacing of the story has been good—it's not a fast-paced race against time, but it's not so slow that it feels like nothing ever happens, either.
Alan Robinson's artwork isn't anything flashy, but it works for the story being told here. His work here reminds me a bit of a less cartoony Todd Nauck—Robinson uses similar body types and facial structures, but his expressions are a lot more subdued than Nauck's would have been. His Apes don't carry the "rubber mask" look that some adaptations maintain in the interest of "full authenticity," instead opting to make them a little more realistic (well, as realistic as they can be). The Predator is bulkier than I'm used to them being, but that fits with the backstory we are given for it in this issue.
The colors here are also nothing flashy, but Espen Grundetjern gives everything a dirty, grimy look that fits Planet of the Apes. The colors serve as the glue that binds together the disparate palettes of humans, mutates, apes, and Predators and makes them all look like part of the same whole. Sometimes in these crossovers the colors make the different characters look like they were cut out of their own books and pieced together like a ransom note—thankfully, that is not the case here, and everything blends together seamlessly.
Dangerous Game
Predator vs. the Planet of the Apes #3 is a solid issue in a miniseries that has been much stronger than I would have expected. It's actually taking the time to develop its characters and tell a story that is more than just "Predator hunts prey." It uses the lore of both properties well and blends them together in interesting ways. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here and how our leads handle their current predicament.