Planet of the Apes: Ursus #1 Review

Planet of the Apes: Ursus #1 brings a new limited series telling the story of General Ursus, who has always hated and feared mankind.  We get to see a glimpse at his rise through the ranks to General and what experiences brought him to the Forbidden Zone.

Set around the time of the original movie from the 60’s, with a different look to the more recent movie versions, this book looks like it could have been released in the 60’s with a unique artist style that has really impressed me.

The initial issue sets the tone of the series, showing how General Ursus lives and how he hates Humans, so when the population of Humans starts to plow through all of the Apes crops, the politicians have a plan, which Ursus doesn’t agree with, as his plan is much more simple, kill the Humans.

We also get to see a glimpse of his past as we get some flashbacks to why he hates Humans.  Though I found the flashback scenes harder to read due to a different art style (which makes sense to differentiate these scenes).

Its also interesting to see how the writer has tried to explain what Ursus was doing during the original movie, since he wasn’t in that one and fill in gaps.

I wasn’t sure about diving into a Planet of the Apes comic book, I’ve seen all of the recent movies including the Tim Burton one, and remember watching the original movies as a kid, so it’s a franchise I’ve been a casual fan of for decades.

OVERALL:  I got a huge kick of this comic book and it’s sold me on reading through the rest of this series, it’s good impressive artwork and the franchise offers a completely different backdrop than most comic books and for casual fans, it’s a good jumping in point to have something different.

REVIEW SCORE: 9 out of 10

Here is a look at his issue: