Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm 4 (December 2012)

Are you kidding me? The grand reveal is so obvious I had it figured a page into the sequence.

Bechko and Hardman–and I know I’ve complimented them on their adherence to Apes movie mythology–try way too hard to bring everything together with Cataclysm. They fail, most obviously, because they leave it with it with a cliffhanger for their next series, but they also fail for the lack of imagination.

The point of licensed properties is to expand on the canon. Bechko and Hardman instead wrap it in on itself. They use Cataclysm to tie the first movie to the second and the fifth to the first. Except they use their comic to validate the bad ideas in the movies, not emphasize the good.

Again, the writing’s fine on the scenic level and Couceiro’s art’s fantastic–this issue might even be his best. But the plot’s pointless and contrived.

CREDITS

Writers, Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman; artist, Damian Couceiro; colorist, Darrin Moore; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editor, Dafna Pleban; publisher, Boom! Studios.