SONIC BOOM! ~ Catch up time
When I first started doing the Boom! Studios reviews, there was one book that really grabbed my attention. At the time it was frequently my Boom! book of the month, and so I thought I would catch up what I had missed, with a view to continuing to review this title.
The book in question is Daryl Gregory’s Planet of the Apes, with Carlos Magno providing the artwork. When I last read this book the humans living in Southtown were harbouring an assassin who had killed the leader of the apes. It transpired that the killer was Chaika, the mute daughter of Bako, mayor Sullivan’s most trusted friend. In true revolutionary fashion Chaika was not going to let the apes take her and so detonated a bomb as she was taken into custody.
Following this there was a four-part story called “The Devil’s Pawn” which saw Mayor “Sully” Sullivan making deals with the strange religious leader Kale (he was the guy worshipping a nuclear missile), in order to get more weapons to protect her people. Bako was sent to find help in the form of other humans, and the Apes were putting people in prison camps. One of these prisoners escaped and let Sully know what was happening, at the same time Sully’s former best friend the ape Alaya made her own plans to capture all the humans in Southtown and have them put in the camps. Former general Nix reminded her that they wouldn’t be able to do this without casualties, a fact that Alaya did not seem too bothered about. The story comes to an end as the Apes marched on Skin Town on foot, on horseback, and using tanks, only to discover that most of the humans had escaped through the nearby swamps. However, amongst those left in town was Sully, who was very pregnant, and is now a prisoner of Alaya, who is allowing her to be tortured. All is not lost however, as one of Alaya’s most trusted advisors, Hulss, remembered that like him, Caesar was a Chimp, not a Gorilla, not a Oranguatan, and Ceasar was kind to the humans.
The next chapter was titled “Children of Fire“, which, initially I was confused about, see I thought that “The Devils Pawn” was the Planet of the Apes equivalent of Emipre Strikes Back, but it’s clearly “Children of Fire“. The story takes place straight after the ending of Devils Pawn with Sully being interrogated by Alaya’s doctors, Bako and his men plotting a way back into the city, and the Nix being ordered to hunt down the Southtown escapees. The story moves along really quick, the humans steal an airship and fly it straight into the Apes home. At the same time Sully gives birth to her son, and Alaya takes it from her to raise as her own. Bako gets back to the city to rescue Sully, which he does with the help of Kale (who incidentally uses a holy hand grenade ~one for the monty python fans). After rescuing Sully, Bako goes looking for her son, only to come face to face with Nix, in the ensuing fight Bako is killed by a sneak attack from Alaya. The chapter ends ten years in the future, with Sully and her rebels getting bigger in numbers, and working with Alaya’s former advisor Hulss. But sadly Alaya has been raising Sully’s son as her own who loves her dearly.
The current story is called the “Half Man” it has begun with the abduction of Sully’s child Julian from the ape city, by a mysterious individual known as the half man. Julian was under the protection of Nix who has since left his role as general due to conflict with the ape in charge of the military, a chimp named Nerise. Whilst this is going on Sully and her crew encounter the Golden, who are led by a shaved ape named the great Khan, who has taken a human lover. We discover the identity of the Half man as former spy Wyn, who has taken Julian to the site of the camp he escaped from, in order to show him just what his mother is capable of. Nix also finds out that things are not what they seem, and that the Half man had help kidnapping Julian, from an unlikely source.
So, that’s Planet of the Apes caught up on, I’m also going to do a couple of articles detailing how Soldier Zero and Starborn ended at some point.
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