Ape Shall Not Kill Ape was the backup story featured in MR Comics' Revolution on the Planet of the Apes #5. It was written by Ty Templeton, with art by Kent Burles and Bernie Mireault, and gave a glimpse at a lost chapter of ape history.
Synopsis[]
In "The Valley" - a village where humans, chimpanzees and orangutans lived in peace - Lawgiver Greybeard taught his class the Ultimate Law of the sacred rule; "Ape shall not kill ape". An armed group of apes stormed the classroom, led by Augustus, the orangutan Lawgiver of the "Hill Tribes". With him was an army of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos, whose descendants left Ape City to form the Hill Tribes in protest at humanity's involvement in society. Preaching that Aldo and Caesar were divine, given the power of speech by God, Augustus declared that humans were non-reasoning vermin, able to speak only as a trick of the Devil. To prove his claim, he unleashed a savage human from the hills, who attacked and brutally killed Greybeard. Shooting the savage, Augustus ordered all humans stripped and cast out into the river, the time of human/ape cohabitation in Ape City at an end. Taking over the children's instruction, Augustus introduced them to the new Ultimate Law, as set down by Jacob, son of Virgil, years earlier: "Beware the beast man".
Notes[]
- Revolution on the Planet of the Apes and its backup stories dealt with the events surrounding Conquest of the Planet of the Apes or, in some cases, the original movie. Uniquely, Ape Shall Not Kill Ape featured no familiar characters and was not specific about it setting. However, in style and substance it resembled the stories from Malibu Graphics' Adventure Comics imprint. This was an intentional tribute to the '90s Apes comics, and for that reason it was drawn by Malibu artist Kent Burles.