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Revolution on the Planet of the Apes

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Revolution on the Planet of the Apes was the main story featured in MR Comics' six-part comic series of the same name. It was written by Ty Templeton and Joe O'Brien, with art by Salgood Sam, Bernie Mireault, Tom Fowler and Art Lyon, and detailed the immediate aftermath of the rebellion shown in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

Synopsis[]

Arthur Bishop Trundy has been elected President of the United States; his advisors and cabinet include Culley Sparks, his defense secretary; the wheelchair-bound Dr. Karl Reich, his science council advisor; and Nora Rhodes, media undersecretary of the Pentagon. The Alpha-Omega Bomb, code-named “Project Churchdoor,” had been overseen by California Governor Arnold Breck, a cruel man aspiring to great power. To make sure the missile never fell into the wrong hands, Breck created the "Inferno Protocol," a destruction plan to be used only as a last resort. Meanwhile, Ape Management reconditions troublesome gorilla Aldo, reassigning him to a secret project at Area 51 in Nevada. His anger at the human mistreatment of apes worsens when he witnesses first-hand the atrocities to which scientists at the base subject their gorilla inmates. The Ares 51 project, initiated by Defense Secretary Sparks, involves a scientist named Dr. Constantine enhancing gorillas' intelligence so they can learn to fly jet planes and perform other advanced tasks. Driven by the power of Caesar's unconscious mind, and by the genetic and biological experimentation, Aldo begins to acquire the power of speech.

The day after Caesar's rebellion, Caesar names Malcolm MacDonald his liaison between humanity and apekind, and imprisons former Governor Breck in a cell. Chief Inspector Kolp transfers his base of operations to a top-secret underground bunker housing Project Churchdoor, the most secure facility on the West Coast. There, he assembles a counter-insurgency commando unit to free Breck from Caesar's army. In Los Angeles, a young pirate blogger named Chris Leung watches Internet footage of Caesar's rebellion until the news feed is terminated for violating the Media Act. His father dismisses the Caesar rumors as a hoax until an ape drives a truck through their wall, bringing the rebellion to their home. Leung's entire family is slaughtered. Leung takes cover, clutching his laptop and vowing to get the truth out, and realizes he must find Caesar.

Meanwhile, at Area 51's Hasslein Air Force Base in Groom Lake, Nevada, Aldo refuses to do his work, and is sent to Dr. Constantine. Aldo overpowers his guards and beats them and Constantine to a bloody pulp, repeatedly screaming a word he has heard from his human masters countless times: “No!” Aldo frees the other Area 51 apes, who slaughter their human trainers and steal several military jets. Aboard a government jet, Nora Rhodes prepares to meet with Caesar. Two military aircraft piloted by Aldo's apes attack; a fired missile blowing a hole in the cabin. Grabbing a parachute, Rhodes jumps from the plane and lands unharmed in the war zone of San Diego. Caesar orders Breck taken away or trial. Atop a nearby building, Kolp and two underlings, Mendez and Alma, spy on the apes. Their plan: to attack at dawn, kill Caesar, and rescue Breck. Chris Leung, meanwhile, takes a video camera to the edge of San Diego's Exclusion Zone to film the war for his blog.

Leung finds Rhodes in the street as Caesar approaches, inviting them to record and witness Breck's trial. Caesar will serve as prosecution, MacDonald as defense, and with humanity acting as judge-and-jury, via Leung's camera. Caesar charges Breck with conspiracy to murder the entire world, citing the Churchdoor project as proof. A moment later, explosions rock the area, as Kolp's commandos rush in, guns blazing. Breck runs for the door as Caesar beats Kolp for killing Armando. MacDonald stops Caesar from killing the man, saying Armando would not have approved. Kolp escapes, leading Breck outside to Alma and Méndez. Breck's team heads immediately for the Project Churchdoor bunker, and descends to a secure facility. Breck threatens to cleanse the world with the bomb if Caesar's troops do not give up within a day. Breck tells Méndez to contact Trundy, but nothing gets through. Rhodes uses Leung's pirate camera to warn the U.S. President of Breck's actions. President Trundy arrives at Fort Liberty in time to hear Rhodes recommend he launch a thermonuclear strike at San Diego.

Meanwhile, Aldo's gorillas aerial-bomb Washington, D.C., then engage the human ground forces and storm the White House, looking for Trundy. Eventually, the gorillas take over the War Room. Finally, in the Oval Office, Aldo assumes the president's chair, lighting up a cigar in triumph. Twelve hours later, with no way to reach Breck and the Alpha-Omega bomb, MacDonald begins to lose hope. To his shock, Aldo's gorillas arrive with a squad of fighter jets; even stranger, Aldo can speak. Caesar sends Lisa and the city's ape and human population to seek safety in the mountains as Aldo's pilots lift off to level the complex. MacDonald opts to stay with Caesar, and face his destiny. Breck contacts Trundy, saying he has everything under control. Aldo's fighters disrupt the call, bringing the building down around him. Apes storm the launch bay, slaughtering Breck's followers. Kolp leads his commandos to the lower levels, shooting MacDonald as he proceeds. In his death, MacDonald hits a trigger, causing the missile to leak radioactivity. With no choice but to save mankind by destroying civilization, Trundy initiates the Inferno Protocol, raining nuclear weapons down on the cities of North America. Caesar leads his people into the mountains, carrying MacDonald's body with them, and leaving Kolp's soldiers behind in the radioactive city. Thanks to Caesar's psychic dreams, the apes (starting with Lisa) began to speak. However, he soon stops dreaming events into existence, which leaves him wondering if he has ultimately changed the future, or caused it.[1]

Issues[]

Development[]

UNPUBLISHED POTA Combat poster

Unpublished promotional poster

The original concept for the series differed slightly from the final story. Ty Templeton’s script, titled Combat on the Planet of the Apes (with the alternate title War on the Planet of the Apes), was envisioned as a crossover between the original film series and Tim Burton´s reimagining.[2] "There’s nothing in the Burton movie,” Templeton maintains, “that rules out the original films, since all of his movie takes place on another planet that is not Earth, until the very end when we discover Earth has been taken over by Thade’s followers, years in the past, because of a time loop.” (It should be noted that the opening scenes would seem to negate the original films, since Earth is not yet ape-dominated, even though the film opens in 2029, almost 40 years after Caesar’s 1991 revolution).

Had Combat seen print, Templeton would have revealed Thade’s apes to have been an offshot of Aldo’s genetically enhanced ape pilots. “There was nothing that said the Earth that Thade went back to couldn’t have been the very same Earth that Milo, Cornelius and Zira went back to,” he explains. “And, in fact, they arrived at similar times. So in our original script, the ape revolution on the West Coast, with Caesar, was going to create a small Ape Nation, leaving the rest of America ruled by humans—no nukes, no big fight for America.” In fact, Templeton says, Caesar’s apes would have attempted to live in peace with humans, as he had promised at the end of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.[3]

According to Ty Templeton, Thade would have arrived on Earth 10 years after the events of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, finding Earth’s ape and human civilizations coexisting peacefully. Thade would have landed on the East Coast and been taken for interrogation, mirroring the events of Escape from the Planet of the Apes when Cornelius and Zira were captured. However, Thade would devise a plan to escape and eventually reunite with Caesar, who controlled the West Coast. Thade would attempt, unsuccessfully, to convince Caesar to wage a full-scale war against humanity. Determined to pursue his agenda, Thade began preaching human hatred among the inhabitants of Ape City, ultimately rallying an army composed of gorillas from Area 51 and others from Caesar’s own community.

As conflict erupted between the two factions, a “wagon train” would have carried the Alpha-Omega Bomb cross-country, aiming to counter Thade’s more organized and militarized East Coast contingent. Thade’s splinter group, Templeton says, would have secured all of the state’s military installations, seizing jets, tanks, ships and other vehicles to defeat the humans still running America. “A few of the ideas made it into the miniseries anyway, with Aldo stepping into the role of Thade for the whole subplot involving the attack on the East Coast. Taking over the White House, for instance, was a scene almost intact from the original script, where Thade lights a cigar sitting in the oval office, rather than Aldo.”[3]

Each victory Thade achieved would have only increased his reverence among the apes, solidifying his influence. The story was set to culminate in a civil war between Thade and Caesar for the leadership of apekind. In the climax, Caesar would have emerged victorious, killing Thade. However, in a move to heal the divisions caused by the conflict, Caesar would have granted Thade a special place in history—thus providing an in-universe explanation for his statue replacing the Lincoln Memorial in the 2001 film.

Ultimately, Templeton reveals, Thade would have become the original Lawgiver who wrote the scroll warning against “the beast, man” — and an offshoot of apekind would thereafter have revered him as the true spirit of apedom, rather than Caesar. “The legacies of Thade and Caesar become intertwined,” he says, “as the spirit of peace and war that permeate the ape adventures.”[3]

Artist Richard Pace created a promotional poster, cover art, and several interior pages for the Thade-Caesar storyline. Although Fox initially approved the concept, they later changed their stance and decided to scrap the idea altogether. In response, Ty Templeton significantly altered the story to focus on Aldo instead of Thade. "When we moved to a new storyline," Templeton explained, "Richard was too busy to work on the book, and we, sadly, had to go with other creators." Pace's artwork was later intended to feature in a trade paperback compilation of the final miniseries[3], but the release was ultimately canceled due to financial issues faced by MR. Comics.[4]

POTA Revolution Issue 3-First Sketch Cover

Years later, the only issue of The Forbidden Zine fanzine published in early 2010 was said to include pages from the Thade-centric version of Revolution. As of 2024, when Ty Templeton was asked whether more pages were available, he clarified that the art featured in the issue of the fanzine was from the later draft, after the story was revised to focus on Aldo instead of Thade. Templeton also mentioned that Richard Pace had produced only six pages of pencils and those featured in the fanzine in color. However, due to Pace's slower production pace, he was unable to complete the series in a timely manner and was ultimately let go.

Templeton continued to explain that all interior pages pertaining to the Thade version proper were stored on a computer that is no longer operational, meaning that anything featured in the fanzines from back in the day is the only surviving material from that version. While The Forbidden Zine does not feature art from those interior pages, the preliminary cover artwork for the third issue includes an ape wearing a helmet shaped like those seen in the Burton film, probably being Thade himself.

Notes[]

  • The planned sequel to Revolution on the Planet of the Apes was intended to delve deeper into the narrative threads introduced in the backup story from the fifth issue, Ape Shall Not Kill Ape. This follow-up would have been titled Empire on the Planet of the Apes, unfortunately the release of this sequel was canceled before the trade paperback edition of the series could hit shelves, leaving its story untold.

External Links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology, by Rich Handley
  2. ↑ Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology, by Rich Handley - p57
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Unpublished on the Planet of the Apes-Metallic Rose Comics, by Rich Handley
  4. ↑ The Simian Scrolls #16 - p19
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