Planet of the Apes: Bloodlines

Planet of the Apes (Dark Horse Comics) (Collected editions) #3

by Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton, Pop Mhan (Illustrator)

When Esau, Seneca, Attar, and the human woman, Crow, make a stand in a snowy forest, all seems lost, but a mysterious forest legend, a warrior in black armor, may provide a rescue. A Graphic Novel.

Genres: Graphic Novels

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2002

Reviews

[Ian]

Following on from 'Old Gods', Attar, Esau, Crow and Seneca continue their quest into formerly unknown lands. They encounter a tribe of nomadic humans whose laws require the execution of the two apes and attempt to convince the nomads that cooperation and coexistence between humans and apes is possible.

So, two books into the tale, I still have no idea what quest it is the main characters are on and, in fact, this book seems to studiously avoid progressing that plot any further. Instead we get a reversal which sees the protagonists trying to convince a bunch of humans of their ideals, instead of a bunch of apes. It's no more clever than that.

There are a few compelling action scenes, which is why I've not rated this book lower, but really there's nothing here that's going to capture anyone's imagination and it certainly doesn't do anything new or interesting with the overall franchise.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Matthew J.]

I really can't get past the art in this. I haven't liked the art in this series generally, but it gets even chunkier and more...whatever it is, this time around. Also, the out of nowhere cheesecake art on the only human female in the whole series feels really wrong.
The story is ham-fisted and nothing special. I expect more from Abnett, but I don't know what kind of constraints he was working under.

[Jordan Rodriguez]

I like the book a lot but I feel like there wasn't enough words and disrctiption. But I like how they all fought at the end.

[Dann]

The struggle between apes and humans continues in Dark Horse Comics’ three part mini-series Planet of the Apes: Bloodlines. While on the run Attar and his companions are taken in by a human village that overthrew their ape overlords, however their welcome is short lived as the village’s hatred of apes soon threatens to erupt into bloodshed. The message about prejudice is really heavy handed and is obnoxious at times. And, the characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes. Additionally, the artwork is inconstant from issue to issue. However, the action is done fairly well and brings some exciting energy to the book. A mediocre graphic novel, Planet of the Apes: Bloodlines is mildly entertaining but doesn’t do anything new or interesting with the series.

[Matthew]

Edginton continues the story of a generation after the Tim Burton PotA, started in The Human War and continued with Old Gods. Sadly this series does not continue on after this volume.