Must I remind you that the Lawgiver personally appointed me as Peace Officer of this city--?! -- and that he has requested full reports on anyone who interferes with the facilitation of law enforcement procedures. 
- —Brutus (Planet of the Apes)
Appearing in "Terror on the Planet of the Apes"
Featured Characters:
- Alexander
- Arr (First appearance)
- Brutus
- Em (First appearance)
- Jason
- Lawgiver
- Xavier
- Zee (First appearance)
- Gestalt Commander (First appearance)
- Be-One
- Be-Two
- Be-Three
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-7481
- New York City area
- Ape City
- Forbidden Zone
- New York City area
Items:
- Scorch Weapons
- Mutant War Machine
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Terror on the Planet of the Apes"
Alexander and Jason continue their flight through the subterranean mutant caverns in search of the missing Lawgiver – the only ape that can clear Jason’s name. A squad of Brutus' renegade gorilla soldiers closes in on them, but they manage to divert their course into the path of a gang of angry mutant drones. While ape battles mutant, the two refugees sneak off further into the tunnels.
Another throng of mutants manages to corner them, but Jason succeeds in grabbing one of their scorch weapons. They blast their way past several mutant guards until they find an abandoned railcar.
An elite unit of mutants known as the Inheritors stops the car and capture Jason and Alexander. They bring them to the Gestalt Chamber where they encounter the Inheritor leader – a collective consciousness constructed of three disembodied brains. The Inheritor tri-brain sentences them for execution in a battle arena.
In the pit arena, Jason and Alexander find another prisoner – one of Brutus' renegade gorilla soldiers. All three are forced to team-up in order to fight up against several horrific monsters.
Escaping from the pit, the three fight through several more drones until they come to the prison cell of the Lawgiver. Jason frees the Lawgiver who tells them of a tunnel that will lead them to a sky-ship. They find a futuristic hover-ship and miraculously discover how to operate it. As more mutant drones converge on their position, Jason, Alexander, and the Lawgiver rocket their way to freedom.
Appearing in "Planet of the Apes, Part III of VI - Manhunt!"
Featured Characters:
- George Taylor
- Cornelius
- Zira
Supporting Characters:
- Nova
Antagonists:
- Doctor Zaius
- Maximus (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Dodge (as a disembodied head only)
- Julius
Locations:
- Earth-7481
- New York City area
- Ape City
- New York City area
Synopsis for "Planet of the Apes, Part III of VI - Manhunt!"
After discovering that Taylor is more than what he seems, Zira takes him into her private office. She gives Taylor a pad and pencil and begins questioning him. Cornelius is still not convinced that Taylor is gifted with any more intellect beyond that of clever mimicry. Taylor gives details of where he came from and points out on a map where his ship landed. The interviewing process is cut short by the abrupt arrival of Dr. Zaius. Taylor is returned to his cage.
Some time later, a gorilla arrives to escort Taylor out of the hospital. He tells Julius that the city intends to geld him (under orders from Dr. Zaius). Upon hearing this, Taylor breaks free from his cage, knocking Julius down.
He begins racing throughout the streets of Ape City scaring pedestrians and small children. The gorilla forces are alerted to his escape and begin hunting him down. Taylor deftly avoids the gorillas' snares and runs into a natural history museum. He is horrified when he finds that Dodge's head has been removed and mounted on a wall of the museum.
Taylor runs out of the museum and races through the streets. As he runs beneath a bridge, pair of gorillas throw nets down on top of him, trapping him. Others race over and begin beating him with clubs. Taylor's throat injury has healed enough now so that he can speak. He snarls, "Get your filthy paws off me you damn dirty ape!" The apes look at him astonished to hear a speaking human.
Notes
- The Planet of the Apes magazine series is distributed through Curtis Publications.
- Terror on the Planet of the Apes is divided into two chapters:
- Part I: Spawn of the Mutant-Pits
- Part II: The Abomination Arena!
- This issue contains the title's first letter column entitled Ape-line.
- This issue contains a six-page text article by Chris Claremont entitled, Journey to the Planet of the Apes. He chronicles his personal experiences visiting the set of the 1974 Planet of the Apes television series.
- This issue contains a two-page article spotlighting the career of actor Roddy McDowall and his contributions to the Planet of the Apes franchise. McDowall is known for playing the characters of Cornelius and Caesar from the films, and Galen from the television series. McDowall is the only actor to have screen time in all five films, plus the television series (In Beneath the Planet of the Apes however, he was only seen in archive footage from the first movie. The feature role of Cornelius was actually played by David Watson).
- The second story in this issue is part 3 of the official comic series adaptation of the 1968 Arthur P. Jacobs film, Planet of the Apes.
- Planet of the Apes is partially reprinted in Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #3.
- Dodge appears as a head mounted on a wall only in this issue. He was killed in Planet of the Apes #1.
Trivia
- Additional information is based on material originally supplied in the 1968 Planet of the Apes movie.
- A colorized version of Planet of the Apes was released as a read-along book and record collection by Power Records in 1974.
- All of the mutant drones featured in Terror on the Planet of the Apes have names that are phonetically spelled letters of the alphabet.
- The line of dialogue, "Get your filthy paws off me, you damn dirty ape" is one of the more infamous scenes taken from the 1968 Planet of the Apes film. The original line is actually, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
- This issue features a Marvel Comics subscription service advertisement entitled Marvel Goes Ape! It contains an illustration by Alfredo Alcala of various Marvel characters drawn to resemble apes. Characters include: Dracula, Lilith, Ka-Zar, Zabu, Shang-Chi, Frankenstein's Monster, Zombie, Morbius and Conan.
- One of the readers whose letter is printed in the Ape-Line letters column is J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski will later become a regular Marvel Comics writer with notable contributions to the Spider-Man family of titles.
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- Planet of the Apes cover gallery
- Planet of the Apes article at Wikipedia
- Planet of the Apes (1968 movie) article at Wikipedia
- Planet of the Apes comic series index at the Grand Comics Database