New Apes. Same Madhouse.
Planet of the Apes Visionaries is a Boom! Studios Planet of the Apes Graphic Novel, written by Dana Gould (The Simpsons) with art by Chad Lewis.
For the 50th anniversary of the first film, and in the vein of works like The Star Wars, the book is a retrospective that retells the story of the first film — based on Rod Serling's (The Twilight Zone) first draft of what would become the famous 1968 film.
Tropes in this work include;
- Adaptational Intelligence: After a few weeks with Thomas, Nova is able to begin speaking simple sentences with Thomas speculating she has more potential. Her film counterpart was only able to speak Taylor's name one time.
- Adaptational Name Change: Taylor goes by Thomas here.
- Adapted Out:
- The religion vs. science theme of the film is not present here.
- The Ape caste system is much less pronounced here.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Thomas is much less of a cynic and abrasive than in comparison to Heston's Taylor.
- Dr. Zaius is more lively in comparison to the more dour Zaius of the films.
- Adaptational Ugliness: All the apes are drawn closer to more physically resemble real life apes than the more humanized look of them in the original film.
- Affably Evil: Dr. Zaius is a more scholarly and friendly person in comparison to his more dour film counterpart but is just as much as bigot against humans.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Thomas is modeled after Paul Newman.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Taylor died, along with the rest of planet, when the Alpha Omega Bomb was set off in Beneath. Thomas here is simply shot by Zaius' soldiers when he comes across the remains of the Statue of Liberty.
- Downer Ending: Arguably an even bigger one than the film's ending. Thomas still discovers he's been on a post-apocalyptic Earth all along. Then he's shot and killed by Zaius.
- The Grand Hunt: How Thomas and the others first encounter the Apes, much like in the film, though here the Apes are using jeeps and helicopters rather than horses.
- Truer to the Text: Ape society being modern (or modern for the '60s) is actually closer in spirit to the original novel than any of the films would portray.
