Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern is a 2017 Crossover comic between Green Lantern and Planet of the Apes, published by DC Comics and Boom! Studios and specifically taking place after the events of Planet of the Apes (1968) while using some characters and elements from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. The 6-issue miniseries was written by Justin Jordan as well as Robbie Thompson and illustrated by Barnaby Bagenda.
Hal Jordan follows Sinestro into the Planet of the Apes universe after learning that the latter had killed a Lantern from each of the seven Lantern Corps of the emotional spectrum to empower an Ancient Artifact dumped into the alternate reality known as the Universal Ring.
After Hal and Sinestro crash-land in Ape City, trouble arises when Cornelius finds the Universal Ring and subsequently puts it on.
Compare with Star Trek/Green Lantern, another comic crossover between Green Lantern and an iconic sci-fi franchise.
This series contains the following tropes.
- Adapted Out: The only human members of the Green Lantern Corps shown are Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner, with no acknowledgement made whatsoever of John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz or Jessica Cruz.
- John Brent, the second astronaut, is also no where to be seen if he arrived at all.
- All Your Powers Combined: The Universal Ring combines the powers of all seven Lantern Corps.
- Artifact of Doom: The Universal Ring, implied to have some dark magic employed in its creation, takes control of whoever wields it and drives them to replicate it.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Held hostage by Grodd, Zira takes her own life to keep the Universal Ring out of his hands, much to Cornelius' horror.
- Crossover Power Acquisition: The whole mess starts when Cornelius obtains an experimental power ring called the Universal Ring.
- Death by Adaptation:
- The miniseries starts with Sinestro killing Fatality, Arkillo, Larfleeze, G'Nort, Munk, St. Walker and Bleez in a ritual sacrifice.
- Atrocitus ends up getting torn in two by Lucius and Nova.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Zira succumbed to mortal injuries in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, while here she takes her own life to free herself from the Universal Ring's hold by using her ring to blow her head off.
- George Taylor, is killed by accident when questioned by the Mutants about the Universal Ring.
- Dies Wide Open: Cornelius find Taylor like this after having been killed by the Mutants. He apologize to the late human as he shut his eyes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Cornelius tries to sacrifice himself to remove the power of the Universal Ring from his world, but finds in the end that he's survived.
- The unnamed Green Lantern who hid the Universal Ring on the Planet of the Apes Earth, finding herself trapped in that reality, attempted to save it from the nuclear war. She failed, and her remains entomb.
- Mythology Gag:
- A nod to the original film's ending is made when Hal Jordan lands in front of the ruined Statue of Liberty and screams "Damn you all to hell."
- The Universal Ring is essentially a pastiche for the Phantom Ring that plays a major part in Green Lanterns. Fittingly enough, Rami, the Guardian who created the Phantom Ring, is established here to have started the eventual creation of the Universal Ring by making an attempt at creating a power ring that harnessed every color of the emotional spectrum and inspiring other Guardians to perfect the process.
- The iconic Emerald Twilight image of Hal Jordan grinning evilly while wearing multiple rings on his fingers is emulated in the second issue by the flashback of the Universal Ring's creation depicting a Guardian wearing the ring as well as an alternate cover for issue six that depicts Cornelius wearing the rings of all the Lantern Corps with the additions of a Black Lantern ring and a White Lantern ring.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: At least half of the deaths and destruction can be credited to Guy Gardner thinking it was a good idea to bring with them Gorilla Grodd to act as a guide. It should come to no one's surprise he betrayed the Lanterns the first chance he gets and things goes downhill from there on out.
- Sequel Hook: The miniseries concludes with General Ursus and Dr. Zaius conspiring with a very much alive Gorilla Grodd, while Cornelius turns out to have survived his sacrifice and finds himself in another universe inhabited by humans.
- Stable Time Loop: The Planet of the Apes Earth is in fact this, isolated from the rest of Hyperspace. The loop sees humans destroy their civilization, seeing the rise of apes. The Earth is eventually destroyed, but not before several apes travel back in time, restarting the loop all over again. It was for this reason it was the perfect hiding place for the Universal Ring.
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: A variety. His Yellow Ring drained, Sinestro is forced to wear the Ring of a long dead Green Lantern, the one who hid the Universal Ring here in the first place. Thus making him a Green Lantern once again.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Dr. Zaius and General Ursus perished in the detonation of the cobalt bomb at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes while Cornelius was shot by the end of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, while all three of them live by the end of this miniseries.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Cornelius becomes rather unhinged upon donning the Universal Ring.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cornelius starts out as well. With the Universal Ring, and learning of his world's true history and nature of it time-loop, he seeks to end the cycle and create a more peaceful and equal society for both ape and human. But it doesn't last long...
