Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes is a 2016 Crossover comic between the aforementioned Tarzan and Planet of the Apes series, co-published by Dark Horse and Boom! Studios. It is written by Tim Seeley and David Walker with art duties by Fernando Dagnino, Duncan Fegredo, and Sandra Molina.
After escaping from the destruction of their world, the chimps Cornelius and Zira find themselves stranded not in 1970s America but late-19th century Africa where they would soon find themselves taking in the orphaned boy, Tarzan. Raised as a brother alongside their son, Caesar the two soon find themselves plunged into a war between man and ape takes that takes them from the jungles of Africa, the center of the earth, and to Earth's distant future.
This work contains examples of;
- Ape Shall Not Kill Ape: Zira is shown teaching this to a group of Mangani children.
- Adaptational Name Change: Temporarily, Caesar goes by "Milo" for much of his early years before taking on his latter name when he assumes leadership of the Mangani. Milo actually even was Caesar's birth name in the classic films.
- Adaptational Species Change: Due to the fact that Planet of the Apes only has three ape species, "Mangani" is treated as a term for apes in general with Kerchak and Tublat being portrayed as gorillas, "Bolgani" as they are called in the ape language.
- Alternate History: Here Zira, Cornelius, and Milo landed in late-19th century Africa rather 1970s America. It's later shown this is just one of the many alternate timelines caused their time travelling, a view of a portal to different universe shows images from timeline of the classical films.
- Crossover: Not just between the works in the title but also other Edgar Rice Burroughs' other notable series, Pellucidar.
- Hollow Earth: The setting of the Pellucidar, where the second act of the story takes place.
- Fantastic Racism: Kerchack obviously disdains Tarzan but he also has little care for Caesar (and presumably Cornelius and Zira by extension) Not seeing them as true apes.
- Clayton has this towards the Mangani. Viewing as violent savages even though they display clear intelligence and they're mainly just defending themselves from human slavers.
- One-Steve Limit: Caesar goes by "Milo" at the start of the series before taking on his more famous name, just in time for a time traveling multiverse version of Milo (his namesake) to show up
- Raised by Wolves: Tarzan, as per expected. Though here he's raised by Cornelius and Zira, alongside their son Caesar.
- Vicious Cycle: No matter what Milo seems to do, Earth always seems to end with nuclear destruction caused by the wars between Apes and Humans. The ending of the book with Caesar and Tarzan standing up to Zaius and Ursus saying it's time for the cycle of hatred to end implies this time it might finally stick.
- You Can't Fight Fate: A major theme of the book, discussed early on by Zira and Cornelius on whether Earth is destined to suffer the fate it did at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It's Milo's main motivation by the last issue, becoming convinced Ape and Man are destined to continually war with one another and getting Earth destroyed each time. Forcing him to take even more drastic measures each time he tries to prevent it.
