Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive #2

Writer – Scott Tipton, David Tipton
Artist – Rachel Stott
Colours – Charlie Kirchoff

The issue starts off with Kirk and Spock on an away mission, investigating the new Earth that the Klingons seem to have taken an interest in.  Strangely, the planet is inhabited by intelligent apes and mute, dumb humans.  Evolution has taken an unexpected turn, but worst of all is the fact that the Klingons are exploiting it.  Soon our heroes run into George Taylor, a man from this Earth’s past who has come forward in time only to be stranded here and wants what Kirk cannot give.  Scott and David Tipton have done an excellent job of making this title feel just like an episode of Star Trek and with the addition of Taylor, instead of it possibly throwing the vibe off, makes it even better as you can hear Charlton Heston’s growl when he talks to the captain.  This issue finally sees some interaction happen between the crew of the Enterprise and those on the planet including Cornelius and Zira.  So not only does this issue have Bones, Scotty and Spock, but also two of the most famous apes to have ever lived as well as good old ‘Bright Eyes’ himself.  IDW has really been nailing it with their licenced properties of late, making sure the right creative teams are in place to give the books the proper feel so that it clicks with readers and this title, in conjunction with Boom! is another perfect example of that.  Rachel Stott’s artwork continues to be a high point of the title as she nails the look of the characters perfectly instead of them just being somewhat vaguely similar which many issues of Star Trek over the years have been guilty of.  There is a lot of good stuff happening in this book with conflicts to come and if you have not started reading this yet, then do so as it is definitely worth your time.

4 out of 5

Earth 2 World’s End #16

Writer – Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson
Artist – Scott McDaniel, Eduardo Pansica, Paul Neary, Robson Rocha, Guillermo Ortego, Tyler Kirkham
Colours – Andrew Dalhouse

The heroes of the book mourn one of their own, perhaps the mightiest of them all, who sacrificed all so that they might come out on the winning side of things.  That also happened to free the Avatar of the Red who is on a rampage and finally evens things up between the other Avatars and the Furies.  This was a pretty good issue of World’s End, one that finally sees a little light at the end of the tunnel on more than one front.  Even though all the Parademons and such have been stopped by the freeing of the Red’s Avatar, there is still the menace of the Furies, of Desaad and most importantly, of Darkseid to contend with.  Things might look all bright and cheery now, but soon, a confrontation with the main man will have to happen and it most likely will not end too well.  Some of the best moments involved Batman and his team and there is another fairly sad instance when another hero truly dies.  What most people must remember is that not everyone makes it off of this Earth as evidenced by Futures End, though a fair amount of them do.  What happens to the all of the other heroes remains to be seen, but either they survive the coming issues, or they do not.  This was a strong issue and hopefully the next bunch of books will be the same.

3.5 out of 5