PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #6

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Lalit Kumar Sharma

Ursus is leading the gorilla army into the Forbidden Zone. The Ape council orders Zaius to accompany him. Through flashbacks we see an earlier life. Zaius is visiting Ursus and Qama in Terminus and they are expecting their first child. He wants to offer Ursus a job in Ape City but he refuses. Terminus is a good place to raise a gorilla child and Ursus is dedicated to building his family. Unfortunately his wife dies in childbirth and leaves him alone.

So the army reached the mutant temple and starts to destroy the missile. Ursus is shot after gunning down Taylor. As Taylor and Zaius argue Ursus has a vision of his wife holding their newborn child as the world ends.

The final issue ending as expected. Most was an adaptation of the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It did have some important moments to show Ursus in a more happier time. He had such a tragic life that you can understand why he is filled with such hate. Not only towards humans but God himself. You end up feeling sorry for him and sad at his death. I great way to end his story.

PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #5

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Lalit Kumar Sharma

Ursus is with Zaius and his guardian exploring the No Ape’s Land for the renegade humans. They find ruins and one building holds the statue of Abraham Lincoln. Naturally the apes freak out over a human statue and wonder what this means. While the guardian goes on about his fundamentalist beliefs the humans attack. During the fight Zaius manages to save Ursus’s life. The guardian is killed and Ursus and Qama confess their love. Zaius burns down the human library.

Meanwhile in the present Ursus is upset that his friend Sgt. Moench has come back in a paranoid delusional state. His ranting of heatless fires and disappearing humans further confirms the presence of humans in the Forbidden Zone. His friend later dies and Ursus goes to the museum and takes his grief out on the stuffed astronaut Dodge.

So in this issue it is revealed that Zaius and Ursus visited the old ruins of Washington and discovered the truth about history. The issue quotes the lawgiver and the sacred scrolls a lot which I found an interesting insight into ape culture. This issue once again does an excellent job of portraying the positive side of Ursus. We see him in love. His grief at the loss of his guardian. There is also a touching scene with his friend Moench who was driven nuts by the mutants and later dies. We are getting a real understanding for how Ursus turned out the way he did and some empathy for him.

PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #4

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Lalit Kumar Sharma

Ursus is alienating the ape council with his harsh words and actions. Indeed he is starting to get the gorilla army mobilized for an invasion of the Forbidden Zone. In a flashback we see his time during the human attacks. He is part of the survivors that make it to Terminus to find it captured by humans. His foster father gets everyone jumped up with his fundamentalist rhetoric and they attack the village. The humans are killed but Ursus’s foster father is wounded. Ursus also falls in love with Qama. Sgt. Moench and his squad are in the Forbidden Zone when the mutants cause them to black out. Moench finds himself naked and manages to escape only he is mad.

This issue dealt with showing why Ursus is so filled with hate and fear for humans. It also had a very tender side to him as he falls in love. So in spite of his actions you still feel for the guy. We also see the beginnings of the military dictatorship that forms after the first movie and why they march into the Forbidden Zone with an army.

PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #3

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Chris Mooneyham

Sgt. Moench and his hand picked squad are scouting out the Forbidden Zone. Fire sprouts up but Moench keeps a cool head and notices that it has no heat. They find the ruined city and start to explore as the mutants watch. Ursus has too much berry wine and goes home drunk after talking to a lobotomized Landon. Then we get another flashback. Ursus rescues the doctor that Zaius was with from a group of humans. They continue on to warn ape settlements and come on one that was burned to the ground and all its inhabitants were killed. Ursus is wakened in the morning by a subordinate who reports that a human has escaped. He goes to check it out and is in time for the capture of Taylor and his famous words.

The story is continuing to expand on the backstory of Ursus. We now see his early experiences with rebellious humans in his youth. How him and Zaius were at a young age. An early expedition into the Forbidden Zone by Moench who I am sure is named after Doug Moench. In fact I noticed other ape characters named after artists. I love how the writer slowly unfolds the story so we get some but not all. A good way to keep up the suspense. So we end with Taylor’s “Get your damn stinking paws off me you dirty ape.”

PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #2

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Chris Mooneyham

Landon the captive astronaut is going nuts. He babbles on that this is all some sort of oxygen depraved hallucination. This gets Ursus angry and he decides to start beating the information he wants out of Landon. This fractures his skull and so we find out the origin of how he got his surgical lobotomy. Ursus then goes to assemble a group of gorilla soldiers to scout the Forbidden Zone for other humans.

In flashbacks we find out about Ursus. He was an orphan whose guardian was a traveling fundamentalist gorilla. It was him that instilled the hatred for humans. They come on a village of apes that was destroyed by humans. There are two survivors a young Zaius who was traveling with his mentor and a young gorilla who I believe becomes Ursus’s wife.

So the story expands some more on Ursus’s history and experiences. So far the story ties in perfectly with the movie and answers what happened between the scenes. Ursus is shown to have vulnerabilities like loneliness for his departed wife. We are introduced to more aggressive humans in this world as well as other ape settlements. The story reveals much but still brings up new stuff that the reader is interested in finding out. I am really pleased how this series is going.

PLANET OF THE APES URSUS #1

“Untitled”
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Chris Mooneyham

We start where the three astronauts are caught up in the hunt. After the hunt a Gorilla notices the dark skinned human and decides to take it to General Ursus who has an interest in such humans. Ursus meanwhile has just been to a council meeting and is not happy. Humans are destroying the crops and Ape City is in danger of famine. The solution is to turn soldiers into farmers. This doesn’t go over well with Ursus who storms out. Later he is shown the dark skinned human and we get a flashback.

Ursus as a young ape with his traveling father in Terminus. The apes there are using humans as gladiators for sport in the arena. The leaders feel this is the best way to control humans. So back in the present Ursus goes to Zaius and tells of the dark skinned human. From the conversation something real bad happened in Terminus and Zaius was there too. An excited sergeant brings Ursus and Zaius to a talking human.

So this is the first in a mini-series about General Ursus the militaristic “Only good human is a dead human” from the movies. In every story he is a one dimensional character but here we get another side. An ape who lives alone and is a widower. A young gorilla who looks at the world with innocence and wide-eyes. This is a character with a past and history that shaped him. Already we get a hint of a tragedy that involved humans in his life. A friendship between Zaius and Ursus that we never have seen before. I look forward to learning more about Ursus.