Take a trip through one of the best sci fi universes ever!
- Original Universe -
Start with the best; Planet, Beneath, Escape, Conquest, and Battle. I have watched these over and over and they're my favorite. More Twilight Zoney than explosiony. Get
this set for the best special features and the expanded version of Battle and original cut of Conquest.
An adventure-of-the-week series that (kinda) takes place in the original universe long after Battle when humans can talk but are slaves. S'okay, but doesn't add much.
Return is a cartoon series that is grating to watch, and takes place in an alternate ape universe where the apes drive cars and such. For superfans only.
Conspiracy is an amazing novel that gives another angle on the story between the first three films in Ape City. It fills in the gaps and answers questions wonderfully. The
sequel tries to do the same thing all over again, but adds crap from old comics and just fails.
This five-volume graphic novel series takes place in the original universe long before the first movie when humans can talk but are second-class citizens.
Betrayal takes place twenty years before the first movie in Ape City. This is followed by the graphic novel
Exile and the three-volume
Cataclysm, all predating Taylor's arrival.
Tales from the Forbidden Zone is a collection of short stories taking place in the movie and TV universes. Like any short story collection, there are hits and misses. The best are the ones that don't involve the TV shows or Anderson or Maberry.
Terror, the original Marvel comics story line taking place after Battle, is in the
Planet of the Apes Archive. It's... not good. POTA archive Vol 2 is collecting
The Beast... series. Volume 3 is the comic adaptations of escape and conquest.
Revolution is a miniseries from the 90s that bridges Conquest and Battle with some other stuff in it. Some of it is really good.
Visionaries is a graphic novel based off of Rod Serling's original script for the first movie. It's alright!
Ursus is a graphic novel on the backstory of Lucius. Just kidding, it's Ursus. This one really didn't seem like it needed to exist at all and completely glossed over a huge un-canonical plot point that it introduced.
Also, the movies' and TV shows'
novelizations have been re-released as POTA Omnibus. There's definitely some enjoyment in those. And there's some
unproduced scripts for further cool stuff. Also
POTA When Worlds Collide is a few new comic stories in the old and current universe.
- Current Universe -
Rise, Dawn, and War took a while to grow on me, but once I could appreciate them for being their own thing, I found out I enjoyed this universe quite a bit. There's a few missteps here and there, but lots of cool ideas and Caesar's journey more than make up for it. (Dawn and War also have novelizations)
Firestorm is a novel that takes place right after Rise. It starts the epidemic downfall of humanity and introduces some of the simian characters in Dawn. A pretty good read.
This graphic novel takes place between Firestorm and Dawn. It gives background on the male lead in Dawn, but isn't as interesting as Firestorm. There's also a one-shot comic at the same time as Firestorm called
Contagion, and a one-shot
prequel to Rise.
Revelations is a novel that takes place just days after Dawn ends and sets up characters and scenarios for War. A good read. Both in-between novels by Keyes are required reading for fully enjoying this universe, I think.
This is a four part comic prequel to the War movie.
This is
Caesar's Story, written by Maurice the orangutan, which doesn't look great to me.
- Burton Universe -
Just freaking terrible. Just... sigh. Cartoonish, filled with plot holes. Tim Burton fail. (There's a novelization, too)
Wanna get the prequel for the Tim Burton movie with The Fall novel? Me neither. This book is followed by
The Colony, and probably eye-rolling as well.
In the Human War graphic novel you can find out what happened after the Tim Burton movie. But why would you want to?
Force is the first of two novels written for kids taking place on the ape world 12 years before the Oberon crash. But why subject children to this?
- Other Universes and Non Fiction -
The original book by Pierre Boulle is wonderful. The movies only took some of the broadest ideas from it. Read it anyway.
Basically a Trek episode of meeting Taylor right after the first movie ends. Not too interesting for Ape fans because Kirk's whole thing is non-interference.
This Tarzan crossover is frenetic dimension-jumping nonsense. Not worth reading.
Planet of the Apes Green Lantern? Sigh...
Kong on the Planet of the Apes? Well why not...
Behind is the most comprehensive set of behind-the-scenes features from the original five movies. Pretty fascinating.
Revisited is a great read (with great pictures) on the story of the first five films. There's a newer one on just the first movie called
The Making of the Planet of the Apes.
Bright Eyes Ape City is a collection of essays analyzing everything in the different POTA universes. Some hits and misses, but enough hits to make it worthwhile.
Timeline is interesting pop culture scholarship covering the entire ape-verse (at the time). This guy also wrote the
Lexicon and
Comics reference books (there's a lot of weird crap in the old comics that I just ignore).
Are you fan enough to need a Collectibles guide?
There's a few of these social commentary/philosophy books out there, but American Myth seems to be the best.
Evolution of the Legend explores the history of all the films up to Dawn, but there's a new one coming that's going to cover
everything.
The Poster Collection will satisfy all your ape decorating needs and give you a blast from the past.
Planet of the Apes adult coloring book for when the apocalypse makes you relax.
Making Apes is a great documentary on just the makeup aspect of the films.
