Marvel Apes #2
Writer – Karl Kesel
Artist – Ramon Bachs
Marvel Comics
Release Date: 9/17/2008

All right, if you read the Big Shiny Robot roundtable review of Marvel Apes #1, you remember that the general consensus was this title was quite possibly the biggest turd Marvel has dropped on us since…well, ever. Yep, issue #1 was that bad.

I can’t believe I’m saying it, but issue #2 was actually pretty good.

And not just “the first was so bad that ‘barely better’ is a big improvement” pretty good, but more along the lines of “hey this one threw some curves and hit some beats that I didn’t see coming” kind of good and the “this could actually be fun” kind of good.

I know…holy crap!

One key of course is going along with the totally cheesy premise of D-class simian character Marty Blank (aka the Gibbon) and hottie human scientist Dr. Fiona Fitzhugh ending up in an alternate universe where there are ape versions of the majority of Marvel’s cavalcade of characters. I haven’t forgiven Kesel and Bachs for the first issue when they laid the cheese and ape puns on nice and thick, but they spread it thinner in issue two, and I find I’ve accepted it, and even embraced it a bit.

I know…holy crap!

The first issue established Captain America as the alpha-ape of this alternate universe, and we see more of that in this issue. We start to get a sense that not only is he a tough, in-charge type, but he’s a bit of an ass. He even has a bit of a dark side. We find out that not only is he leading the Ape-vengers, but he secretly leads an ape version of the Invaders with the Torch, Sub-Mariner and Bucky making appearances. We also find out that the X-Men in this universe are rogues. Hunted by the other heroes even. So how do the X-Men apes fit into the story? And why is Cap leading a secret team? I won’t give that away, I’m gonna actually make you buy it to find out. I can already hear a collective “you’re yanking my crank! Is that an actual recommendation!?!?!” And to that I say “roger that.”

I know…holy crap!

Again…a weak first issue, but with this issue I’ve sipped the ape Kool-Aid (fruity banana flavor, natch), and I think I’m along for the ride. Have I gone ape-shit crazy? Maybe so. Maybe so. Let’s see if issue #3 maintains the level of this issue, or dips back to what we had in the first one. If I haven’t been shunned, banished, or declared incompetent, I might even be around to review it too.

Marvel Apes knows when to stop throwing feces at the reader, and when I say “feces” I mean bodily waste excreted from the anus! – Slugtron