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Planetary #1
Planetary : All Over the World and Other Stories
From the twisted and endlessly innovative mind of fan favourite writer Warren Ellis (The Authority, Transmetropolitan) comes an all-new foray into other worlds, altered realities and warped planes of existence, courtesy of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Planetary! Their charter is vague, their existence a secret buried under riddles and conspiracies, their sponsor an utter mystery (even to them), and their mission as diverse, complex and chimerical as the universe itself. Who better then to investigate theoretical snowflakes containing entire realities, lost islands where monsters thrive, ghost police detectives and 100-year old superheroes?
160 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2000
76 people are currently reading
10384 people want to read
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,971 books5,765 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 478 reviews
August 14, 2015
Three and a half stars rounded up
Planetary now employs the ultimate power trio:
Jakita Wagner: field leader and all purpose, kick-ass, invulnerability. Yowsah!
Elijah Snow: The guy, who’s, um, dressed in white. Manipulates cold and has a wicked sense of humor. "Pass the coffee that tastes like a dog took a leak in it." Light. One sugar.
The Drummer: Annoying info-tech guy. “Take those drum sticks and shove them…”
This one has all the hallmarks of a decent Warren Ellis penned book: Interesting, well-developed characters; storylines, that if slightly derivative are fast-paced and absorbing; and witty interplay between the characters.
Planetary is some giant corporation that employs our heroes to investigate seemingly unrelated phenomena and things roll along smoothly until Ellis whips out the conspiracy theory crap towards the end of this volume.
It’s like taking the trolley to work in the morning, getting told at the halfway point of the trip, that there’s mechanical difficulties and we’re being forced to take a run-down bus that lacks air conditioning/heating and/or a shock system the rest of the way. We have to wait a half an hour for the bus and oh and the driver should have retired 30 years ago. Happy motoring!
Where was I? This is great for about 4/5’s of this volume, then you want to toss it across the room.
Planetary now employs the ultimate power trio:
Jakita Wagner: field leader and all purpose, kick-ass, invulnerability. Yowsah!
Elijah Snow: The guy, who’s, um, dressed in white. Manipulates cold and has a wicked sense of humor. "Pass the coffee that tastes like a dog took a leak in it." Light. One sugar.
The Drummer: Annoying info-tech guy. “Take those drum sticks and shove them…”
This one has all the hallmarks of a decent Warren Ellis penned book: Interesting, well-developed characters; storylines, that if slightly derivative are fast-paced and absorbing; and witty interplay between the characters.
Planetary is some giant corporation that employs our heroes to investigate seemingly unrelated phenomena and things roll along smoothly until Ellis whips out the conspiracy theory crap towards the end of this volume.
It’s like taking the trolley to work in the morning, getting told at the halfway point of the trip, that there’s mechanical difficulties and we’re being forced to take a run-down bus that lacks air conditioning/heating and/or a shock system the rest of the way. We have to wait a half an hour for the bus and oh and the driver should have retired 30 years ago. Happy motoring!
Where was I? This is great for about 4/5’s of this volume, then you want to toss it across the room.
January 29, 2014
I think the Planetary series by Ellis and Cassaday may be one of the most ambitious, and certainly most enjoyable, comics (excuse me, I mean graphic novels!) that I have ever read. It is yet another post-Watchmen, post-Dark Knight meta-textual exploration of the genre, but manages to be one that doesn’t lose its sense of humour or sense of wonder as it dissects some of the weird, wonderful, and even silly elements of the genre…no small feat! Also, Ellis does not restrict himself solely to an examination of the world of superheroes as it’s been portrayed in the funny books, but also includes a myriad of other pop culture genre tropes in a heady brew that’s chock-full of pulpy goodness! Conspiracy theories meet the world of metahumans, the science of the occult and the magic of super-science rub shoulders with genre standbys, and a world of strangeness and wonder slowly unfolds like a snowflake.
The premise is pretty simple, and kind of ingenious given Ellis’ aims: it’s a strange world, but the powers that be have been covering up every weird, wonderful, strange and scary thing that has reared its head in human history. Enter Planetary, an inter-continental organization of “archaeologists of the impossible” whose avowed goal is to unearth the secrets from which the enlightened ones would shield us and broadcast them in their yearly publication, kind of a Whole Earth Catalog of the weird and strange. The field team for Planetary is composed of three main agents: Elijah Snow is a gruff and taciturn leader who also sports the ability to generate cold on a superhuman level, Jakita Wagner the beautiful and nigh-invulnerable superwoman, and the Drummer, a prototypical slacker-geek whose ability to interface with anything electronic is truly extraordinary. Oh, and since this is a graphic novel/comic book I should note that the art by John Cassaday is consistently extraordinary, some of the best I’ve ever seen, really! I’ll break down the individual issues below and try to avoid any heinous spoilers.
Issue 0 (Preview) - “Nuclear Spring”: A secret military base; a genius cold war scientist decades ahead of his time; a quantum bomb that is able to rewrite the nature of reality; a friend of the scientist’s caught in the blast zone during the final test. What mysteries will the Planetary team find when they crack open this decades-old secret of tragedy and transformation?
Issue 1 - “All Over the World”: Jakita Wagner recruits the misanthropic loner Elijah Snow to join a mysterious team called Planetary. Details on their operations and make-up are scarce. They have scads of cash, but all the field team seems to know is that they are funded, and ultimately directed, by a shadowy figure known only as “the Fourth Man”. The organization’s aim? To uncover the mysteries that the powers that be want kept secret. Despite his suspicions and doubts Elijah decides to come along for the ride (a paycheck of a million dollars a year doesn’t hurt either) and on his first mission witnesses the uncovering of a decades-old secret base of operations for a team of heroes the world didn’t even know existed. We have a literal round table of pulp hero analogues: newly minted characters who are stand-ins for Doc Savage, The Shadow, Tom Swift, Fu Manchu, Tarzan, Operator 5, and G-8. I love this stuff. Homages to the great icons of pulp and comic book heroes are the kind of thing I eat up with a spoon, primarily, I think, because while the ideas behind these icons are fantastic the execution of their stories often leaves something to be desired (often either because the company that owns the properties doesn’t want anything ‘bad’ (read interesting) done with them, or simply because they were written into formulaic and kind of crappy stories by mediocre writers). Those problems can be remedied in this kind of ‘elseworlds’ context and Ellis proceeds to do so both here and throughout the Planetary series with panache. Love it.
Issue 2 – “Island”: Welcome to Monster Island! (Well, Warren Ellis’ version of it anyway.) What do you get when you combine an isolated and remote island populated by creatures out of a Kaiju film, government cover-ups, and Japanese death cults? You get issue 2 of Planetary. Pretty good stuff that helps widen the lens beyond superheroes and show us just how strange Ellis’ secret history for his world really is.
Issue 3 – “Dead Gunfighters”: We continue our tour of Ellis’ strange world with another one-off tale centring around a ghostly cop in Hong Kong out for revenge and yet further hints about the ‘quantum reality matrix’, the snowflake, that underlies all of the strangeness being catalogued by Planetary. Think John Woo meets the X-Files.
Issue 4 – “Strange Harbours”: This, and issue 5, are where things really started to gel for me with Planetary; things began coming together and the “oh shit, that’s cool” moments were multiplying fast and furious. In this issue the team investigates the hole left after a single office building in the middle of a New York City block is vaporized. It seems as though something was unearthed by mysterious forces under the direction of people unknown and an investigator for the Hark corporation (the name will have meaning once you’ve read this far in the series) will be changed into something wonderful and strange. Captain Marvel (the Shazam version) meets Flash Gordon with a dash of the many worlds theory thrown in for good measure.
Issue 5 – “The Good Doctor”: Secret societies from the French Revolution with a breeding plan for superhumans, a Man of Brass (or is it bronze?) who devotes his life to saving a world that does not know he exists and collecting together similarly endowed individuals in the hopes that together they can solve the world’s ills, a pulp fiction extravaganza highlighting the glories and the dangers of thinking you can save the world. Elijah Snow’s suspicions have been accumulating since he joined Planetary and now he goes to talk with Doc Brass, saved in issue 1, to help clear his head. Things will start to roll from hereon in.
Issue 6 – “It’s a Strange World”: Now we get to the meat of it. What if the cold war space race was nothing more than a smoke screen for what was really happening behind the scenes? What if four astronauts (the number is important and the corollaries are very cool) were sent into the void and met up with forces unknown, forces that could transmute mere humanity into something more? What if they were the most evil sons of bitches you’re likely to meet and had both the will and the power to take the reins of the secret organization that had been keeping everything strange and wonderful from surfacing in the daylight world? What if Planetary finally found out about them?
One thing that really worked well for me in this series overall was the way in which Ellis balanced between the self-contained one-off stories that were compelling in and of themselves with a greater story arc that made the journey all the more satisfying. He didn’t always manage to pull this balance off perfectly (sometimes the one-off tales seemed a little light, or the connections they had to the wider context weren’t sufficiently drawn, and occasionally the bigger story arc seemed a little bit rushed, especially at the very end), but overall he did a pretty exemplary job with this. Kudos! The sense of mysteries to be uncovered and of an answer greater than the sum of its parts (as gosh darn cool as those parts may be) was very well-played and, unlike some genre fiascos that have attempted the same trick (I’m looking at you X-Files and especially you Lost), Planetary mostly lived up to its potential in this regard. It looks like Ellis had mapped out his ideas and goal from the beginning instead of just engaging in some half-assed attempt to retroactively join together the disparate elements that were all thrown into the soup willy-nilly at the last minute. I love, love, love this series…and there’s more to come! Can I squee? Well, I will anyway. Squeeee!
Also posted at Shelf Inflicted
The premise is pretty simple, and kind of ingenious given Ellis’ aims: it’s a strange world, but the powers that be have been covering up every weird, wonderful, strange and scary thing that has reared its head in human history. Enter Planetary, an inter-continental organization of “archaeologists of the impossible” whose avowed goal is to unearth the secrets from which the enlightened ones would shield us and broadcast them in their yearly publication, kind of a Whole Earth Catalog of the weird and strange. The field team for Planetary is composed of three main agents: Elijah Snow is a gruff and taciturn leader who also sports the ability to generate cold on a superhuman level, Jakita Wagner the beautiful and nigh-invulnerable superwoman, and the Drummer, a prototypical slacker-geek whose ability to interface with anything electronic is truly extraordinary. Oh, and since this is a graphic novel/comic book I should note that the art by John Cassaday is consistently extraordinary, some of the best I’ve ever seen, really! I’ll break down the individual issues below and try to avoid any heinous spoilers.
Issue 0 (Preview) - “Nuclear Spring”: A secret military base; a genius cold war scientist decades ahead of his time; a quantum bomb that is able to rewrite the nature of reality; a friend of the scientist’s caught in the blast zone during the final test. What mysteries will the Planetary team find when they crack open this decades-old secret of tragedy and transformation?
Issue 1 - “All Over the World”: Jakita Wagner recruits the misanthropic loner Elijah Snow to join a mysterious team called Planetary. Details on their operations and make-up are scarce. They have scads of cash, but all the field team seems to know is that they are funded, and ultimately directed, by a shadowy figure known only as “the Fourth Man”. The organization’s aim? To uncover the mysteries that the powers that be want kept secret. Despite his suspicions and doubts Elijah decides to come along for the ride (a paycheck of a million dollars a year doesn’t hurt either) and on his first mission witnesses the uncovering of a decades-old secret base of operations for a team of heroes the world didn’t even know existed. We have a literal round table of pulp hero analogues: newly minted characters who are stand-ins for Doc Savage, The Shadow, Tom Swift, Fu Manchu, Tarzan, Operator 5, and G-8. I love this stuff. Homages to the great icons of pulp and comic book heroes are the kind of thing I eat up with a spoon, primarily, I think, because while the ideas behind these icons are fantastic the execution of their stories often leaves something to be desired (often either because the company that owns the properties doesn’t want anything ‘bad’ (read interesting) done with them, or simply because they were written into formulaic and kind of crappy stories by mediocre writers). Those problems can be remedied in this kind of ‘elseworlds’ context and Ellis proceeds to do so both here and throughout the Planetary series with panache. Love it.
Issue 2 – “Island”: Welcome to Monster Island! (Well, Warren Ellis’ version of it anyway.) What do you get when you combine an isolated and remote island populated by creatures out of a Kaiju film, government cover-ups, and Japanese death cults? You get issue 2 of Planetary. Pretty good stuff that helps widen the lens beyond superheroes and show us just how strange Ellis’ secret history for his world really is.
Issue 3 – “Dead Gunfighters”: We continue our tour of Ellis’ strange world with another one-off tale centring around a ghostly cop in Hong Kong out for revenge and yet further hints about the ‘quantum reality matrix’, the snowflake, that underlies all of the strangeness being catalogued by Planetary. Think John Woo meets the X-Files.
Issue 4 – “Strange Harbours”: This, and issue 5, are where things really started to gel for me with Planetary; things began coming together and the “oh shit, that’s cool” moments were multiplying fast and furious. In this issue the team investigates the hole left after a single office building in the middle of a New York City block is vaporized. It seems as though something was unearthed by mysterious forces under the direction of people unknown and an investigator for the Hark corporation (the name will have meaning once you’ve read this far in the series) will be changed into something wonderful and strange. Captain Marvel (the Shazam version) meets Flash Gordon with a dash of the many worlds theory thrown in for good measure.
Issue 5 – “The Good Doctor”: Secret societies from the French Revolution with a breeding plan for superhumans, a Man of Brass (or is it bronze?) who devotes his life to saving a world that does not know he exists and collecting together similarly endowed individuals in the hopes that together they can solve the world’s ills, a pulp fiction extravaganza highlighting the glories and the dangers of thinking you can save the world. Elijah Snow’s suspicions have been accumulating since he joined Planetary and now he goes to talk with Doc Brass, saved in issue 1, to help clear his head. Things will start to roll from hereon in.
Issue 6 – “It’s a Strange World”: Now we get to the meat of it. What if the cold war space race was nothing more than a smoke screen for what was really happening behind the scenes? What if four astronauts (the number is important and the corollaries are very cool) were sent into the void and met up with forces unknown, forces that could transmute mere humanity into something more? What if they were the most evil sons of bitches you’re likely to meet and had both the will and the power to take the reins of the secret organization that had been keeping everything strange and wonderful from surfacing in the daylight world? What if Planetary finally found out about them?
One thing that really worked well for me in this series overall was the way in which Ellis balanced between the self-contained one-off stories that were compelling in and of themselves with a greater story arc that made the journey all the more satisfying. He didn’t always manage to pull this balance off perfectly (sometimes the one-off tales seemed a little light, or the connections they had to the wider context weren’t sufficiently drawn, and occasionally the bigger story arc seemed a little bit rushed, especially at the very end), but overall he did a pretty exemplary job with this. Kudos! The sense of mysteries to be uncovered and of an answer greater than the sum of its parts (as gosh darn cool as those parts may be) was very well-played and, unlike some genre fiascos that have attempted the same trick (I’m looking at you X-Files and especially you Lost), Planetary mostly lived up to its potential in this regard. It looks like Ellis had mapped out his ideas and goal from the beginning instead of just engaging in some half-assed attempt to retroactively join together the disparate elements that were all thrown into the soup willy-nilly at the last minute. I love, love, love this series…and there’s more to come! Can I squee? Well, I will anyway. Squeeee!
Also posted at Shelf Inflicted
October 20, 2023
Collecting #1-6 of this original and groundbreaking series. The idea of archeologists with superhuman abilities is intriguing and slightly frightening; trying to find the deus ex machina in a universe that is breaking down. If you are into quantum mechanics, the multiverse and surrealism you will love this book! Each issue is broken out and reviewed individually by me.
January 15, 2019
That's been a whole lotta awesome. But hell if I know what's going on.
It's almost like one of those TV shows where the clock is set to zero with every new episode and there's very little continuity.
Well, it‘s almost like that. Because there were just enough recurring themes to at least make me wonder if I had missed something.
Maybe it’s just that whole multiverse thing that made it sometimes a little confusing.
Or it’s me being stupid. Though that’s unlikely. Amiright?!
Am I right? *silence ensues*
Anyway, most of the issues, which is to say (almost) independent storylines, were great though. Only two were a little underwhelming.
Our kinda sorta superhero protagonists investigate paranormal phenomena and try to preserve balance and order in the multiverse. And it was fun to watch.
I especially liked the different settings
and the banter between the characters.
But there's just no feeling of closure in the end.
Very entertaining nevertheless. 3.5 stars. I bought the second volume already.
Well, just mayyybee a little tweak here and there and this could be really great.
It's almost like one of those TV shows where the clock is set to zero with every new episode and there's very little continuity.
Well, it‘s almost like that. Because there were just enough recurring themes to at least make me wonder if I had missed something.
Maybe it’s just that whole multiverse thing that made it sometimes a little confusing.
Or it’s me being stupid. Though that’s unlikely. Amiright?!
Am I right? *silence ensues*
Anyway, most of the issues, which is to say (almost) independent storylines, were great though. Only two were a little underwhelming.
Our kinda sorta superhero protagonists investigate paranormal phenomena and try to preserve balance and order in the multiverse. And it was fun to watch.
I especially liked the different settings
and the banter between the characters.
But there's just no feeling of closure in the end.
Very entertaining nevertheless. 3.5 stars. I bought the second volume already.
Well, just mayyybee a little tweak here and there and this could be really great.
February 7, 2012
Planetary has always seemed to me to be a less than substantial series of Warren Ellis’. They’re a group that fit in between The Authority and Stormwatch and act as a sort of Vector-13 but with superpowers. Also, Ellis really lets go of any subtlety of concept here, he just goes for it.
So there are stories of a group in the 40s who built a machine that created the world or can create the world and brought about the end of the world but the man who learned to not age survived and guarded the portal without food or water for decades… huh? There’s an island of Godzilla monsters, a live spaceship that wants to get back into the Bleed (the space between space), and more zaniness. All of which to say, imaginative in concept, seen through the prism of the characters, not so impressive.
Because while Elijah Snow is an intriguing character dressed all in white like Tom Wolfe, his powers are never explicitly stated nor why he was chosen or who he really is. He remains the consummate interesting character but for all intents and purposes is little more than a cipher here. Jakita and the Drummer are very poor characters.
There’s an interesting story that parodies the Fantastic Four’s creation albeit much, much darker, that had potential, but like all the stories presented here was all too brief.
The story concepts save the book from becoming unreadable but ultimately Planetary, as a group of archaeologists with superpowers, failed to make much of an impression and I was left feeling that it was more of an outline than a fully fleshed-out series.
So there are stories of a group in the 40s who built a machine that created the world or can create the world and brought about the end of the world but the man who learned to not age survived and guarded the portal without food or water for decades… huh? There’s an island of Godzilla monsters, a live spaceship that wants to get back into the Bleed (the space between space), and more zaniness. All of which to say, imaginative in concept, seen through the prism of the characters, not so impressive.
Because while Elijah Snow is an intriguing character dressed all in white like Tom Wolfe, his powers are never explicitly stated nor why he was chosen or who he really is. He remains the consummate interesting character but for all intents and purposes is little more than a cipher here. Jakita and the Drummer are very poor characters.
There’s an interesting story that parodies the Fantastic Four’s creation albeit much, much darker, that had potential, but like all the stories presented here was all too brief.
The story concepts save the book from becoming unreadable but ultimately Planetary, as a group of archaeologists with superpowers, failed to make much of an impression and I was left feeling that it was more of an outline than a fully fleshed-out series.
September 5, 2021
Arkeolog olmam sebebi ile fantastik bir kurgu, karakterler ile dünya ve evrenin kazısına iştirak etmek, okumak, seyretmek keyif verici. Çok daha iyi yazılabileceğini düşünmekle birlikte meselelerin sardığını, gizemin sürüklediğini itiraf etmeliyim. İkinci cildi ile maceralarına devam edeceğim.
January 26, 2018
Stop me if you've heard this one. An albino, a female version of The Flash, and a tech expert named The Drummer all walk into a bar... If you haven't heard this one it's probably because you haven't because its not funny. And this non-joke is just as mirthless as the aforementioned protagonists of Warren Ellis' Planetary.
For a series that has received innumerous accolades its a little disheartening (to say the least) that such boring and uninspiring characters drive it. And the lackluster doesn't stop just at the characters. Featuring more beaten path than the most beaten to dead horse, innumerable insertions of well known comic archetypes, plot-devices, and mcguffins come across as incredibly dull and trite (to say the least).
This is particularly irritating on multiple levels. First, Planetary (at least initially) doesn't come across as your typical cape comic. Without the well demarcated limits of the aforementioned universes, there should be a larger flexibility in approach in an original series to character development, powers, and setting. Instead we get just more of the same. There is nothing the least bit surprising about multiverses, speed/ice powers, or secret societies etc... in a comic book.
How boring.
Next there is an equally irritating vagueness in this first offering that is as boring as it is uniform. Most every issue follows a bland formula: A few pages of dialogue, followed by some action, then a large single page blow-up (that's supposed to amaze us), more dialogue, more action, another large single page blow-up, and then a(n) (unsatisfying) conclusion. Not only is this predictably uninteresting but, with the most tenuous of threads tying individual issues, it feels like the first collection amounts to a series of (mediocre) one-shots cobbled together more than anything.
Next there is something (alliterative, as it were) to be said about about references and racism. In the fifth issue there are some painfully obvious references to Watchmen in tone and depiction. With jaded appeal there are allusions to the Crimebusters (just like the old JLA style superhero supergroup) as well as to the faux-newspaper/magazine excerpts that grace Watchmen. Where Watchmen used internalized references to create a comic that was utterly self-aware as it was self-referencing, Planetary uses an abbreviated (read:lazy) application of such devices to mediocre effect. With single page (again: lazy) inserts that are simple as they are uninspiring, what should come across as a homage or a nod toward the giants of yore instead reduces to puerile rip-offs.
Just as the references are poorly replicated and well on display, so too is the not-so-subtle- racism readily visible that besmirches issues two and three of the series. Issue two features some pretty shoddy dialogue of Japanese people that recalls a similarly despicable representation of denizens of The Land the Rising Sun in Breakfast at Tiffany's. All the more disappointing is the representation of Hong Kong in issue three. As someone who has lived (quite delightfully I might add) in Hong Kong (for years) the depiction of the freest market on the planet is orientalized at best, pathetic at worst.
In conclusion, for a series that typically tops numerous top comic book lists, (for me at least) Planetary is a real let down. While featuring pretty art and generally enjoyable colors, a plethora of failures drag down it down. For whatever reason, Planetary has been unnecessarily propped up to be much more than it's pencil thin structural plinths (a new word I actually learned in the series) would allow.
To best sum up my personal opinion on Plantary I will defer to the words of one of the most talented MC's of all time, Flava Flav from Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype."
For a series that has received innumerous accolades its a little disheartening (to say the least) that such boring and uninspiring characters drive it. And the lackluster doesn't stop just at the characters. Featuring more beaten path than the most beaten to dead horse, innumerable insertions of well known comic archetypes, plot-devices, and mcguffins come across as incredibly dull and trite (to say the least).
This is particularly irritating on multiple levels. First, Planetary (at least initially) doesn't come across as your typical cape comic. Without the well demarcated limits of the aforementioned universes, there should be a larger flexibility in approach in an original series to character development, powers, and setting. Instead we get just more of the same. There is nothing the least bit surprising about multiverses, speed/ice powers, or secret societies etc... in a comic book.
How boring.
Next there is an equally irritating vagueness in this first offering that is as boring as it is uniform. Most every issue follows a bland formula: A few pages of dialogue, followed by some action, then a large single page blow-up (that's supposed to amaze us), more dialogue, more action, another large single page blow-up, and then a(n) (unsatisfying) conclusion. Not only is this predictably uninteresting but, with the most tenuous of threads tying individual issues, it feels like the first collection amounts to a series of (mediocre) one-shots cobbled together more than anything.
Next there is something (alliterative, as it were) to be said about about references and racism. In the fifth issue there are some painfully obvious references to Watchmen in tone and depiction. With jaded appeal there are allusions to the Crimebusters (just like the old JLA style superhero supergroup) as well as to the faux-newspaper/magazine excerpts that grace Watchmen. Where Watchmen used internalized references to create a comic that was utterly self-aware as it was self-referencing, Planetary uses an abbreviated (read:lazy) application of such devices to mediocre effect. With single page (again: lazy) inserts that are simple as they are uninspiring, what should come across as a homage or a nod toward the giants of yore instead reduces to puerile rip-offs.
Just as the references are poorly replicated and well on display, so too is the not-so-subtle- racism readily visible that besmirches issues two and three of the series. Issue two features some pretty shoddy dialogue of Japanese people that recalls a similarly despicable representation of denizens of The Land the Rising Sun in Breakfast at Tiffany's. All the more disappointing is the representation of Hong Kong in issue three. As someone who has lived (quite delightfully I might add) in Hong Kong (for years) the depiction of the freest market on the planet is orientalized at best, pathetic at worst.
In conclusion, for a series that typically tops numerous top comic book lists, (for me at least) Planetary is a real let down. While featuring pretty art and generally enjoyable colors, a plethora of failures drag down it down. For whatever reason, Planetary has been unnecessarily propped up to be much more than it's pencil thin structural plinths (a new word I actually learned in the series) would allow.
To best sum up my personal opinion on Plantary I will defer to the words of one of the most talented MC's of all time, Flava Flav from Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype."
June 17, 2013
This great book by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, you know that you are about to read something really good when you see that the introduction is by Alan Moore himself. This first tpb introduces you to the world of Planetary, a secret organization with the objective to discover the secret history of the world. Three exceptional members are always selected to form a field team and investigate what no one else even know that exist. Also, if you read The Authority, you will enjoy even more this work since Ellis mentions events of that other series in here too and kinda link them. Highly recommended.
June 1, 2020
Firstly i enjoy reading these, i got them as a gift but can't say i'd have payed for them. My enjoyment however is for the losest of low-brow reasons because make no mistake this is AWFUL!
Its really badly plotted and written. So many confusing elements. Characters not reacting to information leaving you unsure of whats important and whats not. The protagonists are mostly just tourists, they turn up, look about, then the issue ends usually without any resolution like the last few pages went missing.
The main gimmick is that it consists of various references to different genre fiction. This along with the art is the best bit. BUT its just references, its just 'hey look, heres a thing like something you've seen before'.
Ellis doesn't seem to have any opinion or point or commentary to make on any of this. Also his homages, while the artist does a good job, Ellis' attempts to impersonate pulp writing etc. is a complete failure.
So why do i still enjoy it? The only way i can describe it is that i like 'Dogs Playing Poker' and therefore quite enjoy 'Cats Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos' :P .
Extra Credit: Heres a couple of facts you won't find elsewhere. There's a Fu Manchu analogue in this, well Fu Manchu is actually a knockoff of an earlier character, Dr. Yen How from the apocalyptic novel The Yellow Danger by Matthew Phipps Shiel (1898).
At another point a character claims to have put together a super-team because he was inspired by a group operating during the French Revolution. This is an oblique reference to the book The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel in which despite the name, a group is formed which calls itself 'The Avengers'! Presumably the first ever use of that group name.
Edit: Some might also recognise the Avengers as a group created in The Mark of Zorro but thats just because Zorro is a plagarized varsion of the Scarlet Pimpernel, going so far occasionally as to steal scene-by-scene or even word for word.
Its really badly plotted and written. So many confusing elements. Characters not reacting to information leaving you unsure of whats important and whats not. The protagonists are mostly just tourists, they turn up, look about, then the issue ends usually without any resolution like the last few pages went missing.
The main gimmick is that it consists of various references to different genre fiction. This along with the art is the best bit. BUT its just references, its just 'hey look, heres a thing like something you've seen before'.
Ellis doesn't seem to have any opinion or point or commentary to make on any of this. Also his homages, while the artist does a good job, Ellis' attempts to impersonate pulp writing etc. is a complete failure.
So why do i still enjoy it? The only way i can describe it is that i like 'Dogs Playing Poker' and therefore quite enjoy 'Cats Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos' :P .
Extra Credit: Heres a couple of facts you won't find elsewhere. There's a Fu Manchu analogue in this, well Fu Manchu is actually a knockoff of an earlier character, Dr. Yen How from the apocalyptic novel The Yellow Danger by Matthew Phipps Shiel (1898).
At another point a character claims to have put together a super-team because he was inspired by a group operating during the French Revolution. This is an oblique reference to the book The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel in which despite the name, a group is formed which calls itself 'The Avengers'! Presumably the first ever use of that group name.
Edit: Some might also recognise the Avengers as a group created in The Mark of Zorro but thats just because Zorro is a plagarized varsion of the Scarlet Pimpernel, going so far occasionally as to steal scene-by-scene or even word for word.
January 11, 2012
This is one of the legendary works of Warren Ellis. Many creators cite Planetary as one of the most influential Ellis series, and it sure has a ridiculous number of Goodreads ratings.
Does that make it a mind-blowing book? On second reading, I really don't feel that moved by it. Maybe it's the later volumes that add the gravitas that so many people report. Right now, a day after finishing this first collection, I'm feeling a little "Alan Moore" vibe from it, which is not a good thing.
What's great: characters with hidden depths only hinted at (Snow, Wagner), a great premise of hunting down the century's greatest mysteries, and some fun powers only used sparingly while the good ideas spool forth.
Perhaps it's that aspect - a lot less flash-bang and fist fighting in this book, a lot more standing around talking and gawking - that takes my wonderment down a notch. But the "Alan Moore" vibe is even beyond that obvious parallel - it's the promise that every issue will tackle a different old trope of comic-booking tales (Hulk origin, FF origin, Godzilla, ...) and put a post-modern, realistic spin on them.
Also detracting for me is that each episode mostly stands on its own - like most non-mythology episodes of Fringe, Supernatural or X-Files - not contributing much to the story's larger momentum. That is frustrating to get "caught up in" when so little carries forward from one to the next.
I'll say this though: Ellis does Moore far better than Moore does. Where Moore just puts these pieces on the board and forces us to look at them, at least Ellis moves them around and draws us into the stories as participants. It's *more* engaging Moore, but it still leaves the bitter aftertaste of Alan in my mouth.
That said, Ellis then weaves some intrigue (who are Planetary's people exactly? What does their benefactor really want? Just how far back does the organization's efforts go?) into the otherwise-standalone/standoffish episodes, which will keep me reading just to see how much larger an idea Ellis is building towards.
Does that make it a mind-blowing book? On second reading, I really don't feel that moved by it. Maybe it's the later volumes that add the gravitas that so many people report. Right now, a day after finishing this first collection, I'm feeling a little "Alan Moore" vibe from it, which is not a good thing.
What's great: characters with hidden depths only hinted at (Snow, Wagner), a great premise of hunting down the century's greatest mysteries, and some fun powers only used sparingly while the good ideas spool forth.
Perhaps it's that aspect - a lot less flash-bang and fist fighting in this book, a lot more standing around talking and gawking - that takes my wonderment down a notch. But the "Alan Moore" vibe is even beyond that obvious parallel - it's the promise that every issue will tackle a different old trope of comic-booking tales (Hulk origin, FF origin, Godzilla, ...) and put a post-modern, realistic spin on them.
Also detracting for me is that each episode mostly stands on its own - like most non-mythology episodes of Fringe, Supernatural or X-Files - not contributing much to the story's larger momentum. That is frustrating to get "caught up in" when so little carries forward from one to the next.
I'll say this though: Ellis does Moore far better than Moore does. Where Moore just puts these pieces on the board and forces us to look at them, at least Ellis moves them around and draws us into the stories as participants. It's *more* engaging Moore, but it still leaves the bitter aftertaste of Alan in my mouth.
That said, Ellis then weaves some intrigue (who are Planetary's people exactly? What does their benefactor really want? Just how far back does the organization's efforts go?) into the otherwise-standalone/standoffish episodes, which will keep me reading just to see how much larger an idea Ellis is building towards.
January 4, 2025
It’s a strange world.
Let’s keep it that way!
I usually keep away from superhero stories that run for hundreds of issues from Marvel and DC, but I thought the author of Transmetropolitan must have some aces up his sleeve, and I can hold on for 26 albums or so ...
In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I feared but neither was it as good as that earlier Ellis series about investigative journalism. I spent most of the first half of the omnibus edition wondering what the hell is going on, and who are all these people and heroes I’m supposed to recognize? How many conspiracy theories can the script writer pack in each album and where is he going with the story?
Eventually, and pretty late in the game, Planetary does gather all the wild threads into a coherent story and rewards the patient reader who may be unfamiliar with the larger superhero multiverse.
What if you had a hundred years of superhero history just slowly leaking out into this young and modern superhero world of the Wildstorm Universe? What if you could take everything old and make it new again?
This is Warren Ellis’ pitch to the publishers, explaining why his team of three archeologists goes all around the world and even into outer space in search of relics, artefacts, documents of the past hundred years of superhero history.
The reader is following the lead of Elijah Snow, the latest recruit to the Planetary team: a middle aged man with a serious memory handicap. His superpower is control of ice. He is approached for the job by Jakita Wagner, a young woman with super speed and super strength abilities and he meets the third member of the team at headquarters. He is known only as The Drummer and he has the ability to talk to machines, a sort of super-hacker with a pair of drumsticks.
There will be a lot of secondary actors and guest appearances, but Snow, Jakita and the Drummer are the core team that will lead the investigations from start to finish.
The planetary organization has the goal of keeping the strangeness of the world alive by preserving the artefacts and the technology of the secret past and making it available to the general population. Their adversary is a group of scientists from the 1940s who gained access to the multiverse and plan to control the ‘strangeness’ for their own nefarious purposes. Both teams are long lived freaks, a result of some genetic experiments at the turn of the century, a useful device if you want to cover all that period of history.
The series is daring and spectacular in presentation, mostly through the artwork of John Cassaday, who does a lot of the heavy lifting in transforming the Warren Ellis scripts and conspiracies into something familiar to the casual reader. Most of all, I liked the homage paid to old books, old movies and old comics, the format of the series allowing the introduction of a lot of familiar tropes of the genre: secret underground laboratories, kaiju monsters in Kamchatka, ghost cops in the urban jungle, parallel dimensions, invaders from outer space, mind control, kung fu masters, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan of the Apes, artefacts from the H G Wells and Jules Verne stories, Doc Savage, gunslingers, some creatures from Sandman and even a crossover with another Ellis creation (The Authority)
Magic is the cheat codes for the world.
Sending a signal to reality’s operating system, see.
Is Planetary more realistic than other superhero comics? I’m not familiar enough with the genre to make an assessment, but the series does make an effort to anchor superpowers into the modern world we know. The costumes of Elijah Snow [white three piece suits] and the Drummer [casual grunge] do help, but I noticed that the authors didn’t extend the blending in rule to the Jakita character, who was given the usual form-fitting spandex suit that leaves little to the imagination.
Conclusion: Planetary was fun and very well drawn, but I don’t feel the need to revise my general shyness at picking up superhero franchises.
Let’s keep it that way!
I usually keep away from superhero stories that run for hundreds of issues from Marvel and DC, but I thought the author of Transmetropolitan must have some aces up his sleeve, and I can hold on for 26 albums or so ...
In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I feared but neither was it as good as that earlier Ellis series about investigative journalism. I spent most of the first half of the omnibus edition wondering what the hell is going on, and who are all these people and heroes I’m supposed to recognize? How many conspiracy theories can the script writer pack in each album and where is he going with the story?
Eventually, and pretty late in the game, Planetary does gather all the wild threads into a coherent story and rewards the patient reader who may be unfamiliar with the larger superhero multiverse.
What if you had a hundred years of superhero history just slowly leaking out into this young and modern superhero world of the Wildstorm Universe? What if you could take everything old and make it new again?
This is Warren Ellis’ pitch to the publishers, explaining why his team of three archeologists goes all around the world and even into outer space in search of relics, artefacts, documents of the past hundred years of superhero history.
The reader is following the lead of Elijah Snow, the latest recruit to the Planetary team: a middle aged man with a serious memory handicap. His superpower is control of ice. He is approached for the job by Jakita Wagner, a young woman with super speed and super strength abilities and he meets the third member of the team at headquarters. He is known only as The Drummer and he has the ability to talk to machines, a sort of super-hacker with a pair of drumsticks.
There will be a lot of secondary actors and guest appearances, but Snow, Jakita and the Drummer are the core team that will lead the investigations from start to finish.
The planetary organization has the goal of keeping the strangeness of the world alive by preserving the artefacts and the technology of the secret past and making it available to the general population. Their adversary is a group of scientists from the 1940s who gained access to the multiverse and plan to control the ‘strangeness’ for their own nefarious purposes. Both teams are long lived freaks, a result of some genetic experiments at the turn of the century, a useful device if you want to cover all that period of history.
The series is daring and spectacular in presentation, mostly through the artwork of John Cassaday, who does a lot of the heavy lifting in transforming the Warren Ellis scripts and conspiracies into something familiar to the casual reader. Most of all, I liked the homage paid to old books, old movies and old comics, the format of the series allowing the introduction of a lot of familiar tropes of the genre: secret underground laboratories, kaiju monsters in Kamchatka, ghost cops in the urban jungle, parallel dimensions, invaders from outer space, mind control, kung fu masters, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan of the Apes, artefacts from the H G Wells and Jules Verne stories, Doc Savage, gunslingers, some creatures from Sandman and even a crossover with another Ellis creation (The Authority)
Magic is the cheat codes for the world.
Sending a signal to reality’s operating system, see.
Is Planetary more realistic than other superhero comics? I’m not familiar enough with the genre to make an assessment, but the series does make an effort to anchor superpowers into the modern world we know. The costumes of Elijah Snow [white three piece suits] and the Drummer [casual grunge] do help, but I noticed that the authors didn’t extend the blending in rule to the Jakita character, who was given the usual form-fitting spandex suit that leaves little to the imagination.
Conclusion: Planetary was fun and very well drawn, but I don’t feel the need to revise my general shyness at picking up superhero franchises.
February 21, 2010
It's hard to rate this book, because I can see where it's going and it looks pretty interesting. Unfortunately, these first 6 issues didn't really deliver. From what I've heard about this series, it's a pretty cool overarching journey. Although I was not completely hooked by this volume, I'd certainly consider checking out the rest.
The series strikes me as a sort of Justice League meets X-Files. From what I can tell so far, this team of people with super powers travel around investigating mysteries of time and space. Each issue presents a new vignette of some weird occurrence somewhere in the world. At first they all seem to be discrete happenings, but it appears that maybe they're somehow all connected.
The characters are interesting. They all have their own unique personalities, though at this point in the story we know very little about them. One of my gripes is that issue 6 establishes a team that will possibly be the series villains (?), but they're essentially a modified Fantastic Four. I appreciate the allusion/homage/whatever, but something about that struck me as lazy.
Like I said, I'm up for reading more of this series. I'm sure there will be a neat payoff in the end. But these first issues are off to a pretty slow start, so I wouldn't blame anyone who didn't feel like sticking around for more.
The series strikes me as a sort of Justice League meets X-Files. From what I can tell so far, this team of people with super powers travel around investigating mysteries of time and space. Each issue presents a new vignette of some weird occurrence somewhere in the world. At first they all seem to be discrete happenings, but it appears that maybe they're somehow all connected.
The characters are interesting. They all have their own unique personalities, though at this point in the story we know very little about them. One of my gripes is that issue 6 establishes a team that will possibly be the series villains (?), but they're essentially a modified Fantastic Four. I appreciate the allusion/homage/whatever, but something about that struck me as lazy.
Like I said, I'm up for reading more of this series. I'm sure there will be a neat payoff in the end. But these first issues are off to a pretty slow start, so I wouldn't blame anyone who didn't feel like sticking around for more.
June 4, 2018
Very different. Like X-Files and Indiana Jones rolled into one. I like the stories, not too sure about the characters. Got this from my digital library, and they have other volumes of Planetary. I will check out one more to see if really like it enough to finish them all. I love the Secret History aspect of this series.
July 4, 2011
I bought every issue of Planetary from 1999 to the last one in 2010 and decided to re-read the entire saga. The first 6 issues are a bit light and the stories seem to be done-in-one little short stories. We get introduced to the team of extraordinary archaeologists: Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and the Drummer. I think Elijah Snow is one of the best characters that Warren Ellis has ever created. He's cunning and takes no guff but Snow has a soft side. Pop culture junkies (like me) will love the references: Doc Savage, the Shadow, Fu Manchu, in the first issue. Godzilla in the 2nd and a Hong Kong ghost in the 3rd. The Doc Savage character (Doc Brass) makes frequent appearances. After a while things start adding up and fitting together. And the major adversaries are based on the Fantastic Four. Good stuff.
July 29, 2019
So far, I can't say I'm particularly impressed. The art is all right, but the characters are fairly shallow, and story is way out there and by the end of volume one leaves far too many questions than answers, too many loose threads and not nearly enough climaxes. I don't really know how much I'm looking forward to learning the answers for them, either.
But it's been highly acclaimed, so there probably will be something great to look forward to in the end. I'll keep reading, see where it takes me.
But it's been highly acclaimed, so there probably will be something great to look forward to in the end. I'll keep reading, see where it takes me.
August 26, 2025
Dacă sunteți fani X Files sau Fringe, „Planetary” e ceea ce vi se potrivește de minune.
O echipă de trei superdotați (Elijah Snow, un tip care se apropie de 100 de ani, îmbrăcat tot timpul în alb și cu posibilitatea de a manipula temperatura ambientală și nu doar; Jakita Wagner, șefa grupului, un soi de Jesssica Jones și The Drummer, un tip enervant, ce se poate conecta la energiile digitale, cuantice și dumnezeu știe la mai ce, care bate tot timpul din 2 bețe de toboșar), plus The Four, entitatea din umbră care finanțează echipa și celelalte baze ale corporației Planetary.
Și are pe ce da banii pentru că cei trei vor întâlni mai toate personajele, creaturile și stereotipurile culturale ale filmelor, benzilor și romanelor SF, Fantasy, Horror și orice vă mai puteți închipui că ar putea face parte din lumea misterioasă pop-culture: ozn-uri, calculatoare cuantice imediat de după război, kaiju și alte creaturi gigantice apărute pe pământ după explozii nucleare, universuri paralele etc.
Primul volum e o antologie de misiuni ale celor trei, unele mai amuzante, altele mai plictisitoare, dar tot timpul interesante prin miturile revizitate în fiecare număr. Foarte bune desenele lui John Cassaday, măcar pentru invențiile vizuale sale ar merita să citiți acest volum.
O echipă de trei superdotați (Elijah Snow, un tip care se apropie de 100 de ani, îmbrăcat tot timpul în alb și cu posibilitatea de a manipula temperatura ambientală și nu doar; Jakita Wagner, șefa grupului, un soi de Jesssica Jones și The Drummer, un tip enervant, ce se poate conecta la energiile digitale, cuantice și dumnezeu știe la mai ce, care bate tot timpul din 2 bețe de toboșar), plus The Four, entitatea din umbră care finanțează echipa și celelalte baze ale corporației Planetary.
Și are pe ce da banii pentru că cei trei vor întâlni mai toate personajele, creaturile și stereotipurile culturale ale filmelor, benzilor și romanelor SF, Fantasy, Horror și orice vă mai puteți închipui că ar putea face parte din lumea misterioasă pop-culture: ozn-uri, calculatoare cuantice imediat de după război, kaiju și alte creaturi gigantice apărute pe pământ după explozii nucleare, universuri paralele etc.
Primul volum e o antologie de misiuni ale celor trei, unele mai amuzante, altele mai plictisitoare, dar tot timpul interesante prin miturile revizitate în fiecare număr. Foarte bune desenele lui John Cassaday, măcar pentru invențiile vizuale sale ar merita să citiți acest volum.
November 10, 2020
This is a fun book, concerning an unusual trio who front a mysterious organization that investigates weird phenomena. There are many allusions to other fictional heroic characters throughout, and it's fun to pick out difference references. The six stories are mostly pretty well stand-alones, though larger connections and shadowy linkages abound. There are too many little references that are never explained to give a feeling of completeness or any sense of conclusion, but I enjoyed it anyway. The art is quite good, too.
December 6, 2021
Unuttum bile. O kadar karman çorman ki... Hayal kırıklığı oldu. Devam ciltlerini de almıştım, hatta ikinci cildi okumaya başladım ama sövüp kapattım. Daha sonra en baştan tekrar deneyeceğim.
September 18, 2011
Planetary is an incredible exercise in uncovering and exploring—and occasionally exploding—the big narratives of comic and popular culture. Every issue / chapter is self-contained, taking a trope from the schlock culture of the past and interrogating it a bit. You could view it like a few volumes of short stories each one taking a code concept that we're familiar with and doing something wild and new and fascinating with it and you'd not be far wrong.
Partly it's about adding human emotion and resonance to things that were cheesy as hell (the woman experimented upon by mad scientists in the fifties leaps to mind). Sometimes it's about trying to fit the kind of highly optimistic narrative of the sixties into a more cynical environment (the exploration of the Fantastic Four for example). Sometimes it's just about getting the core premise of a narrative and really playing with it. You could view Planetary as Warren Ellis doing the kind of superhero deconstruction and reconstruction that eventually will result in DC completely rebooting their universe, and the Marvel Ultimate line turning up out of the blue. And I think that would be fair because what separates it from Watchmen and stuff like that, is that it's still entertaining, relatively light and not self-consciously 'adult'. It's just *interesting*, dense and cool. And that sense of balance between big concept and intelligence with the superhero suspension of disbelief is pretty much what everyone's been aspiring for since...
I may be alone in thinking that Ellis' gradual attempt to turn these individual one off issues into a conspiracy and one big narrative is a pity and unnecessary, and I think the later volumes get a bit less witty and intriguing and a bit more generic - a bit more of the stuff that previously they'd been interrogating. But the first few volumes are pure and unadulterated pop culture gems.
Partly it's about adding human emotion and resonance to things that were cheesy as hell (the woman experimented upon by mad scientists in the fifties leaps to mind). Sometimes it's about trying to fit the kind of highly optimistic narrative of the sixties into a more cynical environment (the exploration of the Fantastic Four for example). Sometimes it's just about getting the core premise of a narrative and really playing with it. You could view Planetary as Warren Ellis doing the kind of superhero deconstruction and reconstruction that eventually will result in DC completely rebooting their universe, and the Marvel Ultimate line turning up out of the blue. And I think that would be fair because what separates it from Watchmen and stuff like that, is that it's still entertaining, relatively light and not self-consciously 'adult'. It's just *interesting*, dense and cool. And that sense of balance between big concept and intelligence with the superhero suspension of disbelief is pretty much what everyone's been aspiring for since...
I may be alone in thinking that Ellis' gradual attempt to turn these individual one off issues into a conspiracy and one big narrative is a pity and unnecessary, and I think the later volumes get a bit less witty and intriguing and a bit more generic - a bit more of the stuff that previously they'd been interrogating. But the first few volumes are pure and unadulterated pop culture gems.
October 27, 2019
I've been wanting to read these graphic novels for a VERY long time. I couldn't find them anywhere and I finally had to put in for an interlibrary loan for the compendium because they didn't have the single volumes. After reading Invincible, I missed the non DC/Marvel superhero/sci-fi story. When I found Planetary I was very excited! After reading the first volume, it's everything I've been missing!
Planetary Volume 1 has a great range of characters. Some are still mysterious, but the others seem trustworthy, and just wholeheartedly good. The mirror worlds are an interesting twist I never saw coming. I do like the random flashbacks and the artist drew it well portraying them in black and white while the main story in color. The storyline so far is very awesome! I don't often buy graphic novels, but I just might buy this one!
Planetary Volume 1 has a great range of characters. Some are still mysterious, but the others seem trustworthy, and just wholeheartedly good. The mirror worlds are an interesting twist I never saw coming. I do like the random flashbacks and the artist drew it well portraying them in black and white while the main story in color. The storyline so far is very awesome! I don't often buy graphic novels, but I just might buy this one!
October 31, 2020
Bu kadar güzel bir baskıya rağmen "Planetary"bin kurgusu darmadağınık, anlaşılması zor, çok verimli olabilecek bir "Gizem Arkeolojisi"ne rağmen bence başarısız. bazı serilerin ilk kitabı kötü olabilir, diğerlerine de bakmak lazım ama ilk intibah açısından olumsuz olduğunu söyleyebilirim.
September 17, 2016
Me ha sorprendido mucho. No sabía nada sobre la historia y es cojonuda. Ganas de más!!
January 24, 2016
Planetary consistently keeps showing up on my recommended feed, so on that alone I decided to pick this up. If Goodreads is insistent on the fact that I have to read this book, that's a good thing right? You couldn't be further from the truth. I was confused with this graphic novel, the storyline felt like it could have something special but ultimately didn't deliver. I really like Elijah Snow, everyone else I could do without. I really didn't develop a connection with them and in the end, I didn't care if they lived or were killed off.
The artwork is okay, nothing special, but it serves its role quite well enough. From time to time some of the story would be intriguing but then it felt like it fell flat. Toward the end of this volume the storyline seemed to pick up some consistency which leaves me in a situation of trying to decide if I will continue this series or not. There isn't much to compel me in moving forward with it, but I may - time will be the judge of that.
What this book gets right: Elijah Snow I was intrigued with his character and the lack of backstory.
WHat this book gets wrong: Pretty much everything else, especially The Drummer, I think he annoyed me just about as much as it does Snow. The story was not compelling enough for me to want to continue with the series.
The artwork is okay, nothing special, but it serves its role quite well enough. From time to time some of the story would be intriguing but then it felt like it fell flat. Toward the end of this volume the storyline seemed to pick up some consistency which leaves me in a situation of trying to decide if I will continue this series or not. There isn't much to compel me in moving forward with it, but I may - time will be the judge of that.
What this book gets right: Elijah Snow I was intrigued with his character and the lack of backstory.
WHat this book gets wrong: Pretty much everything else, especially The Drummer, I think he annoyed me just about as much as it does Snow. The story was not compelling enough for me to want to continue with the series.
April 4, 2014
I just had a hard time being drawn into this. Some of that is its episodic nature, the first stories being more or less unrelated--that is, until they start being related, which did draw me in. Some of it is that I found the three main characters distant, hard to relate to. They're mysterious and have mysterious back stories, but...I don't know. It just didn't work for me. I was sufficiently interested by the end of the volume to think I might try the next one, though.
August 18, 2019
Imaginemos que toda la ficción del siglo XX es real, pero oculta.
Planetary es un trío y un mencionado cuarto hombre que se encarga de hurgar en toda esa historia oculta. Y así en cada episodio se hace referencia a cada personaje. Desde el centenario Doc Savage, a los Fantastic Four y no sólo de cómic porque también se homenajea a John Woo, a los clásicos Yokai.
De narración anacrónica, cada guiño es la pieza de un puzzle que con 27 números y algunos especiales de mayor o menor relevancia hacen de éste uno de los cómics más queridos por el fandom.
Planetary es un trío y un mencionado cuarto hombre que se encarga de hurgar en toda esa historia oculta. Y así en cada episodio se hace referencia a cada personaje. Desde el centenario Doc Savage, a los Fantastic Four y no sólo de cómic porque también se homenajea a John Woo, a los clásicos Yokai.
De narración anacrónica, cada guiño es la pieza de un puzzle que con 27 números y algunos especiales de mayor o menor relevancia hacen de éste uno de los cómics más queridos por el fandom.
October 31, 2018
Cómo no te voy a querer, Warren, cómo no te voy a querer.
April 27, 2018
Un cómic que prometía, pero terminó decepcionando. Esperaba mucho más de él, en cuanto al diseño de personajes y narración, pero terminó sin gustarme como cuando ví la portada..que era lo más me llamó la atención. Lo que pasa con los libros, también pasa con los cómic y mangas..las portadas engañan
May 31, 2021
The description of the “quantum” computer commits the first fallacy of QC (that it is fast because it tries out all answers at once) and then turbocharges it, so that quantum computing creates and destroys umpteen universes when it answers queries about e.g. what are the parts of this big number.
https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p...
But it’s not the kind of work that merits that kind of snark: it is Pulp fiction, and a good thing too. Better than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen even.
https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p...
But it’s not the kind of work that merits that kind of snark: it is Pulp fiction, and a good thing too. Better than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen even.
October 29, 2021
Archeologists of the Impossible, trying to discover the world's hidden secrets of the 20th century? Sign me up.
I love the concept and our three main characters are fantastic, grumpy, and mysterious (sometimes all at once).
The art is not my preferred style but I really enjoyed it ('it's superhero comic lite') and some of the images (particularly of the multiverse snowflake thingy) were stunning.
Be aware that because it was published in 1999 the comic does have some outdated and offensive terminology/vocabulary.
Definitely looking forward to continuing the series.
I love the concept and our three main characters are fantastic, grumpy, and mysterious (sometimes all at once).
The art is not my preferred style but I really enjoyed it ('it's superhero comic lite') and some of the images (particularly of the multiverse snowflake thingy) were stunning.
Be aware that because it was published in 1999 the comic does have some outdated and offensive terminology/vocabulary.
Definitely looking forward to continuing the series.
December 13, 2017
Earlier this year I went and reread some old Warren Ellis comics (NextWave) as a sort of antidote to some other stuff (X-Force), and even though all that I got out of it was realizing those old Ellis comics weren't as good as I remembered, here I am again. I just read the newest volume of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, and it was awful, and it made me think about other comics with mysterious supergroups exploring the uncharted unknown.
So of course Planetary, a book I never really liked before, but that works better as a rebound comic than it does a comic on its own.
Like NextWave, Planetary is very much of-its-time -- not because it's offensive or anything, but because its concerns reflect a very specific moment in comics postmodernism. The late 90's were all about reconstruction. The 80's had torn superhero stories apart and discovered them wanting. The early 90's was an orgy of speculation and hologram covers, while every reputable comics creator worth their salt ran as far away from writing superheroes as possible. But by the end of the 20th century the mini-zeitgeist of the comics world explored how to, like, like superhero stories again. Kurt Busiek's Astro City, Alan Moore's Top 10, and Planetary all approached the problem similarly -- in order to rediscover the past, rewrite.
All three series engaged with superhero comics with a mix of mirrors and tracing paper -- all the heroes you like are here, from the Justice League to the Fantastic Four, but for copyright reasons and postmodernism reasons, the names and costume designs are altered (mildly) and then a new framing device is applied. In all three titles, one aspect of this frame is the 20th century itself. But while Astro City and Top Ten follow the adventures of living heroes in a living world, the "mystery archeologists" of the Planetary group mostly explore the ruins of old stories. The Hulk was created in the 60s, but died in captivity in the 80s. Doc Savage is a forgotten hero, alive but buried underground. Godzilla and his brethren are dead, rotting carcasses on an abandoned Monster Island.
It's interesting that the book that brought me here, The Invisibles, shares a similar loose premise with this, its complete opposite: both series insist that the world we know is not the world, and that only a small cell of superbeings who don't even know who they work for are equipped to deal with the weirdness out there. Said this way, it's not a unique premise in the least (and one could argue that there was likely an uptick in this sort of story following the success of the X-Files juggernaut that consumed the culture around this time). I suppose what I find jarring about both books is their assumption that you, the reader, will be on board with the nature of the mystery. I recall the first time I read Planetary that I was completely annoyed with it; I asked my then-roommate, "Is this all it is? Dead Godzillas and stuff? But that's just stupid."
He shrugged and said, "I dunno, you kinda have to think it's fun to geek out on retro stuff, I think."
"Well I don't," I said. "And it's stupid."
But I hated The Invisibles too, at the other end of the spectrum, for being so ephemeral that it wasn't really about anything -- if Ellis' big reveal was underwhelming for its hokey concreteness, Morrison's was equally weak for its sort of magickal-hoodoo tilting-at-windmills approach. And I think that part of what I reacted to back then, as a reader, was that I had already begun to decide what I thought the nature of the mysteries these authors would explore should be. That's sort of the danger of writing mysteries, in general -- if you wait too long for the reveal, the reader has already come up with something much better than anything you'll ever write.
But in rereading Planetary, and more importantly in knowing ahead of time what it is, I think it's not such a bad book. The art is super beautiful and Cassadayian, and the characters are all grumpy and snipe at each other in very Ellisian ways. Because of the series' structure, I still find it difficult to enjoy each new chapter until I riddle out that chapter's retro homage, so at times the book is more of a puzzle than a reading experience, which is frustrating. So I'm not sure if I'll try to read more than just this volume this time around; I don't exactly have better things to do with my time, but I also feel like I could be trying a little harder.
Which is also sort of this book, really, in a nutshell.
So of course Planetary, a book I never really liked before, but that works better as a rebound comic than it does a comic on its own.
Like NextWave, Planetary is very much of-its-time -- not because it's offensive or anything, but because its concerns reflect a very specific moment in comics postmodernism. The late 90's were all about reconstruction. The 80's had torn superhero stories apart and discovered them wanting. The early 90's was an orgy of speculation and hologram covers, while every reputable comics creator worth their salt ran as far away from writing superheroes as possible. But by the end of the 20th century the mini-zeitgeist of the comics world explored how to, like, like superhero stories again. Kurt Busiek's Astro City, Alan Moore's Top 10, and Planetary all approached the problem similarly -- in order to rediscover the past, rewrite.
All three series engaged with superhero comics with a mix of mirrors and tracing paper -- all the heroes you like are here, from the Justice League to the Fantastic Four, but for copyright reasons and postmodernism reasons, the names and costume designs are altered (mildly) and then a new framing device is applied. In all three titles, one aspect of this frame is the 20th century itself. But while Astro City and Top Ten follow the adventures of living heroes in a living world, the "mystery archeologists" of the Planetary group mostly explore the ruins of old stories. The Hulk was created in the 60s, but died in captivity in the 80s. Doc Savage is a forgotten hero, alive but buried underground. Godzilla and his brethren are dead, rotting carcasses on an abandoned Monster Island.
It's interesting that the book that brought me here, The Invisibles, shares a similar loose premise with this, its complete opposite: both series insist that the world we know is not the world, and that only a small cell of superbeings who don't even know who they work for are equipped to deal with the weirdness out there. Said this way, it's not a unique premise in the least (and one could argue that there was likely an uptick in this sort of story following the success of the X-Files juggernaut that consumed the culture around this time). I suppose what I find jarring about both books is their assumption that you, the reader, will be on board with the nature of the mystery. I recall the first time I read Planetary that I was completely annoyed with it; I asked my then-roommate, "Is this all it is? Dead Godzillas and stuff? But that's just stupid."
He shrugged and said, "I dunno, you kinda have to think it's fun to geek out on retro stuff, I think."
"Well I don't," I said. "And it's stupid."
But I hated The Invisibles too, at the other end of the spectrum, for being so ephemeral that it wasn't really about anything -- if Ellis' big reveal was underwhelming for its hokey concreteness, Morrison's was equally weak for its sort of magickal-hoodoo tilting-at-windmills approach. And I think that part of what I reacted to back then, as a reader, was that I had already begun to decide what I thought the nature of the mysteries these authors would explore should be. That's sort of the danger of writing mysteries, in general -- if you wait too long for the reveal, the reader has already come up with something much better than anything you'll ever write.
But in rereading Planetary, and more importantly in knowing ahead of time what it is, I think it's not such a bad book. The art is super beautiful and Cassadayian, and the characters are all grumpy and snipe at each other in very Ellisian ways. Because of the series' structure, I still find it difficult to enjoy each new chapter until I riddle out that chapter's retro homage, so at times the book is more of a puzzle than a reading experience, which is frustrating. So I'm not sure if I'll try to read more than just this volume this time around; I don't exactly have better things to do with my time, but I also feel like I could be trying a little harder.
Which is also sort of this book, really, in a nutshell.
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