Planetary, Volume 3: Leaving the 20th Century

Planetary #3

by Warren Ellis (Writer)

A softcover edition of the popular hardcover collects Ellis and Cassaday's breathtaking Planetary! In this volume, Elijah takes a look at his past, making startling revelations and recounting his participation in the first moon shot...in 1851!

Collecting: Planetary 13-18

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2004

About the author

Warren 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.

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this third volume of Planetary stories we not only get to step back for a moment and have a bit of a look at the adventures of Elijah Snow in his century of existence trying to keep the world strange, but we also get more details on the Four and their intersection with the Planetary organization prior to the current story arc. Ellis is able to play in a lot of cool sandboxes as a result and the genre mashing continues much to my personal glee!

Issue 13 – “Century”: Just how did Elijah Snow form the Planetary organization and why did he do it? Well, not all of the answers will be provided here, but we get an intriguing glimpse at young Elijah Snow circa 1919 as he tracks down the members of a secret organization from the 19th century whose goal was to “better mankind” from behind the scenes. Elijah doesn’t like that kind of meddling, but he just might have something to learn from one member of the cabal at least. Really cool stuff involving Frankenstein’s Monster(s), Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and some shout-outs to other luminaries from the penny dreadfuls and pulp fiction of an earlier day. Cool stuff.

Issue 14 – “Zero Point”: A flashback story showing just why (and how) the Four were able to mind-wipe Elijah. We get to see just how dangerous an opponent Snow and his group can be as they handily take down two members of the Four before being overcome by the ridiculously superior firepower the Four can bring to bear. There is also a chilling opening sequence that pulls some cool references from both Marvel’s Thor comic book and Alan Moore’s more esoteric work in Miracleman that serves to once again highlight the utter evil bastard status of the Four and help explain Elijah’s driving desire to stop them at any cost.

Issue 15 – “Creation Songs”: Back in the present we join Elijah, Jakita, and Drummer as they attempt to intercept the Four who are analysing Ayers Rock for their own arcane purposes. This in turn leads to a flashback story where Snow explains the significance of the place and just how it ties in to the wider cosmology that Ellis has created for his multiverse.

Issue 16 – “Hark”: The mysterious figure of Anna Hark, with links to both Axel Brass’ former team of superhumans and the Four, is brought from out of the shadows to play a central role in this issue. Snow is working hard at consolidating his power and ensuring that his upcoming standoff with the Four is his final one. No mistakes this time. To that end he will need all the allies he can get. Will the enigmatic and unpredictable Anna Hark play ball? This issue also has a cool intro that brings the popular wuxia films like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to mind. It’s great to see how Snow is the kind of character who thinks out his moves and is playing the long game, he’s not just going to barge in and try to bash the villain’s head in (though of course if that’ll work he’s not averse to incorporating it into his plan).

Issue 17 – “Opak-Re”: Another flashback to Snow’s earlier journeys and discoveries when Planetary was still a relatively new organization and the fieldwork was primarily done by Elijah himself. Great homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip Jose Farmer, and the Indiana Jones films. We also get a tantalizing glimpse of Ellis’ Tarzan analogue Lord Blackstone and some significant revelations about Jakita and her very long relationship with Snow. Lots of fun.

Issue 18 – “The Gun Club”: Ellis takes nineteenth century space travel, Jules Verne, and a new plan by Snow to draw out members of the Four and deal with them individually and does his usual trick: incorporate cool ideas from across pop culture boundaries and not only use them to build a strange and wonderful world, but tie them in to an intriguing story of the battle of superhumans for control of the kind of world we live in.

What can I say? Still great stuff. Even when there are weaker issues they’re fun and everything contributes to the wider story arc and the further fleshing out of Ellis’ cool world. Also, Cassaday’s art remains consistently beautiful…this is really some of the best art I’ve seen in the comic book medium and it just makes Ellis’ ideas pop off the page that much more. If you want to see something new being done in comics (even though it ironically makes heavy use of what’s old) then go read it!

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so much more enjoy when our heroes are menacing the bad guys, and they have the upper hand. It's so much more satisfying to see the good guys able to kick some meanie ass and get one up on evil. Warren Ellis does this about as well as anyone who's ever entertained me, and he does it with an extra layer of cynicism, aggressive joy and maniacal glee. *This* is the Warren Ellis master writing that I crave: sinister omniscience in his protagonist, lots of mysteries for us to learn about, plenty of big, quirky scenarios for the other players to show us what they've got. And fun, funny dialogue to boot.

What really makes this volume stand out tho is the truly fantastic art. Cassaday is creating some great lines, and the colourist is adding a layer of polish and depth that makes the scenes really pop. This is first class art all the way, and really elevates the great script to stellar levels.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three books in and I'm still not sure what to make of Planetary. On the one hand the overall story is unfathomable, I'm still not sure about the bad guys called "the 4" or what the point of the whole series is, but on the other hand these books are so packed full of strange and brilliant ideas and amazing art that it's difficult to stay away from.

So here's what you can expect from the third book: an literary encounter between Elijah Snow and some of the best characters the 19th century had to offer, a great fight sequence from feudal Japan between two ancient superheroes, Ayers Rock come to life, Jakita's origin story, a strange mystical golden city in the middle of a jungle, and the discovery that space flight was achieved in 1851.

I think it was the last story that left me with a strong favourable opinion the series. It's Warren Ellis' romantic side that such relics from the past remain undisturbed for 150 years to be discovered in passing by the Planetary team that got me - what a great world that would be that our ancestors' endeavours were left so naked to their descendants.

John Cassaday's art is gorgeous as usual but especially here. There's not a single story in the book where some pages don't blow you away and have you peering at the panel, studying the detail. And he does action very well too.

Having come this far, I've got to read the final book in the series "Spacetime Archaeology" which I plan to do, but I have to say Planetary as a series has been one big question mark for me. The motives and characters behind whatever the story is all remain a mystery to me and I can't tell if it's ultra-subtle or just plain poor writing. Either way, it's an imaginative series and one I think most comics fans will enjoy, or like me just enjoy the ride.

[Murat Dural · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eseri yayına hazırlayan herkesin eline, emeğine sağlık. Ancak, öyküler gittikçe kes yapıştıra dönüştü. Üç cild boyunca farklı bir yere, daha potansiyelli bir noktaya gitmesini bekledim. İlk cildden beri beklenti içindeyim. Ne yazık ki Planetary'nin kurgusu, senaryosu gerçekten kötü. Oysa fantazya, bilim kurgu ve arkeoloji diye heyecanlanmıştım.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is where it starts getting interesting...! A lot of information comes together in this volume and it's bloody brilliant.

[Pat the Book Goblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is great but now I’m nearing the end I hope a few loose ends are tied up in the last volume. Overall, I think the art and characters are great! The story, while fun, does leave some questions that have gone unanswered for 3 volumes. Since there’s one volume left I hope Ellis answers them all.

[Wreade1872 · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is all the issues we should have gotten two volumes ago! Better late than never?

Finally Ellis manages to do some decent plot and story construction. This is all pretty good stuff. Of course planetary is like Lost or the X-Files with so many layers of mysteries piled on top of each other that even when things are 'explained' you are still left with many, many unanswered questions.

I still have several quibbles even with these issues
* such as Snow sounding distinctly Spider Jeruselm-esque at times
* some characters being shown in very classic film-version style while others are updated creating a feeling of inconsistency
* the lack of themes or overarcing messages, except for 'hey look at this thing i did which is like a thing i read once' etc.

but overall this is far more competent than the previous 2 volumes so grading on a curve, i settled on 4 stars.

PS: The french guy mentioned in the first issue, who's been to mars, is probably a reference to The Nyctalope .

[Travis Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story speeds up and more clues come to light in Vol. 3. This book was solid and answered lots of questions about Snow, the Four, and the rest of Planetary. We find out the parents of Jakita are and it becomes a much smaller world. Elijah Snow is getting all his memories back and he is looking to kick some ass against the "four". The cameos are pretty cool with Sherlock holmes and Tarzan, it creates a pretty interesting literary world. At the end we find out that space travel was started in the 1830 much earlier than anyone knew about with a giant metal ball that was shot out of a cannon, it crash lands at the end leaving more questions. Planetary also captures 1 of the "four". Vol 4 is the last and now I have to hunt it down, since out copy is missing at my work.

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elijah's awareness of his past and the background of the Four take up most of the focus of this comic. Unlike Ellis's satire, his work here can be read largely as an allegory for the development of comics in the 20th. The touch-as-nails, near omniscience of Snow paired with Ellis's penchant for cynicism make it all the more enjoyable. Cassaday's art and the color design often really pop. This remains a great read even a decade and a half out.

[Antonio Ceté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este volumen es ya todo magia, todo gloria, y el númro 18, el de los que fueron al espacio en 1851 es bueno, qué te voy a decir.

[Octavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigue impecable y dando sopresas sobre los personajes. Genial.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know...

These Four guys are hyped up as some kind of invincible supervillains that secretly rule the world and are responsible for humanity being a stunted hellhole... but in practice they come across as a bunch of buffoons. At the end of the previous volume the main character demonstrated to them that he's regained his memories - something they'd promise to kill his friends for if he ever did - and literally declared war on them. And now they just let him get away with it, and everything else, without even trying to retaliate. When one of them actually does show up, he's pistol-whipped into unconsciousness almost without any kind of a fight. This seems way too easy.

I'm also not sure about all the character cameos and expies, the knock-offs from DC and Vertigo and various classic books running around. The main antagonists themselves work well enough in this respect, being basically evil Fantastic Four, but the rest of it seems like Watchmen except with way worse writing and no idea what made Watchmen great to begin with. I'll admit this part may just me being too dumb to get the point, but it still nags me.

The stories themselves continue to run the gamut between pretty okay and quite good, but the greater arc connecting them all together, the characters running the show, the villains we're supposed to fear, are all rather lacking. On the whole, the hype still continues to escape me.

[Richard Guion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elijah Snow's back history with the Four is fully revealed in this volume. What I love about this series are all the ties to classic Pulp Fiction heroes. The first chapter has Elijah meeting Sherlock Holmes at the beginning of the 20th century. Later he meets a Tarzan analogue and there are hints of a John Carter type who travels between worlds. If you're a fan of Doc Savage; his apocalyptic life by Philip José Farmer then you will love it. Plot points from the earlier volumes come back, such as James Wilder and Anna Hark. I have totally forgotten how the whole story ends, but so far this is my favorite series by Warren Ellis.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I love this series.

Ellis continues his magical task of taking events (both mythical and factual), actual people, and fictional characters and weaving them into an "underground" history of the 20th century.

God, what a great idea and a great set of books.

This one is no different, continuing to put forth several homages to past fictitious creations and their creators, while weaving all of that into dynamic characters and ever unraveling histories.

Again, I want to keep this review short and not get into too much because, like I said for volume two, to spoil one panel of this for you would be a crime.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Planetary is an excellent work by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. Something mandatory in any comic book collection. Also, you will find a lot of references to many genres of literature and classic characters but in very imaginative ways to avoid any copyright trouble but if you read enough, you will recognize them alright. Highly recommended.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know, of course Sherlock Holmes is in this series. Not entirely sure what Dracula was doing there but I appreciate a random cameo and Ellis's view on the character.

I'm glad we got some Elijah history. These century babies are a fun concept.

[Ostrava · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something about the delivery of that last issue that makes it some of the most interesting writing I've seen in the medium. The whole thing is one gigantic and ambitious "what if..." that keeps on winning, even though you're never quite sure of the direction it's taking.

Maybe one day I'll do a better job of reviewing this but... it's very good. I was constantly left with an impression of some kind, that's some strong writing right there.

[David Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best Collection so far!

Planetary really kicked into high gear with these stories. Very Jules Verne sci-fi aspect. Well written and drawn. I will on to Vol 4 soon!

[BellaGBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is getting more and more intriguing!

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is still telling you things instead of showing. well, to be fair there's some show but it's a lot of tell.

[Jerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the third volume, it looks like Marvel Comics, or at least Thor, is brought in to balance out all of the DC characters from the last volume, with Dr. Blake’s walking cane one of many weapon-retrieval devices (in his case, a golden hammer).

More public domain characters are brought in, too: Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula. Elija Snow seems extraordinarily powerful. Dracula is “the greatest of strategists. Not a mind like his to be found anywhere else on the planet.” He falls prey to Elijah Snow’s standard and fairly obvious strategy within a few panels of showing up behind Sherlock Holmes. Despite Holmes’s obvious inability to recognize the elementary facts, Snow chooses to train with the great detective for five years, which, fortunately, we are not subjected to.

Tarzan and Wells are probably the most interesting part of this volume; Wells mainly because he shows up only obliquely.

This was the last of the volumes I read; if I hadn’t bought them all at once I probably wouldn’t have gone past the first one, and definitely not past the second. I’m reviewing them now mainly to remind myself of how much and why I disliked them. The story sounds like something I’d enjoy a lot: the secret histories of Tim Powers, the re-evaluation of famous characters of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, and even the amazing writing of the guy who gave us Transmetropolitan. But for me at least, the story doesn’t do anything with those elements and the characters aren’t interesting enough to make up for it.

[Kyle Dinges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. This is my favorite volume of Planetary yet. Ellis seems to have worked out any kinks that were present in the first two volumes and is at his peak. He's pulling from equal parts Marvel (Fantastic Four, Thor, Black Panther), pulp literature (Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Tarzan, Jules Verne), and his trademark science interests (multi-dimensional travel, string theory, space travel). The ideas are synthesizing perfectly and there's a new awe striking concept just about every page in this one.

Cassaday and Martin are rendering everything masterfully. There's a certain nimbleness in being able to put together epic kung fu battles, a play on Wakanda, and 19th century space flight in the span of a hundred or so pages. Everyone is at the top of their game. This series took an excruciating amount of time to be released in single issue format, and you can see why in the amount of detail that goes into every panel.

This is one of my favorite volumes of one of my favorite series and I'd recommend it to everyone.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite volume yet. Certain mysteries were unraveled at the end of the second volume and the aftermath has just been fun . It really opened the comic up. I like how Ellis enjoys playing with the timeline. Certain scenes from earlier in the story that were sort of inserted without explanation are made clear in this volume. I like that, and it reminds of what Gaiman would sometimes do with Sandman.

Also, I felt like Cassaday's art in this one was.. I don't know, sharper? It looks almost.. more realistic. Not sure how to put it. I'm not familiar enough with his work before Planetary to know if he simply improved during its drawing or changed the style up a little. Or hell, I could be imagining it. I've been renting these from the library so I couldn't go back to the earlier volumes and compare.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setup of Planetary is equal parts fascinating and maddening. Everything tells a small bit of the overall story, with a slow-burning mystery that really needs to be solved in a short time, but every short, character-building vignette is still solid storytelling, with some really unexpected and strange moments. Two of the stories really resonated with me in particular in this collection, and the various nods to other stories and mediums is really well done.

Still loving this more than I thought I would.

[Andrew Seaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is getting good.

And let me start by retracting my comments on Laura Martin's coloring. Maybe I just needed some time to adjust to it, but in this book it's brilliant.

In these issues, the focus is definitely shifting away from the surface archaeology one-shots and more towards the underlying story behind the previous 12 issues. You still get some good side action that made volume 1 special, but it's no longer the primary focus.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always when reading this series, I'll think I'm finally on the cusp of knowing what the hell is going on, and then, I'll turn the page and realize: nope, I still have no clue. But I love every moment of it. When I'm done, I'll have to buy the collected set and sit down to reread it start to finish in in one go. Maybe THEN I'll figure it out.

[Eve Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, I was afraid this would happen. I dropped off the radar of the Planetary and couldn't get anywhere near back. The rating is purely for the story, otherwise the comic is well made and the art work is excellent. I just didn't get the majority of these chapters BUT I'm gonna read the last one to see if it rounds things up into a nice little bundle.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It all starts coming together as Planetary and the Four wage war for the fate of the future.

Big and sprawling, while telling some nice little stories and making great use of all the tropes of 20th century pulp fiction.

[The Lost Dreamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

More fun than the previous one. The plot slowly moves somewhere and the characters become more fascinating as we get to know them. Each number amazes me with beautiful bits of imagination. The short stories, like the one from the Moon expedition in the 19th century, are delicious.

[Matheus Gonçalves · Rating 3 out of 5]

2021 - 3*⭐ (Releitura)

2014 - 2*⭐