PlanetaryVol 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by John Cassaday
2000
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
PlanetaryVol 2: The Fourth Man
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by John Cassaday
2001
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
PlanetaryVol 3: Leaving the 20th Century
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by John Cassaday
2005
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
PlanetaryVol 4: Spacetime Archaeology
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by John Cassaday
2010
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
You ever watch Fringe? You know - the TV series: the one with Pacey from Dawson's Creek? The one that's all science-fictiony mystery stuff? Kinda like The X-Files for the 21st Century?
Me: no. I never watched it. But I do remember that when it first came out J. J. Abrams [1] (or the publicity people or whatever) made a big deal about it being all self-contained episodes. I guess that with Lost being all about the big over-arching mythology thing so that - if you decided to drop in around Season 4 - well not a lot of it is going to make any sense to you: the aim was to position Fringe as a kinda less-threatening user-friendly version - where every episode was complete in and of itself - dealing with an individual instance of spooky weirdness that was then all wrapped up by the time you got to the end of the 45 minutes (or however long it was - I dunno - like I said: I've never watched it) and so you didn't really need to worry if you missed a couple of episodes - so yeah (I'll say it again): kinda like The X-Files for the 21st Century: only without all that burdensome over-arching conspiracy stuff that ended up turning so many viewers off (you know: Cancer Man and the black oil - and something to do with bees [3] and stuff).
Only - well - just like The X-Files (ha - I guess it's the description that keeps on giving) that's exactly the hole that Fringe ended up diving into: so that - well - if you decided to drop in around Season 4: you're not going to have any idea what's happening... [4].
So - Planetary? Well - yeah: if you wanna be reductive about it: it's the Fringe of comic books [5]. Only (hopefully) not as dreadful as that sounds.
For a long while - people [6] were always going at me about Planetary. Saying it was amazing. Saying it was one of the best things Warren Ellis has ever written. Saying that I should check it out. Blah blah blah. And - well - I did try. Twice I think (at least) I picked up Vol 1 and diligently struggled through it... And yeah: I admit it: the idea sounded cool - basically 'super-archaeology' (or like it says on the cover of #1: "Archaeologists of the Impossible!"): three super-powered people less concerned with acting as world police and way more into poking around unexplored areas and digging up crazy artifacts from the past - and what makes it cool (and why you should read it and why you'll enjoy it) is that it's not just Indiana Jones / Lara Croft (delete according to gender) with a cape or whathaveyou and finding golden idols hidden away in buried tombs rather - it's nicely clever-clever (with at least one page (or so) going completely over the top of my head - the whole universe is a hologram or something?) and it turns out that what they're excavating are the myths and legends of the twentieth century (aka of comic books) and then holding them up to the light to show what they reveal about - well - us (you know - erm - something about how much we can learn about the stories we decided to tell ourselves - or something like that? There's probably a good quote by some famous person out there that says it in a much more succinct kinda way: but you get the general point - right?). Plus: there's lot of really big dead things. And we all like those.
But (dang it) reading Vol 1: I digged the concept and the idea and the stories and the way it linked up all these disparate theories and ideas into one big overarching structure (although actually - I guess that big structure only comes to the fore later on...? So maybe ignore that): but (well) it seemed a little too 'bit'y. Every issue was designed to be read alone so you could pick it up from any point (yes yes - like the X-Files and whatever... But then (although I guess I've committed to that example now?) also like your kinda old-fashioned pop singles (I mean - does anyone still buy singles anymore? Or do they the kids just download them directly into their brain? I've gotta confess - I don't really know...) where the rush of pleasure all comes in one big fat sticky hit (something that the book is obviously aiming for - what? - you think it's just a coincidence that the team is a three-piece and one of them is called The Drummer? Come on!) - but then reading them altogether felt too much like snacking and to enough like having a full meal - plus the fact that at that moment in time Islington didn't have the Vol 4 (shakes fist at sky) meant that I thought I'd give it a miss...
I say all of this in order to let you know - well - (ok) firstly everyone else was right and frankly Planetary is all the amazing things that everyone said that it was. But - also (and more importantly) - you've really got to give it a chance to get warmed up: because once it does - it's very very very good indeed. Of course I don't wanna hype it up too much and run the risk of leaving you disappointed: but I was reminded several other comic series whilst reading this - The Sandman in the way that every issue is a single story that all joins up to tell something much bigger (well - most of The Sandman anyway), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the way that takes all the big famous fictional characters and concepts of - well - the past century or so and then reworks and flips them over in lots of delightful and deviously clever ways showing you the type of fun you make when you re-think, re-engineer and re-imagine all the basics concepts holding up the superhero universe from the ground up and - tho this might be a stretch? - The Invisibles (although this might be a stretch: but you can't help it when stuff reminds you of other stuff - right?) in the way that it goes full on with it's inter-connected conspiracies and use of far-out theories about the way that the world is put together.
Altogether Planetary has taken ten years (!) to get from the beginning all the way to it's end - (it started in 1999 and then finally ended in 2009 [7]) - and during that time there's been this sort of story that's been built up around it or (should I say?) a certain way that people talk about it. I mean - a similar example would be Lost (yep - that again) - where for anyone talking about it nowadays the story is about how much the ending sucked / was disappointing [8]. Reading various things across the wilds of the internet it seems like the same kind of thing applies to Planetary too - namely: people think that it started great and then messed up the landing (just check some of those links at the bottom there to see for yourself) but for me anyway (and maybe this is because I got to them them all one after each other rather than waiting months and months for each issue) I didn't really notice any real drop-off. In fact (if anything) I was kinda impressed by the way that John Cassaday's art grew and matured as things went along (I think it's around #16 that it just kinda jumps to a whole new level of loveliness) so much so n fact - that by the end it's hard to tell that it's the same artist - but then I guess ten years will do that to you (and I hope I don't lose too many geek points by admitting that it was only at Vol 4 that I realised that he was the same artist for Joss Whedon's run on The Astonishing X-Men - d'oh).
"It's a strange world... Let's keep it that way."
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[1] Who back then was best known as the creator of Lost (a title which was then taken over by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof [2] - who got all the blame for the way it ended: altho according to like random stuff I've read on the internet (god bless the internet) it turns out that J. J. Abrams was the guy who wrote the Lost ending in the first place and that the other two just did their best to make sure that it all matched up or whatever: but anyway): I guess nowadays J. J. is better know as the Star Trek / the guy who loves putting lens flares over everything guy - so I guess that shows that there's hope for all of us? (or something).
[2] Who (and maybe it's just me?) seem like they would be the cutest couple like - ever.
[3] Bees?
[4] And - yeah - even tho I've never watched it: I will confess that sometimes I do read the episode reviews because (I dunno) it's kinda cool reading about stuff when you have no idea what it's about: so you know - there's stuff about bald-headed Observers and pocket universes and the power of love will save the world or something (I presume they're not talking about the Huey Lewis song - but hey - who knows right?). And - yeah - well: I'm glad I never decided to watch it.
[5] Although - it doesn't reference Fringe someone at one point does say "The Truth is in here."
[6] That's people from the Comic Forum obviously. It wasn't like I was just walking down the street and having strangers accosting me - grabbing me by the lapels and going: "Oh my god - you have to read Planetary! It's like - totally awesome and super-great! I can't believe you haven't put a post up on your blog yet already!"
[7] I think that this has something to with something happening to John Cassaday along the way which meant that he didn't do the artwork for a while or something? I'm not sure what the full story is - but there's this in the dedication page on the second volume that kinda makes me scared to find out exactly what: "During the year in which this art was built, I experienced a great spectrum of personal peaks. Page for page, this book will always remind me of that year and it's towering highs and abysmal lows. And for what I found along the way. So thank you for it Lisa. Thank you for it all. I'll miss you."
[8] The gold standard of which would be this Big Other essay here: “The Ending as Wish-Fulfilment in The Tree of Life, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and Lost,” and Film Crit Hulk going: HULK FINALLY READY TO POINT ON THE DOLL AND SHOW WHERE THE LOST FINALE TOUCHED HULK. (Enjoy!).
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Links: Mindless Ones Review, Forbidden Planet Blog Review, PopMatters Review, Sean T Collins Review of Vol 3, AV Club Article: Astro City vs. Planetary: Superhero Reconstruction vs. Deconstruction, Remarkable Review of #27, The M0vie Blog Review Vol 1 and Vol 2, The M0vie Blog Review Vol 3 and Vol 4.
Further reading: Planetary: Crossing Worlds, Transmetropolitan, The Invisibles, The Unwritten, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Global Frequency, The Authority, The Sandman, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, The Avengers: The New Avengers: Illuminati, The Astonishing X-Men, B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth.
Profiles: Warren Ellis.
All comments welcome.
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