In the latest edition of Comics to Read Before You Die, Jessie Robertson looks at Planetary #1-6…
Planetary #1-6 & Planetary Preview (Sept 1998- March 1999)
Writer- Warren Ellis
Artist- John Cassady
Colorist- Laura Depuy w/ David Baron and Wildstorm FX
Letterers- Ali Fuchs & Bill O’Neil
Cover, Logo & Book Design- Ed Roeder
Editor- John Layman
When I first read this book, it moved too fast for me. I read it and then re-read it to make sure I was absorbing all that I had seen in the pages. For six issues, there is a lot of material to be had. The design of Planetary is that each issue borrows a classic tale or trope to spin out from, using pieces of folklore, sci-fi, fantasy and golden age comic tales illustrating them in new, unimagined colors.
The stars of the book are Elijah Snow; a man all in white emanating cold from him everywhere he goes, Jakita Wagner; quite frankly a girl who could dropkick a rhino across the Grand Canyon, and The Drummer; a tech savvy electronics man who doesn’t get his hands dirty in the missions. They belong to a group called Planetary, and it is always a 3 person team. The Fourth Man of the group is their unseen benefactor, providing them with cash, clothes, equipment, transportation, anything they would need to do their jobs. What is their job you ask?
Each issue of this collection finds our team in the midst of an adventure story that is almost like the original but not quite. Issue #1 they meet Axel Brass, who looks identical to Doc Savage, famous comic protagonist from the serial age. He was part of a conglomerate team of unique individuals from the 40’s who were trying to stop a rival group of super powers from another place in time from taking over the world. This other team was able to find them from use of a device that looked like a large, glowing snowflake; it turns out it’s the door to the Multiverse.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, now if you’re like me and hear Multiverse, you start to cringe. While a Multiverse opens the door to creating variants on the same story and same character, let’s face it; it plagued DC comics and forced them to restart their universe so it’s kind of slippery slope. But I think in this story, that’s the point. It’s part of the comic book / serial magazine lexicon so it has a place here. As Planetary investigates more mysteries they come across an island full of prehistoric and gigantic creatures , a ghost cop in Japan hunting down the gang leaders that offed him , and a man who stumbled into a eons old starship that houses a Utopia inside that grants him unimaginable powers.
As the story moves forward you find more and more small details about the group and the history of this world and it pulls you in deeper and deeper with no end to the rich back story Planetary provides. It reveals that during the race to the Moon, Nazi war strategists were secretly pardoned to help us beat Russia in the space race; but that we failed. 4 cosmonauts went into space in 1961 but we never heard from again. They are inextricably linked to our heroes and as the story unfolds even more, you see how deep this story could go.
So if you’re a fan of Godzilla, Sherlock Holmes, or the Fantastic Four, Planetary reshapes all these myths into its own endless history that for only running 27 issues, was a pretty remarkable achievement in storytelling. Beware the Multiverse!
Next time: the most acclaimed comic book ever……without any superheroes.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published September 3, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
