Die Happy

So after about 8 years and 26 issues (and do the maths on that one!), Planetary wrapped up their main plotline in yesterday’s issue, with the final confrontation between Elijah Snow and Jacob Greene (the erstwhile alternate universe Mr Fantastic). The book has one last issue to run – an epilogue of sorts wrapping up one last thing.

The amazing thing about this book has, for me, been the sheer inventiveness of Warren Ellis. From the very first appearance (in the back of a Gen13 issue) the Planetary team have been investigating the “archaeology of the impossible” – that is, the heroic archetypes that have littered the 20th century. That first prelude story (actually taking place after #1) the team found who was, for all intents and purposes, the Wildstorm version of the Hulk.

And there’s been very little sacred – Monster Island, Doc Savage, Superman, the Shadow – all were touched on in early issues. Eventually the larger picture came into view, the picture of a world controlled by The Four, a darkly sadistic version of Marvel’s FF. Who better to control the super-heroic world than the team who kick-started the Silver Age?

The world that the Planetary team inhabit is open to question too. Elijah Snow is a Century Baby, one of a handful born on 1/1/1900. Another CB is Jenny Sparks, founder of The Authority – another Ellis book – and they ran into each other in the Planetary/Authority crossover (the only succesful crossover the book has had – the JLA and Batman crossovers fared less well). So the implication is that the book takes place on the Wildstorm world – the presence of Carriers and the Bleed back this up. On the other hand, no Planetary elements have seeped into other WS books that I’m aware of.

And ultimately I don’t think it matters. What Ellis and the amazing John Cassaday have created here is an outstanding work of fiction that homages a lot of what has come before while laying out a great story as well.

Time will tell if #27 comes out at all at this point (presumably wrapping up the mystery of what happened to Ambrose Chase, former Planetary operative) – but even if it doesn’t, I could be happy with the series as it stands right now.

It’s a strange world.

Let’s keep it that way.

Tags: Art, Planetary, Wildstorm

This entry was posted on October 26, 2006 at 8:29 am and is filed under Archive, Comics-Archived. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.