Posts Tagged ‘ Planetary ’

Holy crap.

I can probably be forgiven for forgetting this was coming out as #26 was published almost three years ago, but still: I should have remembered because this is, bar none, not only the most anticipated comic of the week for me, but the most anticipated comic of the year.

No pressure.

…as previewed over at The Bleed. Huh, I didn’t even know Wildstorm had a blog.

Anyway.

It’s funny, but this page -

- where Drummer talks about theoretical implications of time travel, sounds like it’s straight out of Robert Sawyer’s excellent FlashForward which I just finished reading a couple of days ago (it’s also being adapted into a TV series from ABC which starts in a few weeks).

Wonder if Warren Ellis is a fan?

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

…Palmiotti, Grey and Conner’s new Terra mini-series, that backdoor-piloted in the only decent issue of Supergirl to come out in 2006?

…the last issue of the sublime Planetary?

…Pinkman, the pink unitard-wearing, unicycle-cycling, theme-tune singing menace of Venice Beach? I once shared a few beers with him at a hostel in LA back in 1997, and lost his contact details.

…that whole ‘self-awareness’ of the DC Universe thing that Grant Morrison was rumored to be working on years ago?

…that Dakota North mini that Marvel was supposed to be putting out a few years ago?

…season 2 of Young Avengers? (The upcoming one-shots don’t count!)

…an enjoyable issue of Justice League of America?

…Cloak and Dagger?

…let’s keep it that way.

Yesterday, Warren Ellis posted that he has delivered the final script for the final issue of Planetary.

He’s posted the script for the first page on his blog, apparently almost ten years after having his first conversation with John Cassaday about starting a new series.

And it’s been worth every minute of waiting….

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.