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Planetary (comics)

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Planetary
The Planetary team (back to front): The Drummer, Jakita Wagner and Elijah Snow by John Cassaday and Laura Martin.
Publication information
PublisherWildstorm (DC Comics)
ScheduleErratic
Genre
Publication dateSeptember 1998 – October 2009
No. of issues27
Main character(s)Jakita Wagner
The Drummer
Elijah Snow
Creative team
Created byWarren Ellis
John Cassaday
Written byWarren Ellis
Artist(s)John Cassaday
Colorist(s)Laura Martin
Collected editions
All Over the World and Other StoriesISBN 1-56389-648-6

Planetary is an American comic book series created by writer Warren Ellis and artist John Cassaday, and published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. After an initial preview issue in September 1998, the series ran for 27 issues from April 1999 to October 2009.

Publication history[edit]

Planetary was previewed in issue #33 of Gen13 and issue #6 of C-23, both dated September 1998. The first issue of the series was cover-dated April 1999. Originally intended to be a 24-issue bi-monthly series, the series was on hold from 2001 to 2003 due to illness of writer Warren Ellis and other commitments by Cassaday. Laura Martin (also credited as Laura DePuy) colored almost every issue of the series. The series recommenced in 2004 and concluded with issue #27 in October 2009.

Ellis intended the focus of the book to be the superhero genre, rather than the superheroes themselves: "I wanted to do something that actually went deeper into the subgenre, exposed its roots and showed its branches"[1] and stated in his proposal for the comic series: "[...] What if you had a hundred years of superhero history just slowly leaking out into this young and modern superhero world of the Wildstorm Universe? What if you could take everything old and make it new again?"[2]

Rich Kreiner described John Cassaday's artwork in The Comics Journal as being "close to the gold standard for fabulous realism in mainstream comics".[3] Tom Underhill noted colorist Laura Martin's contribution as "every bit as compelling" as Cassaday's in his review for The Comics Journal.[4]

One of the main features of the series is the portrayal of alternate versions of many figures from popular culture, such as Godzilla, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes,[5] and Doc Savage.[6] This extends to comic book characters from both DC Comics (e.g. Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman) and Marvel Comics (e.g. the Fantastic Four,[7] the Hulk, and Thor).

Ellis also introduced the concept of a multiverse to the series, drawing upon the mathematical concept known as the Monster group for inspiration.[8] The multiverse is described as "a theoretical snowflake existing in 196,833 dimensional space",[9] a reference to the visualization method used by some mathematicians when describing the Monster group.

Plot[edit]

In 1999, Elijah Snow, a reclusive centenarian, is recruited to the field team of Planetary, an organization that investigates the "secret history" of the twentieth century. The field team, also made up of superhuman Jakita Wagner and technopath the Drummer, is supported by a network of global offices, specialists, and equipment, and the generous funding of the unidentified, unseen "Fourth Man." On their missions, the field team encounter concepts from speculative fiction, such as pulp magazine heroes, superheroes, kaiju, wuxia and gun fu, spy gadgets, B movie monsters, Jules Verne's imaginary technology, and interstellar starships.

Assisting using his cryokinesis powers and adventuring experience, Snow soon becomes proactive, committing Planetary support to crew a stranded interdimensional "shiftship." He also becomes invested in Planetary's goal to liberate life-saving technology and wonders plundered by the Four—a superpowered rival group—by black operations and wanton atrocities, and to recover and assist their prisoners and experimental subjects. Snow is gradually disquieted by gaps in his own knowledge, which disadvantage him against the Four as well as his teammates.

Prompted by secret agent John Stone, Snow regains many lost memories, including his authorship of the Planetary Guide, a publication of his secret twentieth-century adventures. He remembers that he himself is the Fourth Man, but, when the field team was captured by the Four, subjected himself to memory blocks by their leader Randall Dowling in exchange for the team's lives. He also remembers former team member Ambrose Chase, possessing the power to alter the laws of physics, who was fatally shot on a mission but inexplicably vanished, leaving no body.

Re-assuming leadership, Snow actively opposes the Four, thwarting their plans and turning their allies. Snow turns seemingly vindictive, capturing and torturing Leather, and sacrificing the observation of a unique extraterrestrial object to permanently strand Jacob Greene, another member of the Four, off-planet. The Drummer, who was rescued by Snow from the Four, and who knows that Snow saved Wagner as a baby, trusts that his goal is to save lives above all.

After the Four destroy a Planetary office using an orbital death ray, Snow deduces that Stone is an informant for the Four. Overpowering Stone, Planetary learn from him the Four's true goal: to eliminate resistance against future invasion by a hostile parallel Earth, as payment for granting their superpowers. Snow contacts Dowling and demands the Four's entire database of knowledge, and their submission, in exchange for sparing their lives, despite seemingly possessing no leverage.

Bemused, the remaining members of the Four, Dowling and Kim Süskind, meet Snow at his chosen location. After securing the Four's database but not their surrender, Snow launches the now-crewed shiftship, long buried underground, opening a vast chasm and dropping Dowling and Süskind to their deaths. Snow visits the hostile Earth by shiftship and issues an ultimatum threatening their annihilation.

Planetary deploys the Four's technology worldwide non-commercially, greatly advancing scientific and humanitarian progress. Meanwhile, theorizing that Chase saved himself by stopping time, Snow orders the construction of a time machine to recover him, overruling the Drummer's fear this would predetermine the entire future timeline by wave function collapse. However, Snow personally turns on the time machine; while Chase is recovered and successfully triaged, Snow, by the observer effect, causes many futures to manifest instead of one, and numerous alternate future Planetary field teams all arrive by time machine to witness the rescue, promising yet more adventures to come.

Characters[edit]

Main article: List of Planetary characters

Collected editions[edit]

Artist John Cassaday signing copies of the hardcover collection during an appearance at Midtown Comics.

The series, and spin-offs, have been collected into a number of volumes:

  • Planetary:
  • Planetary: Crossing Worlds (collects the three crossover one-shots above; softcover only ISBN 1-4012-0279-9)
  • Planetary Book One (collects #1–14, Planetary Sneak Peek, and Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World; also script to #1, character design sketches) ISBN 1-4012-7166-9) (July 2017) (softcover)
  • Planetary Book Two (collects #15–27, Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta, and Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth) ISBN 1-4012-7799-3) (March 2018) (softcover)
  • Absolute Planetary volume 1 (collects Preview & #1–12, also script to #1; slipcased hardcover ISBN 1-4012-0327-2)
  • Absolute Planetary volume 2 (collects #13–27; slipcased hardcover ISBN 1-4012-2701-5)
  • The Planetary Omnibus (collects Preview, #1–27, plus the three crossover one-shots above, also script to #1, character design sketches, and cover art for both Absolute Editions and the four trade paperbacks); hardcover only ISBN 1-4012-4238-3)

Awards[edit]

  • 2000:
    • Nominated for "Best Continuing Series" Eisner Award
    • Nominated for "Best New Series" Eisner Award
  • 2002: Nominated for "Best Continuing Series" Eisner Award
  • 2005: Nominated for "Best Serialized Story" Eisner Award, for Planetary #19–20 ("Mystery in Space/Rendezvous")

References[edit]

  1. ^ Christopher Butcher (2000-10-31). "PROFILE: Warren Ellis Interview (part one)". popimage.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  2. ^ Ellis, Warren (November 1997). "Planetary Proposal". warrenellis.com. Archived from the original on 2000-07-11. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  3. ^ Kreiner, Rich (February 2004). "Firing Line:Planetary/Batman". The Comics Journal. 1 (#258): 50–51. ISSN 0194-7869.
  4. ^ Underhill, Tom (February 2006). "Warren, Just Admit It". The Comics Journal. 1 (#274): 62–64. ISSN 0194-7869.
  5. ^ Warren Ellis (w), John Cassaday (a). "Century" Planetary, no. 13 (February 2001). DC Comics.
  6. ^ Warren Ellis (w), John Cassaday (a). "The Good Doctor" Planetary, no. 5 (September 1999). DC Comics.
  7. ^ Warren Ellis (w), John Cassady (a). "The Good Doctor" Planetary, no. 5 (September 1999). DC Comics.
  8. ^ Warren Ellis (2005-03-27). "Mar. 27th, 2005". Warren Ellis' Live Journal. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
  9. ^ Warren Ellis (w), John Cassaday (a). Planetary, no. 2 (April 1999). DC Comics.

External links[edit]

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