Gourt Home::Gourt :: Planetary (comics)
Planetary is an American comic book series created by Warren Ellis (writer) and John Cassaday (artist), published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. Planetary also refers to the group portrayed in the series.
Planetary was previewed in the September 1998 issues of Gen¹³ (#33) and C-23 (#6), and issue #1 was cover-dated April 1999. It was originally intended to be a 24-issue bi-monthly series. However due to illness (Ellis) and other commitments (Cassaday), the series was put on hiatus between 2001 and 2003; it has since restarted and Ellis has announced that it will conclude with issue #27.
Laura Martin has colored almost every issue of the series.
The premise
Planetary are an organization billing themselves as "Archaeologists of the Impossible", tracking down the world's secret history. Funded by the mysterious Fourth Man, who it is said could be anyone from Bill Gates to Adolf Hitler, the field team consists of three superhumans: Jakita Wagner, who is strong, fast and nearly invulnerable; The Drummer, who can detect and manipulate nearby information streams; and the new recruit Elijah Snow, who can deep-freeze nearby substances at will.
The series is set in the Wildstorm Universe, along with other titles such as Stormwatch, The Authority, DV8 and Gen¹³. For instance, Snow was born on January 1 1900, as was Jenny Sparks of The Authority, and the two know each other. Despite this, Planetary rarely crosses over with other Wildstorm series.
Planetary's field team travels the world investigating strange phenomena: monsters and other beings, unusual relics, other superhumans, and powerful secrets which certain individuals are trying to keep hidden from the rest of the world. Their purpose in doing this is partly curiosity, and partly to use what they learn for the betterment of mankind. There are, however, groups who oppose their goals, and the organization has a substantial history which is gradually revealed during the series.
In later issues the plot becomes increasingly related to the Four, analogues of Marvel's Fantastic Four whose goals run in direct contrast to that of the Planetary team. It is clear that the world that Plantetary lives in would have become a place of superheroes and supervillians, akin to the world of Marvel and DC, if not for the actions of The Four. The Four's power and influence has allowed them to track every emerging super being and kill it so that its secrets and powers can be exploited to benefit the Four.
The series
One of the series' main hooks is that it portrays alternate versions of many well-known (and obscure) figures from popular culture. At various times we are shown versions (sometimes multiple versions) of John Constantine, Superman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Nick Fury, the Justice League, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Miracleman, Godzilla, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage (as Doc Brass), Tarzan and other pulp fiction heroes. There is even a pastiche of the modern League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, not to mention Japanese monster movies, 1950s horror/science fiction movies, Hong Kong action movies and more. This provides a rich backdrop for the ongoing story, and is similar to Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton family.
(In general, the public domain characters such as Holmes appear as themselves, while those still under copyright appear in altered but recognizably similar form. In some regards the series is thus similar to the series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.)
The idea of the series is to create a concise world in which archetypes of superheroes, pulp fiction heroes, science fiction heroes, and characters from just about every possible mass media format, live in one large universe while the Planetary team investigates them and ties together the ends. As Warren Ellis said in his Proposal for the comic series: "*hat 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?"
The comic relies heavily on Cassaday's distinctive artwork, featuring a variety of styles of covers (with no consistent logo or layout) and interior art, often paying homage to the respective sources from which each issue's characters and concepts are drawn from. The mysteries Ellis sets up are what ultimately drive the book, as the characters' relationships, their histories, and the identity of the Fourth Man are gradually revealed.
Analogues
A list of the specific references to fictional characters, genres or stories in each issue follows:Planetary Preview, "Nuclear Spring" This eight-page preview is the story of an analogue of The Incredible Hulk and was published in Gen¹³ #33 and C-23 #6.
Issue 1, "All Over the World" The first issue features group of adventurers based on 1930s pulp characters fighting a thinly-veiled version of DC Comics' Justice League of America, with the suggestion being that modern superheroes are the corrupted spiritual descendants of the pulp characters. The pulp heroes are based on Tarzan (Lord Blackstock), Fu Manchu (Hark), Tom Swift (Edison), The Shadow/The Spider/The Green Hornet (The Shadowy Spider), G-8 (The Aviator), Operator No. 5 ("Jimmy") and Doc Savage (Doc Brass). These characters reappeared in later issues.
Issue 2, "Island" The Planetary group visit Island Zero, which is based on Monster Island, where various giant monsters lived in the later Godzilla movies.
Issue 3, "Dead Gunfighters" This story is a love-letter to Hong Kong crime movies, particularly those of John Woo. The ghost cop character is also extremely similar to DC's original Spectre character, a policeman who was murdered by crooks and returned from the dead to exact vengeance on criminals.
Issue 4, "Strange Harbours" This is based on Victorian adventure magazines. One of the central characters, Jim Wilder, wears a costume reminiscent of Captain Marvel and has similar powers of transformation.
Issue 5, "The Good Doctor" Planetary returns to pulp adventure pastiche with the Axel Brass analogue from issue 1.
Issue 6, "It's a Strange World" The Four, malevolent versions of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four are introduced and become recurring enemies in the series.
Issue 7, "To Be In England in the Summertime" This issue tells the story of a John Constantine analogue and features appearances by a host of characters that are uncannily similar to people from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. At the end, the character turns into a version of Ellis' own Spider Jerusalem, star of Transmetropolitan. The name of the character, Jack Carter, might be a reference to the lead character of the same name in the 1971 British gangster movie Get Carter.
Issue 8, "The Day the Earth Turned Slower" This issue pays homage to classic movies from the sci-fi boom of the 1950s, including The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Fly. The character of Allison is implied to be Marilyn Monroe.
Issue 9, "Planet Fiction" Here, Ellis pays homage to Grant Morrison's comic book The Invisibles, in which characters stepped into and out of fictional universes, just as the scientists do in this issue. The slow-motion bullet time-aping sequences reference The Matrix, which - according to Morrison - stole directly from The Invisibles. We meet former third man Ambrose Chase.
Issue 10, "Magic and Loss" This tale explores the origins of equivalents to DC Comics' Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman and shows how The Four are suppressing the Earth's potential for greatness.
Issue 11, "Cold World" In this story, Ellis sends-up the super-spy stories of the 1960s; John Stone is a combination of James Bond, The Avengers' John Steed, Derek Flint of Our Man Flint and Nick Fury as he appeared in the Marvel Comics series Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The cover and several interior pages are drawn in the style of Jim Steranko as featured in that series.
Issue 12, "Memory Cloud" This issue contained no overt references. The answer to the identity of "The Fourth Man" is revealed.
Issue 13, "Century" This is a mimicry of Alan Moore's comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with appreances by Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Dr Frankenstein. We learn of Snow's youth spent in Europe.
Issue 14, "Zero Point" This issue is largely based on The X-Files, although it also references Marvel Comics' Thor and X-Men, as well as Miracleman. More details about the Fourth Man and his connection to The Four are revealed.
Issue 15, "Creation Songs" Ellis based this issue on Aboriginal mythology and storytelling, particularly the concept of the creation myth. Also contains a reference to DC's Adam Strange.
Issue 16, "Hark" This story is based on Chinese wuxia martial arts films.
Issue 17, "Opak-Re" A variation on the Ka-zar and Tarzan stories, using one of the pulp heroes (Lord Blackstock) from issue 1. We learn the origin of Jakita Wagner.
Issue 18, "The Gun Club" This takes its inspiration from Victorian science fiction, particularly the tales of Jules Verne. William Leather is captured.
Issue 19, "Mystery in Space" This story takes its title from the DC Comic of the same name, and the cover looks like it's taken its cues from the cheap sci-fi paperbacks of the 1970s as well as from A Space Odyssey (novel). The massive structure in space references both Galactus and Arthur C. Clarke's Rama.
Issue 20, "Rendezvous" Ellis returns to the Fantastic Four characters and in particular, The Thing.
Issue 21, "Death Machine Telemetry/The Consultation" This issue borrows heavily from both Dr. Strange and the art of the 1960s psychedelic era.
Issue 22, "The Torture of William Leather" This issue makes reference to both The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet and their connection as relatives, as well as referencing The Shadow.
Issue 23, "Percussion" A parody of the big-budget action movies of the 1990s; the cover makes direct reference to the poster for Armageddon and is full of Jerry Bruckheimer-esque setpieces.
Issue 24, "Systems" This issue is primarily explanatory where Snow informs Jakita and Drummer of his discoveries about their roles in the universe and explains his recent behavior. The Four attack the base that the Planetary Team are in, killing everyone but them. The team vow to finish the fight with the Four.
Issue 25, "In from the Cold" Like 24, this issue is largely devoted to explanations and revelations, illuminating the origins of the Four in greater detail. There are numerous homages to Jack Kirby creations, including the Inhumans, the Eternals, and the planet Apokolips. There are also a few refrences to Jim Steranko's Nick Fury series.
References
In addition to the references to superheroes and literary figures, the "Fourth Man" may be a reference to the unnamed "Fifth Man" from the Cambridge Five, whose identity was a hotly pursued mystery for some time.Issue 1 of Planetary established that the story takes place within a Multiverse whose form is described by Hark as "a theoretical snowflake existing in 196,833 dimensional space." This is presumably a reference to the Monster group from the area of mathematics known as group theory. The Monster group is the largest of the sporadic groups, and it can be imagined as a highly symmetrical shape--sometimes dubbed a "snowflake" by mathematicians--existing in 196,883-dimensional space (not 196,833 as said in the comic). Each symmetry of the group would correspond to a rotation of the object in this space, and the number of possible rotations is approximately equal to the number of atoms in the earth, a fact referenced by Hark in this issue as well.
Bibliography
Series
One-shots
- Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World: Standalone story featuring the two Wildstorm teams in a plot tangentially related to an element in the first issue of Planetary. Includes references to the stories of H. P. Lovecraft, and features Lovecraft himself as a character. Art by Phil Jimenez
- Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth: Standalone story featuring alternate renditions of Batman in what is otherwise a straightforward Planetary tale. Art by John Cassaday
- Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta: Standalone Elseworlds story featuring an alternate version of the JLA - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - facing an alternate incarnation of Planetary that acts in much the same way The Four do in the regular Planetary series. Completely detached from the main Planetary storyline. Art by Jerry Ordway
Collections
- All Over the World and Other Stories (collects preview & #1-6; hardcover and softcover ISBN 1563896486)
- The Fourth Man (collects #7-12; hardcover and softcover ISBN 1563897644)
- Leaving the Twentieth Century (collects #13-18; hardcover ISBN 1401202934 and softcover ISBN 1401202942)
- Planetary: Crossing Worlds (collects the three crossover one-shots above; softcover only ISBN 1401202799)
- Absolute Planetary (collects preview & #1-12, also script to #1; Slipcased hardcover ISBN 1401203272)
External links
- Official Planetary at Wildstorm Comics includes downloadable 1st issue.
- Planetary Comic Appreciation Page
- The Planetary Timeline - Events in Warren Ellis and John Cassady's PLANETARY
Wildstorm Comics superhero teams | Wildstorm Comics titles | Planetary (comics) | Fictional organizations | Superman pastiches
"Planetary (comics)"