Interest has been expressed in a Planetary discussion so I guess I'll start one and see where it goes. I have never read it before. I don't plan to do in-depth summaries because those who expressed said interest have, and some have committed to reading along with me. I bought the omnibus edition, which doesn't have a table of contents but it does have an introduction written by Alan Moore. It collects Planetary #1-27, Planetary Preview, Planetary/Batman, Planetary/JLA and Planetary/Authority. Issue #1 begins with a woman named Jakita Wagner recruiting a man named Elijah Snow into a organization called "Planetary." The third member of the group calls himself "The Drummer." She has been with the team for four years, but knows nothing about it before that, including whether or not it even existed. She explains that Planetary is always a three-person team, but when Snow inquires about the third person before him she responds, "Tell you some other time. When we've worked it out for ourselves." There is also a mysterious "fourth man" who finances the group.
Their first mission takes them to a base in the Adirondacks in search of a man named Dr. Axel Brass (basically Doc Savage) who was born on January 1, 1900 and disappeared on January 1, 1945. They find him a a headquarters filled with trophies (such as "The Hull of the Charnal Ship," "Vestments of the Black Crow King," "The Murder Colonels," etc.). They find Brass still alive. He has been awake since 1945; he eliminated the need for food and sleep in 1942; stopped aging in in '43; learned to close wounds with the power of his mind in '44. He and his collegues (basically Tarzan, the Shadow, etc... a sort of latter day "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") created a quantum computer which opened the door to the multiverse where they discovered a team of super-powered individuals (basically the original Justice League of America) who attacked. Everyone except him was killed, and he has remained guarding the gateway ever since.
"It's a strange world," Snow remarks.
"Let's keep it that way," Jakita agrees.
Planetary is written by Warren Ellis and drawn by John Cassaday. Earlier today I finished reading #37-47 of Stormwatch, also by Ellis, but it really didn't grab me. Some of his stuff I like, some I don't, but Planetary drew me right in.
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RIP Planetary Co-Creator John Cassaday
Ouch. I wish this thread had not become relevant for this reason. A real loss.
This Bleeding Cool tribute is one of the best I've seen. I was wondering about what else he'd worked on just yesterday. I knew none of this.
From Heidi McDonald, who worked with him at DC, and a slightly longer write-up from Mark Waid. And more of his artwork.
https://www.comicsbeat.com/artist-john-cassaday-has-passed-away-at-...(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)&mc_cid=64c32b42d7&mc_eid=e5345639eb
Tracy and I were both awake at 3:14 this morning (couldn't sleep). That's when she broke the news to me. (Mark Waid had posted the notice she read.)
ISSUE #10:
"Superman's" cape; "Green Lantern's" power battery; "Wonder Woman's" bracelets. This issue presents rather shocking "alternate history" versions of those three heroes in the Wildstorm Universe. What was the status of Wildstorm at the time these issues were first published? Independent of DC, I imagine. As I understand it, Wildstorm started off as Jim Lee's Image Comics imprint, but it eventually broke off into its own company and was eventually sold to DC. Is that about right? and that "Captain Leather"... bbrrrr.
Yeah. William Leather of the Four is not a nice person. Nor is Randall Dowling, who he reports to.
The story of the WildStorm imprint and how it relates to Image and DC is surprisingly complicated and informative about the nature of publishers and imprints "under the hood".
The short of it for the purposes of this thread may be that WildStorm was indeed an imprint but was never a publisher (AFAIK). Meaning that WildStorm was always Jim Lee's concern and had in him an Editorial authonomy that apparently only ended with Flashpoint and the New 52 in late 2011.
It all began, of course, in 1992 when- a small number of highly valued creators, including Jim Lee, that worked at Marvel at the time decide to start their own company, Image Comics. It was a bold action for the time.
Soon it becomes apparent that they will need their own personal brands in order to fulfill their goals in Image. This deserves a thread of its own for more detailed analysis, but for Planetary it means that Jim Lee found the need to have his own branding, logo and imprint even within Image. It was initially named Aegis, but soon changed to WildStorm (after WildC.A.T.S. and Stormwatch). The offices were in California and it is my understanding that most of the physical publishing was handled by Image proper.
Then in late 1998 (only a few months or even weeks apart from the start of Planetary) Jim Lee left Image entirely and brought the imprint to DC, preserving editorial authonomy. Apparently the preview and Planetary #1 were the only issues of Planetary not published by DC.
It may be interesting to compare and contrast this issue with the "The Boys" series. It was also published by Wildstorm, but only up until #6 (at roughly the same time as Planetary #26).
ISSUE #11:
The cover of this "spy-era" issue is very Steranko-esque. Stone's assistant (page one, panel one) is "Nick Fury." Is S.T.O.R.M. supposed to be Stormwatch, or is it just a stand-in for S.H.I.E.L.D? I suspect "The Last Shot" is named for "The Last Drop" in Edinburgh (which I first heard about from a Doctor Who audio and later visited when we took a trip to Scotland). More detials of William Leather and John Stone are revealed. There are large gaps in Snow's memory. When he begins to remember, he says that he knows who Planetary's "Fourth Man" is.
ISSUE #12:
Revelations! Good thing I wasn't paging ahead; the identity of the Fourth Man came as a complete shock to me... although, I suppose if I had been paying close enough attention to the clues provided it wouldn't have. Did it come as a surprise to anyone else or had you figured it out? The title of this stoy is "Memory Cloud" and the featured quote is spoken by Jakita Wagner: "Your memory is incomplete. You don't know what you're setting off." We learn many things about Elijah Snow in this issue, among the least of which is that he knew and was trained by Sherlock Holmes. Ambrose Chase, John Stone, Randall Dowling... I'm going to have to let this sink in. Perhaps it's best I've slowed my rate of consumption to an issue per day for the discussion; gives time for me to process each one. Otherwise I'd be burning through these like crazy.
Surprise me as well.
Today, what surprises me most is how well written the dialogue is. Jakita and Drummer come across as genuinely conflicted, worried and yet relieved for having their friend back.
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