So, I finally get Planetary

On the old board, I once asked for input from Planetary fans on what made the series so special. I had acquired the first collection in a swap, but it didn't make a big impression on me. Mrs. Beyond, on the other hand, loved it. Doc Brass and the other analogues to pulp characters, as well as characters from other genres, were right up her alley.

Normally, I try to follow up on her interests by acquiring more of the same, but for some reason (probably grad school) I never got around to trying more Planetary until Barry Nugent from the Geek Syndicate podcast shared how the title got him back into comics. I knew that he was a big pulp fan, too, and I've been especially interested in pulp-ish characters lately, so we requested the second and third Planetary collections, along with Planetary: Crossing Worlds. Now, as the title of this discussion suggets, I really get Planetary.

Planetary is about looking at familiar conventions with fresh eyes. Doing so restored my sense of wonder about concepts like Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and Godzilla. It also gave me the best Batman story I've read in a very long time.

I read the second and third volumes in pretty much one sitting, and Mrs. Beyond and I decided last week that we couldn't possibly wait on interlibrary loan for the fourth and concluding collection, so I bought that at the LCS last week. Haven't read it yet. I'm trying to delay that gratification just a bit longer.

So, thanks to you Planetary fans for singing its praises. Sorry it took me so long to join the chorus.

I loved it at the time and went through a big Ellis Authority/Planetary phase around the time it came out first. Various things happened including delays in the release dates and a big old mortgage, that meant I somehow dropped it along the way. I didn't buy many comics between 2002-5.

So I'll have to get caught up now. He was building up a great world, with the brief glimpses of iconic 20th Century heroes, but I wonder if he did much with those characters beyond those glimpses?

The dozen or so issues I read did have the 'sense of wonder' but they also had the sour taste of Ellis Ruins mini-series for Marvel, where the miraculous events in that world collided head on with our cynical, small world, which neutralized them PDQ.

As I say, I'll have to get caught up.

Replies

Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod) March 9, 2010 at 2:56pm

I'm like you: I read the first collection and wasn't grabbed by it. But I was just getting interested in Ellis, so it had to compete with The Authority and Transmetropolitan. I think I bought trades of all of them at a sale at my LCS. Unfortunately I think I sold that trade ages ago, but I'll have to give it another shot.
Figserello March 9, 2010 at 11:14pm

I loved it at the time and went through a big Ellis Authority/Planetary phase around the time it came out first. Various things happened including delays in the release dates and a big old mortgage, that meant I somehow dropped it along the way. I didn't buy many comics between 2002-5.

So I'll have to get caught up now. He was building up a great world, with the brief glimpses of iconic 20th Century heroes, but I wonder if he did much with those characters beyond those glimpses?

The dozen or so issues I read did have the 'sense of wonder' but they also had the sour taste of Ellis Ruins mini-series for Marvel, where the miraculous events in that world collided head on with our cynical, small world, which neutralized them PDQ.

As I say, I'll have to get caught up.

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