Planetary Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories

Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's "Planetary" does not seem a decade-and-a-half old. Ellis is at the top game here, including references to the history of comics, allusions to modernist literature, critiques of history, and subtle digs at the history of comic books while jumping both locations and genre-conceits. It's meta-fictive without breaking the fourth wall entirely. Ellis walks into the grounds of Morrison but does so without the flash and heavy-handed intrusion that Morrison often relies on. Indeed, in many ways, Ellis seems to be playing into the sandbox of archetypes that Morrison, Gaiman, and Moore almost made cliche, but Ellis's take is more grounded and feels more fresh. Ellis is also more consistent in world-building than any of the other comic authors mentioned by Alan Moore.Ellis's characters are archetypes and sometimes feel a bit empty, but the deepen throughout the comic. Ellis, however, does not let his archetypes remain static archetypes nor does he completely hallow-out his dialogue. This is greatly aided by John Cassady's character design, consistent art, and use of blending genre-styles in the art to match the meta-fictive elements. Ellis is also interesting in that this is not purely a "concept comic" nor a super-hero comic, but somehow straddles that line in ways even the "high concept super-hero" writers don't.

When I started reading Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan series, I thought I had a potential new favorite comic. (if it could beat out Sandman). Ellis's writing style was cynically hilarious and his world and main character fascinating. Now, after starting Planetary, I know I was wrong. Barring a horrendous ending, this is going to be my favorite comic of all time.Planetary begins with an introduction by great Alan Moore, who sums up the appeal of this series better than I ever could. Planetary is not a comic about super heroes. Instead, it follows a trio of archeologists uncovering the secrets of the 20th cenutry. What are these secrets, you ask? Basically, every fictional genre of the last 100 years. The first issue starts out as your standard 'Justice League' type examination, and from, Ellis takes on Japan monster movies, Hong Kong crime dramas, and so much more. What's more, Ellis exudes the concept of cinematic. His dialogue is witty and engaging, but he always knows when to pull back and let John Cassaday's phenomenal artwork. Seriously, just read issue three, your jaw will drop.One other notable thing about this series is that each issue is very self-contained. In an age when stories take months to tell, Ellis wanted each issue to be meaningful.Buy this as fast as you can.

Warren Ellis has the talent like Alan Moore of creating vivid, interesting characters in a medium supersaturated with tired superhero ideas. What's fascinating is that yes, you can consider their characters parodies or critiques, but they are so believable in their own right. Compared to the millions of X-men whose characters get more generic or forced and powers more esoteric, Ellis comes along and pops out characters that just nail it. I believe in these characters.Jakita is stunning and appropriately edgy without being obnoxious. Drums could be the weakest, but his psychic connection to electronics just works, and Elijah Snow is fascinating. At first he seems to be just grumpy for the sake of being a grumpy character, to give him lines, but it blossoms into a perfect characterization. What's refreshing about Elijah, is that he is a superhero who doesn't have all the answers. He doesn't instantly respond to a crisis with heroics as is the rule. This is a man figuring out the world, realizing there is much he doesn't know, and slowly building towards action. That alone would keep me reading.The stories overflow with creativity, incorporating aspects of comics and popular culture in an alternate view of the past that has been kept hidden from the world at large. Ellis isn't quite as deft with this as Moore is in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but neither is he quite as heavy-handed or borderline pretentious (and I do love Moore's work). Reading the description for the book, it sounds like the perfect idea, brilliantly inventive and intriguing. In actual practice though, I was somewhat let down. The primary flaw is that the stories are so passive.Many people give Planetary the nod over the Authority, but at first I was blown away by the excitement of the Authority. There is a similar feel to the two books, but the Authority are active superheroes. Here, Planetary are more like children being told stories. As such it was more reading a story than experiencing it. It was quite apparent to me and provided my chief dissatisfaction with this book.That being said, this is a series that builds. Reading Vol. 2, I was definitely on board and loving it. Book 2 retains the passivity, but the stories go to another level, and the action begins to build. There are some truly brilliant stories in Vol. 2 that definitely provoke an emotional response. Maybe they aren't knocking on the Watchmen's door, but they've arrived on the same street.So though I think this book 1 is a bit slow and passive, this is a worthy starting point for a fascinating series, and as such I recommend it. Definitely more creative and intriguing than 90% of the superhero books out there.

The entire series is nothing short of fantastic and has been on the "repeat-read" list for years now. There are select few comics in my collection that I would absolutely not do with out and this is very high on that list.I don't want to go into a detailed review, because it would give away too much possibly, but the intricacy of the story and the creeping sensation that you know the villains from somewhere is magnificent.Buy the whole series and read it over and over. It doesn't get worse the second, third or fourth time around.

The first Volume in one of, if not THE greatest graphic novel series ever. Planetary is set in a world where all fiction (from Sherlock Holmes to Godzilla, to the Fantastic four) exists but is much, much darker. Expertly written and with a unique art style, Planetary rekindled my interest in graphic novels.

Zusammen mit Authority ist Planetary wohl eine der anspruchsvollsten und originellsten "Superhelden"-Serien. Ähnlich wie bei Moore's "Leage of exraordinary Gentlemen" werden hier bekannte Figuren aus Film, Comic und Popkultur hart an der Plagiatsgrenze vorbei genüßlich zitiert und quasi wissenschaftlich von den Archeologen der geheimen Geschichte der Welt unter die Lupe genommen. An Spannung, interessanten Charakteren und Ideen enthält jede Ausgabe mehr Stoff als ein ganzer Jahrgang beliebiger Marvel-Serien dieser Tage (die immer wieder mal von der DC-Serie Planetary liebevoll vorgeführt werden). Die Geschichten sind großartig geschrieben, stylish gezeichnet und schließlich gekonnt zurückhaltend coloriert. Ein echtes Lesevergnügen für etwas anspruchsvollere Comicleser.

I chose this title of interest as a trial of reading graphic novels on the Kindle Fire HD. That was my main objective in buying the F-HD in order to conserve space.In this medium this title uses a slightly fiddly 'panel focus function' (this steps through to, and expands, the next panel or zooms into the key segment / text of a lage or full page panel.) rather than pages which can be resized by dragging the image. The art work is crisp and pleasing, and the stories short and snappy and pleasingly pithy. It all happens in it's own 'universe' which is intriguing as it is revealed. There's plenty of room for this title to flourish and deepen.The Fire HD is smaller than your average DC / Marvel title, making text, personally speaking, a little hard to read unnassisted , and the artwork is clearly detailed but without a way to 'get closer'.to it. It remains to be seen if a Kindle App on a device with a llarger monitor would conpensate or whether I would do better with the newer, larger, fire.I will buy more titles in this seriies. The main choice is in which medium to buy them. The paperbacks are cheaper and more comfortable to read, but need storage. So cheap, in fact, I may re-buy the 1st volume for comparison.Choose a format and try it out. Another winner from one of today's leading comics authors.

Ellis commence ici une nouvelle saga, planetary. Alors que l'Authority est le groupe le plus visible du monde, planetary se cache dans l'ombre.On y retrouve E Snow, immortel (?), qui peut congeler ce qu'il veut. J Wagner, une guerrière absolue, le batteur un génie informatique, et Chase, un tireur d'élite qui peut freiner le temps. Ce groupe enquête sur les mystères du XXème sicle, tout y passe, Roswell, J F K...Drôle, inventif, bourré de clin d'oeils à la culture américaine, c'est dix fois mieux que X files.La vérité est ici... Enfin peut-être...

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