Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Planetary

Does anyone read this title regularly? Or as regularly as it comes out?

I've never picked it up but when it was mentioned in Cobalt's What really great comics am I not buying? thread by Director Lad I thought I'd give it a try by downloading the books. Wound up getting all 18 issues and 3 specials.

I'm getting ready to start book 4 and wondering to myself, "Why the hell haven't I been reading this before now?". Well written by Ellis and illustrated by Cassaday. If Cassaday is going to be doing the art chores on the new X-tile and with Joss Whedon on the writing I may pick it up based on what I've seen here.

So what do you think?

I get Planetary regularly. Sometimes I wonder why. It's a very captivating story, but sometimes there doesn't seem to be anything much happening. The last issue in particular was very thin - the usual: lots of art, not much action. Probably another series that's best read in one fell swoop, as you've done. At this point, I've sort of forgotten just what the Four is up to (besides world domination - the usual comic book villain's goal). I get the impression that it's almost a throw-away book for Ellis, something he dashes off while waiting in line at the grocery store.

I don't think it's a throw away for him, I just think he has a tendency to write with the trade in mind. The last few arcs of his Transmetropolitan were similar.

That said, I love Planetary and the look at comic book archetypes.

Like Scott mentioned, I started that thread and was recommended Planetary and intend to check it out. Although after reading the posts here, I'm curious to what you guys think: grab the latest issue of the rack or try and find issue #1 (or the trades)? If the latest issue is a bit thin, I know I'd be a bit dissapointed, just like I'd think anyone picking up an Ultimates title would be on any given day.

Maybe a good place to start is to grab some of the earlier issues, since it appears that they're definately worth a good read!

As always, thanks for the input! Let me know what you think

Well I'm up to issue #10 and while they do have some recurring characters the books so far seem contained to a single issue for story, which I like.

I'll probably add this to my hold list but wonder if the series is going to be continuing without Cassaday or if he'll do both the new Astonishing X-Men and Planetary.

So who is to blame for there being only 18 issues in 5 years? Is Ellis slow with the stories or is Cassaday taking his sweet time with the art?

It's mostly been Ellis--Cassaday works real fast. Ellis had some personal issues over the last couple of years--illness, a death in the family--that slowed down his work on a lot of projects.

Yes, the story does seem to be thinning out, but that seems to be Ellis' modus operandi these days. The last couple of Transmet arcs, Global Frequency, Ministry of Space, Mek...all his recent stories seem (to me, at least) to lacking both in dialogue density and in complexity.

With Planetary, though, that just made me realize that I'd mostly been buying it for Cassaday's art all along. That boy works wonders.

I think, as others have mentioned, Planetary is possibly something better read in trades. Each issue stands on it's own but as the series has gone on certain characters have returned and events referenced earlier get fleshed out or mysteries get explained and so. It's sort of deceptive in the way that each issue (certainly for the first twelve issues) appears to be completely stand alone but once read together, and certainly in conjunction with more recent issues (the big reveal in #15 I think as to who the Fourth Man is for example), suddenly turn into this very complicated story where nothing is incidental.

I will admit that some of the more recent issue have been a little thin compared to earlier ones but I have faith that they're going somewhere since it's a limited series (originally planned as 24 issues but now set as somewhere between 24 and 28 issues depending on how Ellis works it out) and up to this point it's all been leading us places. And it's also been very sporadic in when it actually comes out over the last few years. It's meant to be back on track as a new issue every two months from now on (which I guess means there's a new one on the way very soon) but if you're a completely new reader to the title it might be worth just going with the trades instead. That way you get more story for your money, don't have any annoying adverts and catch up with the story quickly.

I liked it up until a certain point, but recently I've found it fairly uninteresting, and have to wonder if it didn't do the comic book equivelant of "jumping the shark"...

Well, I just finished up the first 18 issues. Overall, I enjoyed them, although the last couple of issues were like others have stated, great art but limited on the script. Especially the last issue. It was apparently nothing more than a device to capture one of The Four. I felt they could have used story elements introduced before or something that would have tied in better to accomplish what they did.

Anyway, as I was finishing up the last issue I was struck by who I thought should play Elijah Snow in a movie adaption (which I hope would come across better than LXG did). Anthony Geary. Luke Spencer from General Hospital. He'd be perfect in the role.

No ideas on any of the rest of the cast, just that one.

Now I'm off to read the specials. Planetary/Authority: Ruling The World; Planetary/Batan: Night on Earth; and Planetary/JlA: Terra Occulta.

I absolutely love Planetary.

Way back when it started, I was in a bit of a comic rut. Was wandering through the comic store and saw two new titles, and thought I might give 'em a go. After all, what's one issue? If I didn't like it, I could chuck it.

Those two comics were 'The Authority' and 'Planetary', and my comics tastes have never been the same since.

Planetary manages to explore all the best pop culture/comic stereotypes/icons without surrendering to the mass market feel that seems to infest todays comics. It's stylish, smart, and incredibly dense in story. The delays between issues have meant that the story has sometimes been hard to follow (see Bevis' post above), but the re-read I have of my old trades almost every time I get a new issue more than makes up for it. Ellis' writing is sophisticated and snappy at the same time, and Cassaday's always amazing artwork is a perfect compliment. Some scenes seem to be right out of a 1920s pulp era novel, complete with subtle pencil shades and definition beneath the computer inks.

Fave issues:
1) The Supes/WW/GL issue; exploring some of the elements that would be seen in Squadron Supreme about a year later, but in a nastier fashion.
2) Planet Fiction; detailing the former teams' efforts to explore a secret British expedition into a fictional world.

Anyone who hasn't read Planetary should do so... it's a wonderful and thought-provoking read.

I liked it so much I purchased special hardback editions of the two trades as well as softcover versions to give to people I think should read them.

Following on a little from something that Star Boy said, Planetary was the first comic (of recent times) to really explore pop culture in comics and was the first to really do it in an obvious, pointed but creative way. Half the fun of each issue is working out what Ellis is referencing. Some are obvious (the WW/Superman/Gl issue, Godzilla and so on) but others have quite a lot of layers (the Hong Kong ghost cop is a reference to martial arts movies but is also a reference to The Spectre as well). Within a few months of Planetary getting really big you suddenly had ciphers for comic characters filling every single page of every comic. Miller's piss awful Authority run, the trugid crap that was Monarchy and so on. Plus The Establishment, which was actually very good and did much the same thing as Planetary does but with cult Brit TV characters.

I also want to say that the Planet Fiction issue is one of my faves too. And one where we still don't *really* know what was going on. Most importantly *who* was the fictionaut? Ellis has hinted that he/she/it is going to be significant later on, but we've not had any clue as to their identity. A lot of people are speculating that it's Snow but that doesn't seem to fit to me. I think he *has* travelled to a fictional universe, but I don't think he's the fictionaut.

Hmm, I could speculate more but I don't want to include spoilers in case there's anyone who hasn't finished reading all the available issues.

I love Planetary. I hadn't even thought of that story in terms of the Spectre, but it does make perfect sense.

I hadn't either until I saw an interview with Ellis or something where he mentioned it and it suddenly was clear. Apparently it's also actually based on an urban myth from China which tied in perfectly to the story he planned on telling.

See the "John Constantine/Spider Jerusalem" funeral issue for a really comic-laden instance of this.
It has one of the best lines of the series:

Snow: "Is it just me, or do they all look faintly ridiculous?"

(He's referring to 'Planetised' versions of UK comic characters, Swamp Thing, the Endless, etc... all the gloomy 80's characters. It's strange though - the Metal Men seem to be there as well, and I don't really see them as proponents of the Gloomy 80s.)

Great read and always worth the wait if for nothing else the beautiful Cassidy art.

love planetary. love.

I've lost a lot of my love for Warren Ellis (Nextwave does *nothing* for me...) but I still absolutely adore this book.

It is still, simply, amazing.

J

We're getting near the end of the whole shebang and I'm crossing my fingers that Ellis can pull it off.

A friend of mine just loaned me his copy of Absolute Planetary - wow.

New Planetary (#25) out this week. These issues are something like archeological gems in themselves, rare and unexpected.

That's it, the story finale. One more issue for the epilogue, who knows when. I thought it was a good wrap-up, with the final defeat of the 4. No big battle; Elijah spends most of the issue talking. He really is in top form. What do you do when your enemies are gone?

It's been frustrating to have this series published so infrequently. The ending certainly leaves everything open for a whole new series, exploring Earth's hidden archaeology - but I'd be surprised if it were continued. Too bad.

And here's a site that reviews #26 AND goes through the preceding issues to show how each one links to this issue ("Summary and analysis").

Ah, Planetary.

I've enjoyed this series immensely, even if I usually couldn't remember what was going on in the title by the time a new issue was released.

I liked the open-endedness of issue 26 as well. It took the opportunity to drive home for one last time the sense of wonderment about our strange universe(s), and that there is still so much to be done, to be researched, and all for the betterment of humanity. And that's nice to imagine, even if we won't be seeing anything of those further adventures.

Well, there's looking forward to the epilogue, anyway (there's hopefully still some Ambrose-rescuing to be done?)

Thank you for that link, FC, that page looks really interesting and thoroughly researched. I'll have to take some time later to read it properly.

Any word on when the final issue is due?

See Ellis' answer here .

You should read some of the other forums.

The snark levels are staggering.