It might be me, but I have a strange like for ideas turned upside down on their heads. I especially like it when authors take well known literary characters and ideas and turn them into something that feels fresh, new and exciting. It’s therefore no surprise that many of my favourite graphic novels do just that. We all know that Alan Moore is the master of this (right Dan?), but it doesn’t mean he’s the only one who can weave such a story. There is another, and his name is Warren Ellis. Ellis is probably best known in the comic book world for “Transmetropoliton”, “The Authority” and “Red”, and in 1999 with John Cassaday as artist and Laura DePuy (nee Martin) as colourist he created the “Planetary” series.
“Planetary” gives us the tale of the Planetary Organization, a group intent on discovering the world’s secret history (which mirrors many elements from our own literary, comic and pop culture genres). Planetary’ s primary investigative field team comprises of 3 meta-humans: Jakita Wagner (strong, fast and almost invulnerable), The Drummer (who can detect and manipulate any information stream) and the recently recruited Elijah Snow (who can extract heat / create intense cold). This field team travel the world investigating strange phenomena, such as monsters, aliens and other super humans.
What Ellis does with this premise is give us a world where recognized fictional characters are turned on their heads. Superman as a child molesting genetic mutant? Doc Savage, The Shadow, Tarzan and Fu-Manchu as members of the world’s first justice league? A Marilyn Monroe clone as a radioactive woman with a 50 year half-life? A psycho killer from a fictional universe who comes back from a Quatermass style mission? It’s all here… All these wonderful elements and more are held together by a tight story arc across 27 issues, taking characters from the worlds of DC, Marvel, the silver screen and classic literary fiction. It’s a marvellous tour-de-force of modern storytelling, and John Cassaday’ s art is more than up to the task, giving us characters that are at once individual to this fictional world, yet instantly recognizable as their “our-world” counterparts. Not just characters, but even props get this treatment – I dare you not to recognize Mjolnir for instance! I will also mention Laura DuPey’s mighty colouring skills here – they are exceptional!
“Planetary” was the first comic series that I HAD to own. I came into it at volume 2, proceeded to get volumes 1 and 3, and then built up volume 4 comic by comic as it was published. This is the omnibus edition, which contains the complete “Planetary” saga. I cannot recommend this enough – only Moore’s “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” series is better in my opinion, and this is different enough to stand out on its own.
You’re a muppet if don’t treat yourself to it… J
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