Rating: 
Summary: Amibitious, yet underdeveloped
Review: I'm a fan of Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan series, so I thought I'd try out Planetary, based on some strong recommendations. The art and the plot are relatively strong: expansive and wildly imaginative. What seems to have been forgotten was character development. With the exception of the enigmatic Elijah Snow, the other two main characters are bland stick figures. I was unable to identify and uninterested in them. Because of this, Planetary comes off as somewhat pedestrian. I'm sure the character development progressed over the course of the series, but this book by itself just isn't all that intriguing. I suggest you try Transmetropolitan if you're looking for someting a bit more innovative.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Warren Ellis material I've read so far
Review: I'm not one to easily over-praise something I like. I mostly look at the things I enjoy as critical as possible to come to as much of an honest opinion as possible, so that my words really mean something instead of turning into a bold statement which helps nobody. With this title however I can do nothing else but expres how much I enjoy it. It's as close to "historical fiction" as a mainstream 'superhero'-title is ever going to be and it's done well. And the term "superhero-title" isn't exactly right either because it isn't a superhero title, but the main characters ARE supernatural.About the story: Elijah Snow, a mysterious man who was born on January 1st of the year 1900 encounters a woman called Jakita Wagner (who is accompagnied by another man called 'the Drummer') and she invites him to be part of a supernatural archaeologist group called 'Planetary'. She invites him to be the third member of their field-team who's goal it is to unravel the 'secret history of the world'. They try to map events in history how they REALLY took place, not how the common public was told it all happened. Elijah gets offered a salary of one million dollars a year for the rest of his life and all other professional expenses will also be taken care off by an anonymous financial aid only known as 'the fourth man', a man nobody knows. Elijah accepts and goes on his way to see things common man has never known was there. The great thing bout this title is that each detail, as little as it looks at first, turns into a mystery of his own in time. Each story in each issue seems to be a self-contained story at first, but later on turns out to be just a piece of the puzzle in the 'grand scheme of things'. There's very little going on that's useless information. What also is very nice is that the essence, the starting line if you will, of the series is reality as WE know it. It's about OUR reality (not one made up as a comic-reality), WE are 'the common public and the way things really happened occured behind OUR backs on things that are REALLY in our history (like the first man on the moon and such things). Think of it as having a little bit the mood like 'X-Files' and you'll know what I mean. So finally I would like to advise this title to all people who are not strictly interested in superhero clashes but not neccesarily only into 'serious comics' either. It's a mix of the two and it's done very well with a good mixing of illustrating and text. None of the two factors is dominating, it's very well balanced and it makes for a very good experience. For me it's easily the best writing I've seen of Warren Ellis so far.
Rating:
Summary: Cross your fingers
Review: If Ellis manages to finish this series and pulls off what he's hinting at in this book and its sequel, this series will be equal to Talbot's Adventures of Luther Arkwright. (Some wag named Don Ersperm said Talbot wrote the pinnacle.) This is top-notch insanity by one of the most focused brains in comics. The art is science fiction Art Nouveau, which makes it utterly unlike anything else in comics. Nobody comes close to Cassaday in illustration in comics. I really hope DC publishes the final package in one of those oversized hard cover volumes that Marvel's making now.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshed My Faith in "New" Comic Books
Review: If you haven't picked up a comic because of what it became in the mid 90's, pick this one up. It's been about 3 years since I last dabbled in comic books. Now I find what I read to read is up to par with what I enjoy afterI leave a comic book store.
I consider myself an avid reader and this was my first encounter with Warren Ellis. Some may compare him with Grant Morrison but he is completely his own being.I think that great writers complement each other's work and in this case, I concur.
YOU SHOULD REALLY BUY THIS BOOK, if you like great storytelling and wonderful art.I regret not buying this book earlier and am now on a mission to buy every single issue of this series.
You may have heard comparisons to this an other things but be warned.You cannot begin to describe how amazing Planetary is.
The story is fluid and the charecters seem to have a sense of who they are.The creators of this series have an incredible imagination and the story has much foder to keep the reader in tune til the very end.YOU SHOULD REALLY PICK THIS ONE UP.
Rating:
Summary: Planetary..... but Also Quite beyond....
Review: In Warren Ellis's mind there is a hundred years of Super hero history no one knows about...this Series then is a class in Archaeology, and a fine one at that. There is a wicked sense of a obsene imagination (meant in a flattering way) topping itself. This a comic of dicovery. From the discovery of a ghost cop patrolling the streets of Hong Kong, to the Planetary team finding the secrect of an island containing what appears to be Godzilla's corpse. This is all done in a way that evokes nothing but surprise and wonder. These are not even the most intense discoveries. You have to read for yourself Ellis's explanation of the workings of the snowflake, a "computer" that runs by containing its own multiverse that runs every possibilty in the universe endlessly, thus containing all answers. (Ellis explains it better I just wanted you to get the idea of the imagination at play) Well Anyways this is a fantastic series that just gets better as it goes on..great art and covers too!
Rating: 
Summary: Fun read
Review: It took a while for me to work up the courage to try this series, and I'm glad I finally got to it. Any fan of the history of comics (and related genres) should check this book out. A trio of investigators looks into mysterious events which have been occuring throughout the 20th century but gone unnoticed by the general public. What the trio uncovers may strike comic fans as vaguely familiar: a bronze-skinned 1940s adventurer who tackles unspeakable horrors, giant radioactive monsters battling off the Japanese coast, 4 astronauts doused with cosmic radiation become superhumans, etc, etc. The stories poke more than just a little fun at the comics of yesteryear, trying to give a more realistic version of what might have happened had our favorite heroes actually existed. The only problems I have with the book are: first, while the basic plots are excellent, the dialogue isn't well-written. I had the feeling that Ellis wasn't getting everything across to the reader that he intended to say. Second, these stories are supposed to present superhumans (or the supernatural) as mysterious and shady, but it doesn't really work when the investigators themselves are superhumans.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!
Review: One of the most unexpected reads in a long time. Every place I thought this comic was taking me ended up being even more enjoyable when I was way off. And I get the inpression that Ellis understood this. It feels as if he enjoyed taking me for the ride just as much as I enjoyed taking it.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent series - if only they came out more regularly
Review: Perfection must take time. Warren Ellis' "Planetary" series are certainly the best comic books I've read in a long time(and that's saying something). And John Cassaday's art is simply superb. If only they could produce issues more regularly. Not since Alan Moore's Swamp Thing have I seen majesty and claustrophobic conspiracies dealt with so marvelously. Ellis has created three wonderful main characters - but it's not really ABOUT the characters (not yet, anyway...). It's about mining the depths of popular culture for the mysteries that underlie some of our great 20th century icons. These people are archeologists of mystery. What if Godzilla and Mothra were real? Wouldn't someone want to cover it up? What if Superman really came to Earth? Wouldn't our long distance space tracking stations have detected his spaceship and sent someone there to grab the Kryptonian infant when he landed? What is it turned out that John Woo actually based his characters on real Hong Kong cops? And the pop-culture references go on: Wonder Woman, Little Nemo in Slumberland, the giant ants from "Them", the Hulk, Doc Savage, the Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Captain Marvel, Hellblazer, the Fantastic Four...
"Superheroes in the real world" is a cliche. But make no mistake, this is not the real world. And it ain't X-Files for superheroes either (well, not really). Instead it is a world as much full of wonder and majesty as it is full of darkness and danger. Hey, if Buffy's Joss Wheedon and the amazing Alan Moore both like this book enough to write introductions for it - WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!! Buy it already.
Rating:
Summary: Ellis and Cassaday bring wonder and style back to comics
Review: Planetary is an underground organization that has the sole purpose of discovering the secret, strange, supernatural and wonderful history of the world. Ellis and Cassaday take the reader along with the three person Planetary field team, uncovering hidden legends and encountering grand adventure and wonder - but just as equally pay great homage (or sometimes cheeky irreverence) to the many genres that have enriched fictional history. Planetary is such a well crafted comic book that you wouldn't need much to enjoy it. Ellis has a natural knack for pacing a story, and supplying us with interesting and believable characters. Cassaday matches him in every respect with solid storytelling and a fantastic design sense that is almost chameleon like - each issue of Planetary is genre based, and Cassaday's skill is such that each genre is faithfully recalled, without ever needing to recycle designs. I must also make mention of the incredible colours supplied by Laura Depuy and David Baron - comic books have rarely looked this vibrant and it is books like this with artists like Cassaday, Depuy and Baron that will break the comics industry free of stigma as a lesser medium to film or "books". Still - the full enjoyment of this series will hinge on an appreciation for wonder and adventure, for mystery, for humour, for genre conventions - but rarely is a comic presented to you with such variety and lack of baggage that you shouldn't pass it up.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best comics out there.
Review: PLANETARY's strengths come from the mysteries surrounding the book (Who is the Fourth Man, what powers do the Four have, what makes the Four so evil, etc) and also from Warren Ellis' analysis of what makes certain ideas in comics so great. After picking this up, read and look for analogies of 1) Pulp heroes, 2) The JLA, 3) Godzilla and other monsters, 4) Hong Kong movies, 5) The Spectre, 6) Captain Marvel (The "Shazam!" one), 7) The Fantastic Four. (And after you're done with this book, go out and find the sequel, PLANETARY: THE FOURTH MAN.)
| 
