Rating: 
Summary: Great! Great! Great!
Review: I'm already a huge mark for Warren Ellis after the Authority, Stormwatch and the first Planetary Collection. This book just put the nail in the coffin of any doubts I had about his talents: as a stroyteller, an artist in the field and a fellow comic lover. Filled with great refrences to, and some hidden jabs at some comic staples and other not so well known comic characters. This is the best trade paperback I bought so far this year. Buy it NOW!.
Rating: 
Summary: Planetary -- the universal comic?
Review: One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the other reviews of this book is Planetary's astounding appeal. I am a "beginner" comics aficianado -- only been reading for two years now -- and I was hooked on Planetary by a lifelong comics nut. What I've found about it is, though, that while it draws heavily on comics history and mythos, it is completely understandable and compelling even to those who don't know that mythos.I have lent this book (and #1, which I also managed to pick up in the gorgeous hardcover) to people uninterested in comics, mildly interested in comics, disillusioned by comics, or even who say they "hate comics", and the response is always "Wow." Perhaps a part of this appeal is the fact that while it deals occasionally with superheroes, its protagonists are not part of that group -- just people using their extraordinary powers to find out why their world is the wacky way it is. That seems to be understandable and accessible to everyone (who can't understand boredom, for that matter?). The art is lovely, the writing is impeccable, the stories are layered with meaning and implication, and are compelling individually as well as as a whole, each one beautifully wrought. Oh, and Jakita Wagner is the first comic book heroine to join Ripley and Princess Leia on my computer desk (as soon as her action figure gets here).
Rating:
Summary: Planetary -- the universal comic?
Review: One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the other reviews of this book is Planetary's astounding appeal. I am a "beginner" comics aficianado -- only been reading for two years now -- and I was hooked on Planetary by a lifelong comics nut. What I've found about it is, though, that while it draws heavily on comics history and mythos, it is completely understandable and compelling even to those who don't know that mythos. I have lent this book (and #1, which I also managed to pick up in the gorgeous hardcover) to people uninterested in comics, mildly interested in comics, disillusioned by comics, or even who say they "hate comics", and the response is always "Wow." Perhaps a part of this appeal is the fact that while it deals occasionally with superheroes, its protagonists are not part of that group -- just people using their extraordinary powers to find out why their world is the wacky way it is. That seems to be understandable and accessible to everyone (who can't understand boredom, for that matter?). The art is lovely, the writing is impeccable, the stories are layered with meaning and implication, and are compelling individually as well as as a whole, each one beautifully wrought. Oh, and Jakita Wagner is the first comic book heroine to join Ripley and Princess Leia on my computer desk (as soon as her action figure gets here).
Rating:
Summary: There is originality in comics. Planetary is.
Review: The other reviewers on this page are right. This is a great collection of stories that just bubble over with imagination and originality. It goes without saying that you must read the first volume before reading this one, but it is here that you start to see a much larger tapestry being woven from the stories in the first set. These tales continue to fascinate the reader with pop culture references (comic super heroes, 50's science fiction, many more), and the way in which art imitates life, and vice versa. After reading the fourth man, I am also excited to get my hands on the third volume, and continue travelling all over the world with Planetary. If you liked Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, then these stories will also entertain you. If you like to be introduced to something completely new when reading a graphic novel, then this is for you. I cannot praise this enough.
Rating:
Summary: There is originality in comics. Planetary is.
Review: The other reviewers on this page are right. This is a great collection of stories that just bubble over with imagination and originality. It goes without saying that you must read the first volume before reading this one, but it is here that you start to see a much larger tapestry being woven from the stories in the first set. These tales continue to fascinate the reader with pop culture references (comic super heroes, 50's science fiction, many more), and the way in which art imitates life, and vice versa. After reading the fourth man, I am also excited to get my hands on the third volume, and continue travelling all over the world with Planetary. If you liked Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, then these stories will also entertain you. If you like to be introduced to something completely new when reading a graphic novel, then this is for you. I cannot praise this enough.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing; Excelent Art
Review: This is the second work of Ellis I've read. The first was the previous Planetary volume. In this one, aside from crafting a tale of espinoge and intrigue that reads like the X-files meet the X-men, Ellis continues to reinturrpet pop culture archetypes. Here he brings in analogues to John Constantine, James Bond, Marilyn Monroe, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and even Morpheus from the Matrix. Even more than that he explores and developes these ideas and uses them to create a strange and compelling universe.
If I have one complaint, it's that Ellis doesn't get into the psyches and background of the characters as much as I'd like to see. We do get into the territory by the end of the book, though,
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