Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: Part of a greater whole.
Review: Planetary: All over the World and Other Stories is O.K. This book is a series of (mostly) unconnected vignettes about a team of investigators looking into strange phenomena. It's basically X-Files meets superhero comics. The plots are decent and the art is nice. On the whole, though, it feels a little flat. Very little character development is present in these stories.

The subsequent volume "The Fourth Man," however, really picks up the pace in terms of a continuing storyline and character development. I would recommend getting both of them together, since this first volume is a little weak on its own.

Also (and this is a little nit-picky), for "mystery archaeologists" they don't seem to do very much archaeology.

Rating:
Summary: Clever, Deconstructionist Meta-Fiction But Not Much More!
Review: Warren Ellis is often touted as the heir of the Moore-Morrison-Gaiman throne as the new king of "mature" comic-book writing. Reading his "Planetary" comic, I have to disagree. And I'm not the only one. Check out some of the discussions going on at the Barbelith forum to see what I mean. Ellis comes from the cynical British fraternity of comic-book writers who think they are so far above "mere superhero-spandex books" but since the majority of American comics are in the category of the aforementioned "superhero-spandex" type, they are forced (reluctantly and with much disdain) to write within that genre. I'm not making this up. Ellis himself admitted to this in countless interviews and articles.

Therefore, Ellis had to struggle to acquaint himself with this whole mumbo-jumbo of the superhero esoterica. And to him, it's all about archetypes and formulaes (Batman as the Dark Avenger, Superman as the Christ-like icon, etc.) Having stripped the superhero myth down to its bare bones, Ellis attempts to write a story around them. Therefore, he introduce us to Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer in "Planetary". Three "mystery archaeologist" who set out to figure out the whole superhero esoterica. In this first volume, we have an examination of the pulp-heroes of the 1920s/30s, we visit Japan for a look at the inspiration behind its famed monster movies (e.g. "Godzilla") and finally, we end up in Hong Kong for a John-Woo-type balladic bullets work.

The whole thing is very interesting but ultimately comes off as just a clever, deconstructionist piece of meta-fiction but not much more. It's ultimately very empty. It's almost like a writer who's not really trying hard enough to write a good superhero story so he deconstruct others' works into mere formulaes. In addition to all that, Ellis presents the whole thing from a very cynical mode through the three very obnoxiously unlikable main characters. That's "Planetary". Clever, pretentious and empty. I gave the book two stars mainly because of the fantastic art of John Cassady.

In closing, I'd like to say something about superhero comics. It's not just formulaes and archetypes. I mean, you can deconstruct anything, any genre, that way and then go off to brag that you've mastered the whole thing. Superhero comics is the great American myth and its characters have been with us for decades. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc. It's about the romance of chivalry. It's about the soap-opera of relationships and loves. It's about values and people who still believe in them. I'm thankful that it's far richer than the insipid stuff presented by a self-proclaimed know-it-all like Warren Ellis.

Rating:
Summary: Clever, Deconstructionist Meta-Fiction But Not Much More!
Review: Warren Ellis is often touted as the heir of the Moore-Morrison-Gaiman throne as the new king of "mature" comic-book writing. Reading his "Planetary" comic, I have to disagree. And I'm not the only one. Check out some of the discussions going on at the Barbelith forum to see what I mean. Ellis comes from the cynical British fraternity of comic-book writers who think they are so far above "mere superhero-spandex books" but since the majority of American comics are in the category of the aforementioned "superhero-spandex" type, they are forced (reluctantly and with much disdain) to write within that genre. I'm not making this up. Ellis himself admitted to this in countless interviews and articles.

Therefore, Ellis had to struggle to acquaint himself with this whole mumbo-jumbo of the superhero esoterica. And to him, it's all about archetypes and formulaes (Batman as the Dark Avenger, Superman as the Christ-like icon, etc.) Having stripped the superhero myth down to its bare bones, Ellis attempts to write a story around them. Therefore, he introduce us to Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer in "Planetary". Three "mystery archaeologist" who set out to figure out the whole superhero esoterica. In this first volume, we have an examination of the pulp-heroes of the 1920s/30s, we visit Japan for a look at the inspiration behind its famed monster movies (e.g. "Godzilla") and finally, we end up in Hong Kong for a John-Woo-type balladic bullets work.

The whole thing is very interesting but ultimately comes off as just a clever, deconstructionist piece of meta-fiction but not much more. It's ultimately very empty. It's almost like a writer who's not really trying hard enough to write a good superhero story so he deconstruct others' works into mere formulaes. In addition to all that, Ellis presents the whole thing from a very cynical mode through the three very obnoxiously unlikable main characters. That's "Planetary". Clever, pretentious and empty. I gave the book two stars mainly because of the fantastic art of John Cassady.

In closing, I'd like to say something about superhero comics. It's not just formulaes and archetypes. I mean, you can deconstruct anything, any genre, that way and then go off to brag that you've mastered the whole thing. Superhero comics is the great American myth and its characters have been with us for decades. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, etc. It's about the romance of chivalry. It's about the soap-opera of relationships and loves. It's about values and people who still believe in them. I'm thankful that it's far richer than the insipid stuff presented by a self-proclaimed know-it-all like Warren Ellis.