@ Pop Syndicate-- Planetary #27
"Planetary was always about the ripples; about how they interacted and magnified each other. It was about stories and how one story rippled and echoed into another. The story about giant monsters on a Japanese island was reflected in a later issue about giant Australian spirits around Ayers Rock. A Hong Kong police ghost story played into the events that took down the 4, a secret cabal hording technology for their own benefit. Even the 4 rippled into another Warren Ellis-penned book, Ultimate Fantastic Four, for a little bit. Sporadically over the last 10 years, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday have reminded us how stories interact with each other in our imaginations and how they mesh together to create a large narrative tapestry."
Click here to read the full review.Planetary has been one of the two series I think I've returned to the most over the past 10 years, with the other book being Grant Morrison's Invisibles. Both series were full of such grandiose ideas and mad schemes but it's the characters in both books that keep pulling me back. Even with how much I've read both series, Elijah Snow and King Mob remain mysteries to me. My favorite King Mob line has to be "my karma's a bloody minefield." Both characters are forced to live lives that they don't want. There's a joy in life and a joy in both books that has to be put on the back burner until each mission is accomplished; until those that need saving are saved. Both Planetary and Invisibles were perhaps justifiably criticized at times as being primarily vehicles for their writers mad ideas and concepts. There's certainly plenty of just unbelievable physics and metaphysics in both books but to concentrate purely on that really misses the purpose of these characters who these stories are about. Sure, Planetary could get bogged down in it's own concepts but look at the sadness in Jakita's eyes when she doesn't know what she's going to do now that the enemy is defeated or the surprising determination in Drummer's face when he knows that his friend can be saved. There were mad ideas but there was also an incredibly human and hopeful story told in Planetary. It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
