Planetary / Ultimate FF comparisons?

[Jeremy116]

Has anybody here been reading Ellis' work on Planetary? In there, he has an evil version of the Fantastic Four. I find it highly ironic that he was chosen for this project. (Or maybe it was just karma.)

Anyway, if he can create stories even half as good as those in Planetary, he should have a great run with UFF. We just have to give him time. What do you think?

 

[Ice]

I like his work so far. Maybe with more time they can get even better.

 

[Goodwill]

What do you mean, an evil version of the FF? In the Planetary book, I mean...

His run is a great thing for that of the title. I think if he keeps it up, he'll be one of my favorite writers. Right now, mine would be Bendis... I got tired of Millar popping up everywhere and ruining continuity.

 

[Jeremy116]

Goodwill said:

What do you mean, an evil version of the FF? In the Planetary book, I mean...

There's this group in there called "The Four"

Jacob Greene = Benjamin Grimm (The Thing)
John Leather= John Storm (Human Torch)
Randall Dowling = Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic0

I don't know the counterpart for Sue Richards is yet.

Anyways, their origin is that they phased thru some special dimension that gave them powers and big brains and now they use all their technological advancements to keep the world under their control. It's just that hardly anyone knows they exist.

Y'know, the exact opposite of the Fantastic Four.

 

[E]

I find it highly ironic that he was chosen for this project.

I'm not sure it's irony; Bendis and Millar asked him to take UFF as a favor, and it very well could have been due to his work on Planetary.

I have heard nothing but glowing praise for Planetary but have only read pieces of it, so I don't know much about it. I hope to be able to pick up some trades as soon as I am able.

 

[Ice]

I have never read it at all, but figure its popular how hes in the top 10 writers for Wizard for his work on that book aswell as Ult. FF.

 

[David Blue]

Has anybody here been reading Ellis' work on Planetary? In there, he has an evil version of the Fantastic Four. I find it highly ironic that he was chosen for this project. (Or maybe it was just karma.)

Anyway, if he can create stories even half as good as those in Planetary, he should have a great run with UFF. We just have to give him time. What do you think?

His time came and went. It was good.

[rant]

I read Planetary by sponging off friends.

It was good, except for the personalities of the main characters, but that's far too big an exception. The team members were amoral head-kickers working for the Fourth Man, who could be anybody including Hitler's brain, and that seems to be fine by them as long as the money is good. This is a description of a villain team, not heroes. The Drummer was a shallow punk, and Elijah Snow the cold-controller, was a foul-mouthed, sour-spirited thug. Jakita Wagner the strong-woman had a sense of wonder, which made her the one with a good point.

This seems to be one of those cramped little universes where it's possible to imagine amazing powers but not people worthy of them.

Typically, main characters like this have extremely nasty enemies, as this is necessary if the heroes are to look good by comparison. In Planetary the main villains are the Fantastic Four in thin disguise. This is consistent with how the Authority, the dominant life-forms in that universe, deal with heroes such as the Avengers.

To say I'm unimpressed would be putting it very mildly.

[/rant]

By contrast, Reed Richards said some things in N-Zone about his feelings and the kinds of people he would like to meet that spoke for me and won me over without reservation. I've got my hero (and fellow heroes) all picked out. This, which I like so much, is also from Warren Ellis.

I would gladly see Warren Ellis come back and write more Ultimate Fantastic Four.

 

[Bass]

Planetary is amazing. Pick it up. It rocks. It has an ongoing plot throughout the series, but each issue is completely self-contained. It's amazing, and don't let anyone spoil it for you.

But yes - it is odd that considering the portrayal of the Four in Planetary, that he'd write Ultimate Fantastic Four. But Bendis and Millar have said that the Ultimate Universe was in part, inspired by Warren Ellis' Wildstorm titles (Planetary, Stormwatch, and The Authority) and it's no stranger than when Mark Millar, who wrote Jacob Krigstein's armies got a gig writing the Ultimates.

 

[David Blue]

Planetary is amazing. Pick it up. It rocks. It has an ongoing plot throughout the series, but each issue is completely self-contained. It's amazing, and don't let anyone spoil it for you.

Absolutely.

I was just expressing my own reaction, not trying to stop anybody else giving Planetary a chance.

 

[Bass]

I meant - "Don't spoil the ending". I wasn't referring to your post.

If someone sounds like they're about to tell you who the Fourth Man is... you run away and hide.

Unless you've already read it.

In which case, enjoy the discussion!

 

[ProjectX2]

I meant - "Don't spoil the ending". I wasn't referring to your post.

If someone sounds like they're about to tell you who the Fourth Man is... you run away and hide.

Unless you've already read it.

In which case, enjoy the discussion!

I've heard who the Fourth Man is -- and it doesn't make sense. But then, I haven't read all of Planetary yet. But it is a great series.

 

[RUFUS!]

Planetary is an excellent book & there are some paralells between the two groups

 

[Terraneaux]

I was lucky enough to get that absolute planetary hardcover for $25; it was on the top of a box of goods that my flcs got and opened with a razor blade, cutting the slipcase in hald but leaving the book intact.

The universe is very cool imho, perhaps my favorite idea in it is that given an infinite number (or 187 thousand and something) almost any fictional universe you could imagine could exist. There's a scene in which some researchers write up a fictional universe and then send a ship to this alternate reality to retrieve people. Really friggin cool.

 

[GMaster]

I meant - "Don't spoil the ending". I wasn't referring to your post.

If someone sounds like they're about to tell you who the Fourth Man is... you run away and hide.

Unless you've already read it.

In which case, enjoy the discussion!

It was a bit, mehish, really. It didn't suprise me that

Spoiler

you know who

was the fourth man. The story behind it was better though. He pulled it off well.

 

[RUFUS!]

It was a bit, mehish, really. It didn't suprise me that

it was a bit of a let down, but still a good read

 

[Fuzzy Birds]

I'm in two minds about Planetary. It's fairly well written, and of course Cassaday is wonderful. The characters I like, and while the idea is hardly the most original in the grand scheme, it's the little touches that make it enjoyable. Unfortunately, it falls prey to being slightly over Ellis-ifyed, which, I suppose, is a given. I also find it particularly grating that almost everyone except the Planetary field team is just an analogue of an already existing character i.e The Four, Doc Brass, John Stone, the JLA like invaders early on....... it's a pet hate of mine.

As for his UFF. I liked his Doom arc, slow as it was, but I was unimpressed with the N Zone. It's infuriating to see what he manages to fit in just one issue of Planetary, yet he takes 6 issues to tell a simple story in UFF.......

 

[RUFUS!]

I also find it particularly grating that almost everyone except the Planetary field team is just an analogue of an already existing character i.e The Four, Doc Brass, John Stone, the JLA like invaders early on....... it's a pet hate of mine.

i know what you mean, but it's difficult to come up with new ideas constantly...it just seems that they are recycling more characters atm

 

[Bass]

It was a bit, mehish, really. It didn't suprise me that

Spoiler

you know who

was the fourth man.

:lol: You're retarded.

it was a bit of a let down, but still a good read

I dunno. I was really blown away when we found out who it was. I still think the series is top notch.

 

[ourchair]

I also find it particularly grating that almost everyone except the Planetary field team is just an analogue of an already existing character i.e The Four, Doc Brass, John Stone, the JLA like invaders early on....... it's a pet hate of mine.

Making them analogues (or archetypal combinations thereof) of existing characters is pretty much the point.

Except Ellis and Cassaday aren't doing it because they can't come up with anything new, but rather they're doing it because the 'secret history' of Planetary is meant to parallel the history of genre fiction itself, and thereby illustrate the sociological conditions that created the pop culture we've enjoyed, and brought them to the surface.

 

[Ice]

Ourchair, FRUIT YOU! Fruit you and your damn high intellect talk.


*Goes to watch Dora the explorer*