Planetary

[Bass]

You didn't get that? Man, everyone goes on about 2012. It's like the new millennium. A big cliche. People are so full of ****.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

Ok, here's my theory on the last issue.

Elijah has been reffered to as the Ghost of the 21st century. Sherlock Holmes reminds me alot of Elijah, in the way they both are dectectives, and wanted to find out the meaning of things. What if the last comic is an analogue of the issue where Elijah finds Sherlock? Instead, it's a new century baby stumbling upon Elijah, and finds him, and Elijah teaches him because of it. That, to me, has a nice circular ring to it.

 

[Bass]

That has a nice ring to it... but I'm convinced Elijah Snow doesn't make it out of Planetary alive.

It's recently been going on and on about how Elijah haunted the 20th century and is supposed to save everyone and how the Four, while active, stop him from doing that.

I have a feeling, that once the Four are gone, Elijah's task is done and he'll go too, having given the Earth access to what the Four have stolen so that they can deal with the parallel Earth.

I think we'll discover that Elijah can save everything, except himself.

 

[ProjectX2]

I ordered Planetary vol. 1, so I can have my own little collection of Planetary.

 

[Ultimate Houde]

Is the Crossing Worlds trade any good? Is it a bunch of Elseworld stories or stories that follow the main plot of Planetary?

 

[compound]

Is the Crossing Worlds trade any good? Is it a bunch of Elseworld stories or stories that follow the main plot of Planetary?

Depends on what you're after.

The book offers no significant clues whatsoever, regarding the Four, or Snow's history (other than a throw-away flashback involving his last meeting with Jenny Sparks).

However, if you like HP Lovecraft, you'll defintiely appreciate the Planetary/Authority cross-over, because it attempts to tie in the Cthulu mythos with the 'snowflake multimverse' concept and the Bleed.

The Batman cross-over is a thoroughly interesting take on the different ways Batman has been represented, over the years. It's a very fun read, in and of itself, and it looks gorgeous, but it's mostly irrelevant to the larger Planetary storyline. (If anything, it answers why Ellis is never likely to write an actual Batman story.)

The JLA cross-over story is basically an Elseworlds, and not a very engaging one. Entirely missable.

 

[E]

Is the Crossing Worlds trade any good? Is it a bunch of Elseworld stories or stories that follow the main plot of Planetary?

I like it. The Batman issue is particularly good. I don't recall if all of the stories follow regular Planetary continuity but if you like the regular series I'd definitely recommend picking it up.

 

[Bass]

Only the JLA one is "elseworlds", the Authority and Batman ones are canon.

I liked all three. Thought they were all very good. Batman's the best as it was originally meant to be a proper issue of Planetary with a "Batman"-clone. When Ellis was offered the crossover, he took it.

 

[ProjectX2]

My comic shop had to reorder the trade, so I'm not getting it for a while.

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

Heh, I am re-reading through the series, and in the Vertigo Issue (#7), the John Constantine guy becomes Spider Jerusalem after he fakes his own death.

...

I hadn't caught that before.

Cheeky Bastard, that Ellis. Using his own creation as the center figure in contemporary Vertigo...

Ah, whatever.

Ellis is a brilliant man, and clearly the runner-up to Alan Moore in terms of greatest living writer.

EDIT

I love the world tour of fiction that Panetary takes us on. One part I particularly like was the thematic parallels that Ellis suggested between the themes in brittish comics from the 80s (Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Miracleman) to his own Transmetropolitan.

Spider Constantine lives!

Damnit, Baxter caught onto this before I did.

*pouts*

 

[Ultimate Houde]

I never heard of that character before

 

[ProjectX2]

I never heard of that character before

He's in Transmetropolitan.

My Planetary trade still hasn't arrived.

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

Spider Jerusalem is the best goddamn reporter the future has ever seen.

Now THAT'S reporting.

 

[ProjectX2]

I want Warren Ellis to write a Planetary Guide.

 

[compound]

Have enough people already finished #25 to be able to discuss it, without spoiler tags?

I was particularly blown away by the revelation of Dowling's ability! :shock:

Spoiler

He must have been inside Elijah's mind, from the very beginning of the series. He knows about the interrogation of Leather. He must have been with Snow during the visit to the Dr. Strange/Terrence McKenna style chick (and thus understands the "informational underspace" concept as well as Snow does). Seriously, the only way Snow can defeat him now, is if Dowling *allows* him to, for some inexplicable reason.

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

Or for elijah to outthink a man who is a.) in his brain, b.) can stretch his mind to solve any problem, and c.) is already one of the smartest people on the planet.

But Dowling is arrogant, and there are certain places he cannot be heard. that means he's beatable.

And Elijah Snow kicks ***.

 

[E]

But Dowling is arrogant, and there are certain places he cannot be heard. that means he's beatable.

But of those places, like the bar for example. Snow has been to the bar. If Dowling's survaliance equipment can't "hear" in there it doesn't really matter, if he truly has been in Snow's brain the whole time.

I think it'd be a lot more interesting if Dowling was "possessing" Drums and Jakita and Snow had to kill them or something.

 

[compound]

That has a nice ring to it... but I'm convinced Elijah Snow doesn't make it out of Planetary alive.

It's recently been going on and on about how Elijah haunted the 20th century and is supposed to save everyone and how the Four, while active, stop him from doing that.

I have a feeling, that once the Four are gone, Elijah's task is done and he'll go too, having given the Earth access to what the Four have stolen so that they can deal with the parallel Earth.

I think we'll discover that Elijah can save everything, except himself.

Actually, this makes sense in a lot of ways. I figure Elijah dying will be precisely connected to whatever defeats Dowling.

I don't know exactly how it will work, but I suspect that it will have something to do with the "informational underspace" being regarded as an "afterlife". Snow will allow himself to die to access that realm.

 

[ProjectX2]

Sweet, my first two Planetary trades arrived after around two months of messing around.

I remembered how awesome this series was. Elijah Snow is the ****. I love this book. I'm even catching the cool little The Authority/Stormwatch hints and nods.

:rockon:

 

[E]

Sweet, my first two Planetary trades arrived after around two months of messing around.

I remembered how awesome this series was. Elijah Snow is the ****. I love this book. I'm even catching the cool little The Authority/Stormwatch hints and nods.

:rockon:

Are you keeping up with the issues as they come out? As good as the first 3 trades are, stuff from 18 on his just been gold.