Customer Reviews

Planetary: Crossing Worlds

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Crossing Worlds collects three previous Planetary stories, all of them crossovers: Planetary/Authority in which both teams encounter the same evil Lovecraftian threat, then independently repel an invasion from the Bleed; Planetary/JLA where the heroless DC universe is ruled by the very Four-like Planetary corporation and it's up to Clark Kent, Diana Prince and Bruce Wayne to find out why; and lastly Planetary/Batman where the field team meet the Batman during an encounter with the son of Science City Zero survivor in Gotham City.

Planetary/JLA is the only one (seemingly) out of continuity with the series for those that care about that sort of thing. All three are good stories with great art. My only complaint is that each are very brief and could have benefited a great deal from an extra ten or so pages to let the story unfold.

PLANETARY, by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, has been one of the most fascinating comic book series I've ever seen/read/enjoyed. It concerns the adventures of a group of mystery archeologists who go round the world uncovering the hidden bits that keep our world a strange place to be in, the way it SHOULD be. These bits take on the shapes of major comics culture touchstones embedded in the conciousness of die-hard fans (Monster Island, Superheroes, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage) but with that arcane twist that has made Ellis a great postmodern comics writer (anothe great title is GLOBAL FREQUENCY--ever wonder what the $6 Million Dollar Man would REALLY be like? Take a look, if you dare.)

The team, made up of: Elijah Snow, born at the turn of the 20th century, has the power to generate cold, cranky as all get-out and the founder of the Planetary Agency; Jakita Wagner, an orphan who hates to be bored and is as powerful as she is beautiful; and the Drummer, who can communicate with any and all mechanical devices with the help of his drumsticks, all roam the world, looking for the aforementioned "artifacts", but also trying to stop those that would with hold those wonders from the rest of us (ever wonder what the Fantastic Four would really be like--once again, look, if you dare).

CROSSING WORLDS takes the reader on a wild ride through adjacent realities where the Planetary team encounter--in order--The Authority (one of PLANETARY's sister team magazines in the WILDSTORM line), a version of the JUSTICE LEAGUE (of DC COMICS fame) and, last but not least, BATMAN (no other intro needed).

Ellis handles the writing chores, while Phil Jimenez (THE INVISIBLES, OTHERWORLD, INFINITE CRISIS) does the artwork on the Authority tale, Jerry Ordway(ALL-STAR SQUADRON, POWER OF SHAZAM) delineates the JLA tale and JOHN CASSADAY (CAPTAIN AMERICA, ASTONISHING X-MEN) brings his unique vision to BATMAN: NIGHT ON EARTH--the best of the three. The Authority tale gives a glimpse of the premiere team of the WILDSTORM universe and the JLA spin unfortunately falls short of what could have been a suspensful tale of what could happen if the Planetary team followed the path of the Four, trying to keep Humanity dull and boring.

BATMAN: NIGHT ON EARTH follows Elijah, Jakita and the Drummer to Gotham City where a young man is committing impossible murders only to meet multiple iterations of the Dark Knight, with Cassaday bouncing through various representations of the character throughout his long history. A sight to behold and a great jumping on point for new readers.

Other Planetary collections; AROUND THE WORLD; THE FOURTH MAN and LEAVING THE 20TH CENTURY gather the hard-to get early issues of this marvelous series.

It's a strange world.

Let's keep it that way.

Planetary: Crossing Worlds is a woefully inconsistent collection of stories that feature crossovers with The Authority, JLA and Batman. There are three self contained stories presented here, and all fall short of anything we have seen in the ongoing Planetary series which is arguably the best work by writer Warren Ellis to date. In his regular series, Ellis manages to stimulate our imagination with over-the-top but fully realised ideas that are an exhilarating blend of pseudo-science and pulpy, nostalgic treasures of days gone by. In contrast, Planetary:Crossing Worlds feels incomplete. It lacks the cleverness and spectacle that has pushed this title's namesake into comic book greatness. Little if anything is added by way of character development and the disjointed story telling will put off all but the most hard core Ellis fans.

In the first story (Planetary/Authority: Ruling the World) Phil Jimenez lends his detailed pencils to what should have been a classic encounter between Ellis's two best creations. Instead we are presented with an `alien fish' invasion story that fails to rise above mediocre. If you were anticipating interaction and dialogue between the two teams you will be sorely disappointed. There is a brief flashback `encounter' from 1939 between Elijah Snow and Jenny Sparks but little else is on offer by way of a `crossover.'

The second story (Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta) is even less satisfying and ends up a confusing mess. Featuring serviceable if unspectacular artwork by Jerry Ordway this story is set in an alternate Earth where an evil Planetary rule the world and the only ones that can stop them are Diana, Bruce and Clark. Little respect is shown for any of the characters here and the reader is given little reason to care for where this story takes us.

The final tale is able to partly redeem this collection thanks mostly to the stunning pencils of John Cassaday. Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth takes Planetary to alternate Gotham realities where they meet numerous incarnations of the Bat. Both amusing and rewarding for those familiar with Batman over the past 20 or so years, we are finally treated to some great action and interplay expected of a crossover book. However as much fun as Ellis and Cassaday must have had putting this together, there is a sense of novelty here and nothing substantial to pick up on a second reading.

All in all, Planetary: Crossing Worlds offers little to regular and casual comic book fans and is hard to recommend. The crossovers feel forced and Ellis fails to hit his stride. Perhaps if given more space to flesh out each story there could have been a better presentation, but it is doubtful there will be second chances for future comic books featuring these characters.

(Also of note: this collection has 2 pages of miscellaneous sketches for Planetary/JLA but does not present the original comic book covers anywhere)

Three brilliant novellas (as Warren Ellis himself would call them himself) featuring a team of super-powered self-called archeolgists of the hidden secret history of the 20th century. Creaed almost at the same time as The Authority, Planetary is the second of the books that closed a decade and a century of superhero comics. While The Authority propelled them into the future, launching them into the realm of widescreen movie-like action, Planetary is a summa of what has been and could have been, the genre's swan song and a love sing to it and its many facets and authors.
The three tales told here are not really mcuh more than a divrtissement, but if it truly is so, then we need more authors having this fun.
The opener is actually the lightest and easiest, bringing The Authority and Planetary together to fight a common, ancient menace from the Bleed (the connecting tissue in which the multiple universes "are", in a way). Fun fact: The two teams team-up without actually meeting and eventually shutting up the bad guys. Aside from the Lovecraft quotes (and the funny cameo of the writer himself), the book pits two different visions of superheroism against each other, wonderng wha would happen if almighty heroes who took it upon themselves to put things right ever lost their unflinching moral compass.
The second tale is what would have been an "elseworlds" tale in the Nineties: An alternative view of DC Comics' heroes. In this case, Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman nver were, because the Planetary foundation (their turn to go bad) turned from researchers to hoarders and control-freaks, killing all of the planet's heroes before they even started.
But Bruce Wayne is alive and kicking and putting his detective skills to work: he has aúncovered it all, found Krypton's only survivor and the last Amazon alive and brought them together to fight back finally.
The last novella is Ellis & series's artist John Cassaday at their absolute best.
Just like Grant Morrison ten years later, Ellis proves he understands the core concept of the Batman, what lies below the many iterations that many different artists and writers gave of him in his 70 years of history. Coming up with an intersting plot device (a kid able to teleport chunks of reality and connected information through multiple universes, made sick and a killer by his powers), Ellis uses it to explore the Batman mythos and Planetary looks almost like a witness to them. cassaday drwas the hell out of it, his art is so vital to this, so key to making the stroy work that noboy else could have done this book but him.
One last note about the artists of the first two novellas: While I am not Ohil jimenez's number one fan, he does a great job in the first tale. However, I was absolutely amazed by what Ordway made of Warren Ellis's script. It is my guess that Ellis retained complete control of the book'sstorytelling, challenging Ordway (a very classic American artist) to go to darker places than he usually does, freeing him so that he could unleash his usually restrained artistic talents (the guy is also a writer) He channels the best George Perez here, absolutely a wonderful surprise!
This collection is worth every penny and many, many readings.
Enjoy!

While the first three Planetary volumes are incredibly awesome and original, this one is by far my favorite.

Here we have a trio of unrelated stories involving the Planetary team. While loosely tied to the series' main arc, the stories are free of continuity. This is Ellis on vacation...but apparently he got bored and decided to doodle a Planetary script on his napkin in a bar somewhere. And now here I am writing a review. These stories are slack but fun; Planetary in kickback mode.

The first story involves a run-in with the Authority. This story is all spectacle and bright lights, with a rather linear plot for Planetary, which is always twisty and underhanded. Pleasant, but a shiny diversion nonetheless; the only unexpected element is a "cameo" by H.P. Lovecraft. This is the least interesting story of the trio.

The second story is a through-the-looking-glass reversal of roles: what if Planetary were an evil, big brother overlord that controlled humanity? Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman cook up a scheme to infiltrate their headquarters for one big showdown. Not a bad effort. It poses the question of what would happen if the Justice League were to fight Planetary on their own terms (can Superman outmaneuver Chase's reality distortion field?). As always, Batman, the man with no powers other than being human, is a masterclass strategist.

The third story is my favorite. Though less dramatic than the previous story, it exploits a single, very clever premise: someone in Gotham City is phasing in and out of various realities, wreaking havoc on the environment; and as Planetary tries to seek out the culprit, various incarnations of Batman (who does not exist in the Gotham of this reality) phase in and out and becomes a nuisance to Jakita.

All in all, I'd say this is worth a purchase if you're already familiar with Planetary and its main arc. This is a solid way to kill time, because Planetary is immune to being boring. They are at least interesting, which is what these stories are: interesting and worth musing over. Otherwise, this collection does not outclass what is already out there; and so if you're new, best to start from the beginning.

Ellis. I like him, even if he mocks us 'Merkins ruthlessly.

Since there is currently no information about this collection, I'll provide the blurb from www.warrenellis.com:

"Collecting: PLANETARY/THE AUTHORITY: RULING THE WORLD, and PLANETARY/JLA: TERRA OCCULTA and PLANETARY/THE BATMAN: NIGHT ON EARTH. Illustrated by Phil Jiminez and Jerry Ordway and John Cassaday."

I enjoyed the Authority crossover. In presenting the two sets of characters, he maintains the tones of each: the Authority continue to be a god-awful scary group of super heroes and the Planetary field agents continue to squint suspiciously at the world.

I've not read the other issues included in this collection, though I hear that the better, if sad, nod to JLA is in Planetary 10 "Magic and Loss".

Hate to do this but there's little to no info. Does this trade pick up where the Fourth Man left off, encompassing some of the retro history of Planetary ? (Snow's meeting with Holmes and Co.,the Elders' Song etc). Having trouble determinining if this is something I've read or not.

Thanks.

Reading a Brit's (or Scot's--i.e.: Ellis, Moore, Gaiman, Morrison, and ESPECIALLY Ennis) is like the Sinead/National Anthem debacle or more recently, Alanis/Janet Jackson (...) --we Yanks have to put up with a LOT of other lands' interpretation of our icons/morals thru their subersive/"enlightened" eyeballs for the sake of "art" and "fair play"--without filling up a whole page with my rant, I'll just leave it to several points: first, if they don't respect the medium, why do they continue to write for it? Out of all of my aformentioned examples, only Morrison has seem to snapped out of this juvenile behaviour ("Ooooohh, I'll have my hero vomit on Batman's boots, that'll be a larf and p1ss the fanboys off!") and actually shown the medium some respect as in his JLA and now X-Men stints; second: why MUST all of their female characters be total shrews? Ellis is the most guilty of this as he does write strong female heroes but with their collecive personalities, I wouldn't let them lead a church choir, let alone a team of meta-humans; third, why, when they create their own heroes/worlds, do their hates and predjudices magnify even fiercer? Which brings me to Ellis: I tried to read The Authority as I was swayed by all the media hype (caused mostly by Entertainment Weekly) and it was the most vile piece of garbage I've read since Preacher: Ancient History (I'm sure the last would bring smiles to the respective authors faces, as they loooove to shake things up and see that look on your face), the homosexual relationship was the least of my issues as if it was seriously and tastefully done, it may have surpassed the "Northstar"/"Alpha Flight" issues, but noooooo, let's make them a violent, misanthropic, mincing parody of the Superman/Batman mythos--and if you want violent, misantropic, butch AND fascist, let's talk "Jenny Sparks" from that same title--AAAARRRGGHH! (deep breath) Anyway, it was with some trepidation that I picked up the first issues of the "Planetary" series and I was shocked to find I enjoyed MOST of it--oh you still have the "Beyotch from Hell" in the female hero role, the grumpy old man and last but not least the grunge rocker "hero" Seattle left behind and you still have the usual snotty pickings on our literary and historical lions (H.P. Lovecraft depicted as a fey racist? Oy Vey!) but mostly Ellis can control his Alan Moore-influenced spew (did they go to the same commune?) long enough to craft a honest to God conspiracy epic with, well, KINDA-likable character (altho with this new collection, he is now sliding back into his old habits, as how long is "Elijah Snow" going to physically abuse "The Drummer"?) and some, for once, ENJOYABLE twists (the last "Batman" story in this collection is a must read that literally dropped my jaw and was completely unexpected--in short (too late!), keep it up, Ellis and you may have more of my racist, sexist, puritanical, overfed, world-dominating Yankee dollars going into your shabby little pocket...
P.S.: Forgive my misspellings but I wanted to get the above out of my head and onto the web with no pauses, due to the ill-educated, impatient, coddled Yankee thing...

lovecraft was definitely a racist, but lots of people were then so its a non-issue.

planetary is good. especially liked the alternate superman/wonderwoman/green lantern story.