weekly collection reviews part 13: Planetary

[victorxd1999]

Previous reviews:

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
part 7
part 8
part 9
part 10
part 11
part 12

Hey guys! This week we have another review from our mod NZ_Inferno!

Absolute Planetary Volume 1 & 2
(Spoiler free review)




Written by Warren Ellis(Authority) and drawn by John Cassaday (Astonishing X-men) Planetary is one of the best comics that has ever been released and if you haven't read it, you should get to a comic store asap.

A personal favourite of mine and to me is up there with Watchmen and DKR as a classic of the genre. It's one of the earliest examples of "Widescreen Comics" and helped usher in a new era of splash pages.

But that is not to say the art is only what Planetary is famous for, because the story is both figuratively and literally, out of this world.

Planetary focuses on 3 individuals who are members of Planetary, an organization dedicated to discovering the worlds secret history. Ellis draws on comics, popular fiction and other characters to populate a world that is both strange and familiar.

Issues are often complete stories, but also contribute to the unfolding overall narrative. There are so many references at times, the reader is also on a discovery of the fictional world too. Godzilla, El Dorado, Hong Kong action movies, the red communist scare and others can be seen among the pages.

Planetary, when published, was part of the Wildstorm universe so super powers and some aspects of the Wildstorm universe are present, the latter is pretty marginal and no prior reading is required.

Dat Art!


Planetary has so many beautiful pages of art and uses splash pages so well that I'm really sure its Planetary and not Authority that made Widescreen comics popular. Planetary uses them to full effect, with highly detailed pages, stark contrast of space and colour and spectacular framing of images that the art often lingers in the mind more than the story once you put the book down.

The sequential storytelling of the art is also phenomenal, and works hand in hand with the words to propel the story forward. The colouring is also fantastic, with such an extreme variety of places and creatures present it nicely grounds the art with a strong palette and a majority of primary colours.

The Absolute edition is an absolute treat compared to the tpb editions with the larger pages and nicer paper creating a reading experience that is unequivocally better than the regular sized books.

Sequential story-telling in action


The two Absolute Editions collect all 27 issues of Planetary plus bonus short stories and extras like scripts. Unfortunately they don't contain the 3 Planetary crossovers, that are not essential to the story but are great reads on their own.

The Absolutes are OOP at present, though it is well worth hunting them down if you can. The Absolutes are sewn, with a slipcase and have a superb paper that showcases the art. Alternatively there is an Omnibus recently available and is great value at $75 for the full Planetary experience, crossovers included, in an oversized hardcover.



NZ gives Planetary a whopping 10 out 10!

[mars]

Not my favorite Ellis (Transmet), but there isn't much non-Ellis I'd rank higher. Still haven't read the crossovers, but I'll probably get the omni eventually unless I find the crossovers for a price I'm willing to pay.