Planetary, Volume 1: All Over the World and Other Stories in Warren Ellis: Q&A Experiment

Feb 04, 2010 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-and-read, creator-owned

This is one of the legendary works of Warren Ellis. Many creators cite Planetary as one of the most influential Ellis series, and it sure has a ridiculous number of Goodreads ratings.

Does that make it a mind-blowing book? On second reading, I really don't feel that moved by it. Maybe it's the later volumes that add the gravitas that so many people report. Right now, a day after finishing this first collection, I'm feeling a little "Alan Moore" vibe from it, which is not a good thing.

What's great This is one of the legendary works of Warren Ellis. Many creators cite Planetary as one of the most influential Ellis series, and it sure has a ridiculous number of Goodreads ratings.

Does that make it a mind-blowing book? On second reading, I really don't feel that moved by it. Maybe it's the later volumes that add the gravitas that so many people report. Right now, a day after finishing this first collection, I'm feeling a little "Alan Moore" vibe from it, which is not a good thing.

What's great: characters with hidden depths only hinted at (Snow, Wagner), a great premise of hunting down the century's greatest mysteries, and some fun powers only used sparingly while the good ideas spool forth.

Perhaps it's that aspect - a lot less flash-bang and fist fighting in this book, a lot more standing around talking and gawking - that takes my wonderment down a notch. But the "Alan Moore" vibe is even beyond that obvious parallel - it's the promise that every issue will tackle a different old trope of comic-booking tales (Hulk origin, FF origin, Godzilla, ...) and put a post-modern, realistic spin on them.

Also detracting for me is that each episode mostly stands on its own - like most non-mythology episodes of Fringe, Supernatural or X-Files - not contributing much to the story's larger momentum. That is frustrating to get "caught up in" when so little carries forward from one to the next.

I'll say this though: Ellis does Moore far better than Moore does. Where Moore just puts these pieces on the board and forces us to look at them, at least Ellis moves them around and draws us into the stories as participants. It's *more* engaging Moore, but it still leaves the bitter aftertaste of Alan in my mouth.

That said, Ellis then weaves some intrigue (who are Planetary's people exactly? What does their benefactor really want? Just how far back does the organization's efforts go?) into the otherwise-standalone/standoffish episodes, which will keep me reading just to see how much larger an idea Ellis is building towards. ...more

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