Planetary: Crossing Worlds

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.

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.

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.

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.