Planetary



Planetary was published by DC Comics under the WildStorm imprint. Price per issue was $2.99

Last Issue

 * Planetary #26: 25 Oct 2006

Current Issue

 * Planetary #27: 07 Oct 2009

Next Issue

 * none

Status
Irregular series. First published in 1999. Final issue was #27.

Main Characters

 * Elijah Snow


 * Jakita Wagner


 * The Drummer

Trade Paperbacks

 * Planetary, book 1: All Over the World and Other Stories - Collects #1-6. "Collecting the stories that first introduced the world to Planetary, this graphic novel features the adventures of Elijah Snow, a hundred year old man, Jakita Wagner, an extremely powerful and bored woman, and The Drummer, a man with the ability to communicate with machines. Infatuated with tracking down evidence of super-human activity, these mystery archaeologists of the late 20th Century uncover unknown paranormal secrets and histories, such as a World War II supercomputer that can access other universes, a ghostly spirit of vengeance, and a lost island of dying monsters." - WorldCat - ISBN 1563896486


 * Planetary, book 2: The Fourth Man - Collects #7-12. "This second PLANETARY collection focuses on the team's mysterious benefactor, the 'Fourth Man.' After paying their final respects to a British occultist with ties to their group, Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and The Drummer continue their super-human archeological studies as they visit a hidden government compound full of radioactive human guinea pigs, discover a fictional construct that has been made real and learn of a malevolent group known simply as "The Four." As these investigations take place, Elijah begins to learn some truths about both the Fourth Man's identity as well as his own hidden past." - WorldCat - ISBN 1563897644


 * Planetary, book 3: Leaving the 20th Century - Collects #13-18. "Elijah takes a look at his past, making startling revelations and recounting his participation in the first moon shot... in 1851!" - WorldCat - ISBN 1401202942


 * Planetary, book 4: Spacetime Archaeology - Collects #19-27. "The final battles waged by Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer against the mysterious Four along with the surprise return of a key player." - WorldCat - ISBN 1401223451


 * Planetary: Crossing Worlds - Collects Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World, Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta, & Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth. - WorldCat - ISBN 1401202799


 * Planetary, Book One - Collects #1-14, plus Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World. -


 * Planetary, Book Two - Collects #15-27, plus Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta & Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth. -

Hardcovers

 * Planetary, book 4 - Collects #19-27. - WorldCat - ISBN 1401209963


 * Absolute Planetary Book One - Collects #1-12. "Witness the stunning adventures of the Archeologists of the Unknown, as they delve into the dark, secret places that most would fear to tread." - WorldCat - ISBN 1401203272


 * Absolute Planetary Book Two - Collects #13-27. "Snow, Jakita and the Drummer take on their nemeses the Four... then death itself!" - WorldCat - ISBN 1401227015


 * The Planetary Omnibus - Collects #1-27, plus Planetary/The Authority: Ruling the World, Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta, & Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth -

History
Planetary was previewed in issue #33 of Gen¹³ and issue #6 of C-23, both dated September 1998. The first issue of the series was cover-dated April 1999. Originally intended to be a 24-issue bi-monthly series, the series was on hold from 2001 to 2003 due to illness of writer Warren Ellis and other commitments by Cassaday. Laura Martin (also credited as Laura DePuy) colored almost every issue of the series. The series recommenced in 2004 and concluded with issue #27 in October 2009.

Ellis intended the focus of the book to be the superhero genre, rather than the superheroes themselves. "I wanted to do something that actually went deeper into the subgenre, exposed its roots and showed its branches" and stated in his proposal for the comic series: "What if you had a hundred years of superhero history just slowly leaking out into this young and modern superhero world of the Wildstorm Universe? What if you could take everything old and make it new again?"

Rich Kreiner described John Cassaday's artwork in The Comics Journal as being "close to the gold standard for fabulous realism in mainstream comics". Tom Underhill noted colorist Laura Martin's contribution as "every bit as compelling" as Cassaday's in his review for The Comics Journal.

One of the series main features is the portrayal of alternate versions of many figures from popular culture, such as Godzilla, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and Doc Savage. This extends to comic book characters from both DC Comics (e.g. Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman) andMarvel Comics (e.g. The Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Thor).

Ellis also introduced the concept of a multiverse to the series, drawing upon the mathematical concept known as the Monster group for inspiration. The multiverse is described as "a theoretical snowflake existing in 196,833 dimensional space", a reference to the visualization method used by some mathematicians when describing the Monster group.- Planetary

Creative Team
Writer/Creator: Warren Ellis. Artist/Creator: John Cassaday.

Publishing History
First published in 1999.

Links

 * DC Comics - Publisher's Website
 * Planetary (comics)