Planetary on the Secret History of Heroes

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday was without a doubt one of the coolest comics of the last twenty years.  A group of archaeologists consisting of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and The Drummer attempt to learn the secret history of the world they live in.

This gave the series a broad canvas – one that could blend in classic science fiction and superhero troupes, polish them up and re-imagine them for today.  Some of my favorite issues and concepts of the issues revolved around rehashing our old ideas.

I should mention that by no means is this article complete in mentioning the ideas presented in those twenty-seven issues.  This column will point out hopefully some of the more interesting ones.

I have to mention the covers first.  One of the things that made Planetary interesting was that almost every cover was an homage to a particular age and concept in either superheroes or science fiction. 

Issue two was my favorite as it looked like a classic King Kong or Godzilla movie reference from Japan or the Hong Kong sequence in issue three.

Or perhaps the most striking considering the content was the Vertigo issue cover of issue 7.  (More on that later) Just fun, fun stuff that is worth a look at.

Some issues in particular that talked about comics in general should be mentioned.  And I begin with issue 7.  The plot in this issue deals with Planetary team hearing about the death of Jack Carter, a colleague of the team involved in the mystic scene of England, and a former lover of Jakita.  In hearing of his death, the team goes to pay their respects and they manage to attend a funeral.  The Drummer, who can read signals, including magical ones, discovers that Jack Carter faked his death.  He comes out of the open and confronts his would be killer.

This issue managed to feature references to all of the Vertigo concepts of the 80s including the Sandman, Animal Man, the Demon, The Metal Men, and Swamp Thing, to name a few.  Jack Carter himself is Constantine, who was first introduced in Swamp Thing and whose adventures were published in the book Hellblazer.  At the end, Carter himself says it’s time to become someone else.  Ironically, the tattoos are a dead ringer for another of Warren Ellis’ concepts, Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is the hero who tried to kill Carter.  His dialogue about being noble and pure is a possible commentary on the evolution of the humanistic side of heroes.  Books released in the late 80s like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen while critical successes, gave heroes some very real and dark emotions.  Perhaps right here is Warren saying that heroes can’t go back to simpler times anymore?

There were also Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern in this series.  Planetary number 10 retells their very familiar origins with much more tragic and realistic ends.  You see Superman shot down, Wonder Woman assassinated and Green Lantern’s weapon removed from him posthumously at the hands of the 4, the chief antagonists of the series.

The 4 themselves are obvious re-inventions of the Fantastic Four.  Ellis and Cassaday manage to take the concept of Reed Richards and turn him into the terrifying Randall Dowling – the brilliant physicist who sold humanity down the river in exchange for power.  His accomplices, Kim Suskind, William Leather and Jacob Greene all have the same body types, origins, and abilities as the Fantastic Four and are even dubbed “The Four” in this series.  In truth this was one of my favorite caveats of the series.  I always thought the Fantastic Four would be great villains. Apparently so did Warren and John.

This is all fascinating stuff.  You don’t need to know all this comic book stuff to enjoy the series.  But one of the reasons Planetary is still cool today is that all this history for readers is out there.  You didn’t need to know these things to enjoy this book, but knowing these great stories in comics added depth to a very fantastic series.  Writing this it made me realize how much I enjoyed and miss this series.  You should get the Graphic Novels or the absolute editions, I highly recommend it.