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Like his fellow contemporary smartie pants English writers (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison), Warren Ellis sure does love him some big ideas. But the thing about Warren is, he doesn’t come off as stuffy or pretentious as the former two sometimes do, nor as completely baffling as the latter. No, this is a guy who’s just plain excited by theoretical science and the history of pulp literature, and he wants to share that excitement with you via some of the most kick-ass comics produced in this decade.

Oh, and incidentally, referring to him as “Warren” in no way implies that I have anything approaching first-name familiarity with the guy. I’ve talked at him on a message board a few times, and he’s responded back once or twice. I doubt he would remember any of this, and rightfully so. I call him “Warren” in deference to the one-name pop cultural (or at least sub-cultural) phenomenon he has become — the same way one would say “Oprah” or “Elvis.”

Planetary continues the work he’s done in some of his other titles, dragging the science fiction comic into the twenty-first century by daring to inject current scientific ideas into what has become a bit of a wasteland of cliches. (And if you don’t believe me, just ask him.) But beyond the nanotech armor of his run on Iron Man, or the slick modernization of the Galactus concept in the Ultimate Extinction trilogy, Planetary takes the basic Warren treatment a step further by actually being about stuff.

Through the title’s run, we’re treated to (mostly) affectionate reimaginings/recreations of the mainstays of twentieth century pulp literature, from giant atomic monsters in Japan to a quartet of space explorers being endowed with fantastic superhuman abilities to the rise of “grim and gritty” horror-themed comics of the eighties and early nineties. Planetary covers a lot of ground, and it uncondescendingly expects you to keep up. Which is one of the great things about it.

Another great thing is the art, which is almost as beautiful as pretty boy artist John Cassaday himself. (I can’t write about the guy and not mention his stunning good looks. It’s some kind of geek law or something, which also applies to Kabuki creator David Mack, incidentally.) Warren leads us through all that stuff I mentioned earlier and a whole hell of a lot more, and Cassaday never misses a step throughout. Whether illustrating a lost civilization in the depths of Africa or alien “angels” in deep space, he’s the perfect match for the broad spectrum of big ideas presented within.

This is not to say that he’s worth waiting six months for, which is what the book sort of degraded into toward the end there. (And actually, as of this writing, there’s still an epilogue issue forthcoming. I just wanted to get my thoughts down before I got any older.)

Beyond the ridiculous waits between issues, the title itself also felt a bit sluggish toward the end there, even when taken in one sitting. The thing about big ideas is, you need someone to tell them to you, and for the majority of the title’s final third, that’s about all that seems to happen. It redeems itself a bit toward the very end, and we’re delivered with a fairly satisfying climax to the action. But in a deliberately finite book like this one, I could have done with a little more showing and a little less telling. I think I’d have been a little more tolerant of all the “blah blah blah” had I known we’d be getting further adventures. But when this is all there is… it feels like kind of a waste.

Still, overall, this is one of the better titles I’ve read in recent years, and perhaps the crowning achievement of a guy who already had some pretty crowning achievements (The Authority, Transmetropolitan and the criminally underrated Nextwave.) Big words. Pretty pictures. Big fun. You read now.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Comic reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.