posted 08-29-2001 02:17 AM               

All Over the World is probably the coolest book I have read this year. And I have read a lot of cool books.

What makes All Over the World so cool? Warren Ellis is at the top of his game here, with dazzling ideas, deft characterization, and great dialogue all working together. Planetary is the story of the secret history of the twentieth century – or at least, the twentieth century as reflected in our fiction. Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and the Drummer are the field team for the mysterious and extremely wealthy organization called Planetary; they are mystery archaeologists, travelling, well, all over the world to find the hidden wonders in Japanese monster islands, long buried alien spaceships, and the hidden lair of thirties pulp heroes. So what we have is a roaring adventure story that doubles as a commentary on the twentieth century’s adventure fiction.

What’s important is that Planetary works on both levels. Each chapter of All Over the World seems like a stand alone story, full of wild action and carried by the interplay between Jakita, Drummer, and Elijah. Snow is the newest member of the Planetary team, and doesn’t have the highest tolerance for his colleagues’ mysterious ways and seemingly passive response to situations; Jakita and Drummer, meanwhile, appear barely tolerant of the cranky newcomer, but claim to have need of the expertise Snow has acquired during his long life. (Readers of Ellis’ Stormwatch and Authority will recognize the concept of a century baby, born on January 1, 1900, along with a few other concepts.) The character interaction and inventive plots would be enough to carry the book, but through each chapter a deeper mystery – largely built around the identity and history of Elijah Snow, but also around the true nature of Planetary and its adversaries – gradually unfolds, and the book ends on a great little cliffhanger that had me eagerly anticipating new chapters.

At the same time, the metafictional commentary is a lot of fun; Planetary is Ellis’ chance to play with a lot of archetypes. Snow’s first case, for example, centers around the final adventure of a group of pulp heroes from the thirties; analogues of characters like The Shadow and Doc Savage gather to save the world from itself, but instead find themselves fighting off invaders from a parallel earth. The invaders bear an obvious resemblance to the central characters of DC Comics’ Justice League of America, so in addition to battle to save the Earth, and its fallout, All Over the World reflects the fading away of pulp heroes and the rise of comic book superheroes in the late thirties and early forties. Planetary’s main adversaries are clear analogues of Marvel’s Fantastic Four; Snow’s hatred of them, and the reasons for that hate, should inspire readers to take another look at the assumptions that allow superhero universes to function. Planetary is a thrill to read, but it’s a very intelligent thrill that proves that action stories don’t need to check their brains at the door.

Equal credit must go to artist John Cassaday and colorist Laura De Puy. This book looks great. Cassaday’s design work is impeccable; the characters’ wardrobes, for example, are highly reflective of their personality, and Cassaday makes the wondrous and strange things that Planetary encounters appear wondrous and strange. His faces convey emotion beautifully; there’s a two-page sequence in a conversation between Doc Brass and Elijah that – despite being well-served by Ellis’ dialogue – could be carried by the art alone. The linework is clean and attractive without sacrificing any detail, and Cassaday has a number of nifty panel layouts, including a large number of page-wide short panels that convey a real widescreen cinematic feel to the action. (This works especially well in chapter three, which evokes Hong Kong martial arts cop films.) De Puy and her fellow colorists take those drawings and make them shine with rich color work that immerses the reader even deeper in the world of Planetary.

posted 09-04-2001 02:18 PM               

Warren Ellis is clearly one of comics' big "It Boys" of the new millennium, taking up the reigns of popularity where Neil Gaiman left off after the Sandman died of anorexia or faded into oblivion or was killed by an angry mother or whatever the hell happened to him. The fact that we now associate the name "Morpheus" with The Matrix probably didn't help much either.

But I'm talking about Warren Ellis.

To a great degree, Ellis deserves his popularity -- he writes wonderful globe-spanning stories of timeless and cross-cultural import, and with damn funny dialogue to boot. One of my favorite lines from The Authority came when Jack Hawksmoor and the Midnighter, two members of Ellis' superhero team, invaded an alien ship that had attacked Los Angeles:

"Hello. Welcome to Los Angeles," they said. "We're here to hit you."

Great stuff. Planetary, on the other hand, is something that improves upon subsequent readings. I know I need to reread it, because someone was yammering in my ear the first time I read it.

posted 09-04-2001 02:54 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Kevin Ott:

I know I need to reread it, because someone was yammering in my ear the first time I read it.

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posted 11-10-2003 05:44 AM               

It's a very interesting story, though I felt that the first book leaves a lot of loose ends dangling. Only toward the end of it does Ellis really get around to addressing some of the issues raised in the beginning, but I was surprised by how many elements were introduced - and then either not mentioned or mentioned only in passing in the following story. We're talking about some fairly big elements too.

Big enough to bring me back for more? Maybe. If the next-to-last story in the book - the "Planetary novel" centered around Snow and Doc Brass - hadn't started to go back and re-examine some of the things that had been piled on thick in earlier stories, I would've given up on the whole thing as a bunch of barely-connected vignettes, or something that probably should have been an anthology without running characters. Ellis salvaged it there at the last minute, but we're introduced to things like the ship that sails the Bleed, Snow promises Planetary's help, and...bang, the story's over. That's a pretty huge stone to throw into the pond there without some ripples hitting us later on the shore, if I might mangle a metaphor or two.

And don't think I've got anything against vignettes. I don't mind 'em at all. And I don't mind waiting a bit for a payoff either. But this first Planetary volume almost felt like it was skirting the issue of a larger storyline, flirting with it and then getting shy about it again.

Hmmmmmm.

EDIT: Actually, the Snow/Brass piece was next-to-next-to-last, wasn't it?