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Underground > Comic Books >

Planetary #17 (4 page preview)

18:29 / 17.10.03

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0310/16/dcfirsts.htm

SPOILERS IN FOLLOWING THREAD

18:35 / 17.10.03

Try this link, y'all.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:58 / 18.10.03

On the basis of that preview, I'm starting to feel really glad this comic is up and running again. The atmosphere comes off these pages in waves. And I'm reminded that I like Ellis' writing in Planetary because it doesn't just nodd to the predictable geek-canon: this stuff is very Joseph Conrad too, for example...

Professor Silly

20:15 / 22.10.03

Kick ass!

I was surprised by the twist, where we finally learn who Jakita's parents are. I had my guess, and ended up pretty much totally off track. I'm not into providing spoilers, so I'll wait for everyone else to read the sucker before going into details...

11:11 / 23.10.03

Boy... what an opening. And Cassaday, you goddamned SOB... it actually hurts, Snow's beard I mean.

Now the sad thing is that I'll be more self-conscious of reading forgettable-shit until I get my hands into this. The happy thing is that I'll have a burst of utter joy when I finally do. Its the type of thing one appreciattes more as years pass. I'm glad I didn't read it when I was 12, because now I would be wondering where the fuck did I leave it.

Why do I like this so much? Simply because its the honest mastering of the most basic and obvious history-structures. Western explorer goes deep in unkonwn jungle and finds weirdness that blows his brains out. No crazy turns, nothing screaming like "We've seen this before!" or "We are trying here for this to look different!", and its fresh, enticing and new like all those century old guys you are thinking of already did it at their time.

And because of the sheer sense of adventure.

To think last night I was telling wife there was nothing interesting at the movies...

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

12:42 / 23.10.03

Agh! dAb! The way this issue's structured, that's a gigantic spoiler! If I hadn't read it already, like, whoa.

16:03 / 23.10.03

I'm just glad he's returning to his initial format idea, that every issue be done in a specific genre with a cover style to match.

And let's face it: the Wildstorm universe needs more pulpy adventure goodness.

16:06 / 23.10.03

Almost forgot.

Favourite moment: (SPOLIERish) The snake-thing's legs coming out of those iris valves. Now that was just trippy.

Professor Silly

22:16 / 23.10.03

Oh, I don't know--we were told before this issue came out that we would learn who her parents were...and that her father was someone we had already met...but I suppose you're right in that I didn't know they would deal with it in this specific issue.

Sorry if I ruined anything for anybody--such was not my attention.

Still, my theory was totally killed...and at the same time this still has everything making sense.

23:30 / 23.10.03

Cassaday is too fucking amazing for words. Loved the Tarzan analog!! And 'e speaks like a true Brit, eh wot?

put spoilers in the title or something so we can just go apeshit with all this stuff.

23:32 / 23.10.03

Speaking of which, this whole spoiler thing has been discussed on Lith comic threads a lot lately -- it seems like the threads on individual comics always have spoilers in them, and I've just sort of assumed there will always be spoilers in the threads. Should moderators consider a policy on this issue?

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

11:14 / 24.10.03

Honestly, the only reason I'd brought it up was because it was such a well crafted surprise for someone who hadn't heard about what was going to be in the issue and (Okay, Spoilers) it would've been ruined a mere four pages before the end as opposed to at the end itself.

No big, I guess. But this is still technically a thread for the "4 Page Preview".

12:00 / 24.10.03

Nah, change the thread title and insert BIG SPOILERS. I wanna hear about Lord whatever his name. Hunterwolf, tell as about it, sorry, about him. What's the lord's name?

20:07 / 24.10.03

I think Ellis named the Tarzan analog "Lord Blackstoke" - don't have the issue in front of me, going from memory here.

16:29 / 25.10.03

He did indeed as i have said issue in my grubby hands ma wau ha ha ha.

Now if only they would (once finished ) all this in to a Tv mini series hmm ??

14:33 / 29.10.03

Anyone know what the projected lifespan of Planetary is? I seem to remember having heard 24 issues in toto somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember where. Personally, I'd be happy to see Ellis shoot for 30, particularly if he and Cassaday will get back to grinding out 9-12 books a year. That would truly rock.

There's so much that can still be done with this, both in terms of exploring the pulp "roots" of the Wildstorm U and also in terms of the conflict with the 4 and the whole metanarrative. This really is the acme of Ellis's career as a writer, IMO, and I look forward to seeing where he takes it now that it's back alive.

Professor Silly

15:31 / 29.10.03

I too have seen the number 24 around, which might break down into four hardcover/paperbacks consisting of 6 issues apiece.

I did just see an interview with Cassaday where he mentioned a total of 25 issues--perhaps it will end with a double-sized conclusion?

15:59 / 29.10.03

Hang on - doesn't this issue mean that Jakita is just about to have her seventieth birthday? That doesn't seem entirely plausible to me. Is the baby in the issue her mother, perhaps?

17:10 / 29.10.03

doesn't this issue mean that Jakita is just about to have her seventieth birthday?

I think i's her... and yeah I think she's that old. Planetary seems to be populated with ALOT of long lived charactors... Show is now 103 as is Doc Brass, Ms. Hark is estimating she'll live to at least 300 and now Jakita is about 70+ I seem to recall a line of dialogue where she says she's older than she looks.

perhaps the common concept of a mere 70+ years of life is one of those secret measures the 4 instilled in the population at large to keep them under control?

that aside Ellis seems to have populated the Wildstorm Universe with lots of long living folks (Jenny Sparks and that guy The High & I figure I'm missing some others as well).

17:51 / 29.10.03

But most of those long-lived folks share a birthday - anythink special about the child of opak-re's birth date?

Professor Silly

16:35 / 31.10.03

Mr. Tricks has a valid point--and we don't know what kind of life-span the residents of Opek-re have. The whole notion of this city reminds me of the Tom Strong stuff (which probably pays homage to Doc Savage) which also dealt with extended life-spans. I mean she's super strong and impervious to most physical attacks, so it's no big stretch that she might be impervious to aging as well...regardless of the "why."

By the way, I figured that she was Snow's daughter, and that was why he was willing to undergo the memory blocks (in order to protect her)... and for the record we now have seen the answers to all three of the memory flashes Snow received in the bar up in the mountains (his lover, Sherlock Holmes, and the surgery where he got the memory blocks).

10:41 / 03.11.03

I'll be reading this issue this week, haven't received it yet at my store of choice in this sad corner of the world... the South Cone. Happens everybody here ships monthly, "everybody" meaning the two or three remaining comic book stores I count. I hope y'all feel sorry for me.

So, the big spoiler is that Snow was Jakita's father? I thought, honestly, this was very direct when he told her "Don't Elijah me, I used to change your damn diapers". Okay, he could have adopted her, but if he did change her diapers, well, he was either the father or the stepfather.

I still don't know from what I have from Planetary whatever happened to Mrs. Snow. I do suppose its the woman we see lying on her back in a flashback from Snow's mind... Oh, bear with me...

And you know what? I haven't read issue 16 either, it is being kept at the store for me untilk 17 arrives so I can read two Planetary issues together and extend the pleasure. Now don't you look at me like that, its Planetary we are talking here.

11:25 / 03.11.03

is she snow's daughter? i thought the bit about her being tarzan's daughter was the truth. bone structure, hair, y'know. it's wicked having an artist as good as cassady where you can be confident that these thngs are done like they are on purpose. it also kinda makes her the wildstorm superman if the oblique links on the last page are much to go by, the first [s-]hero to follow the century babies, the first man in spandex as he evolved from the pulps.