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Keeping in mind that my comics are all boxed up waiting to be moved, so I can't pull stuff out to examine as I type:
While the pacing has become so glacial or even non-existent, because haven't we been waiting to see Dowling forever without more than a couple hints as to what we can expect -- even with that fact, there are issues I've really enjoyed, and I quite appreciate different aspects of the series.
"Death Machine Telemetry," with Melanctha, is a good example of a story I really dug, even though not terribly much happened; it explicated a few important concepts, was paced oddly but beautifully (the opening and closing pages with Snow coming and going were quite simple but elegant ... especially the cinematic touch with the credits), and certainly allowed for an alternate reading of Doctor Strange and magical theory in general, although I like that by implication Melanctha's a bit blind to the possibilities of the world by her own mindset.
I think the problem with Planetary which is at the heart of the pacing issue is that these are about adventure stories, these are weird science adventure stories, Ellis is exploring the tropes of pulp adventure and sci-fi, but it becomes, at times, a dissertation on adventure rather than an actual adventure. Jakita, through twist of genetics, is easily bored. She goes out to adventure to relieve this boredom, but by that logic she should be going out all the time to have these strange adventures, go exploring the unknown, she should be doing that all the time, but she doesn't seem to, and the adventure aspect seems to recede away from us, and her, and the tedium threatens, and can even taint the more beautiful concept.
I think the problem might be the overarching plot with the Four. The early stories were beautiful, fun, and self-contained -- the more recent ones all relate to their fight with the Four, and he's trying to draw out the suspense, but he's really incapacitating the adventure. Breaking it up with more true adventure stories in between the decompressed over-arc would help. "Mystery in Space" was interesting but flawed in that we were essentially watching people watching other entities having the adventure. It's not Jakita, Snow, and the Drummer out there in space. It's the angels, and Planetary is watching them, we're twice removed from the wonder and terror.
Ironically, Planetary has skipped a few of Ellis's tics -- the random bursts of fetish culture and non-mainstream sexuality, for example -- but the flavour comes across as too dusty at times. This isn't just a case of no punchy-punchy, and you can't claim the joys of a comic based on different kinds of conflict when it's ultimately a revenge comic. |
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