Posted by Troy on October 8, 2009 23:30
The comic Planetary "ended" this week. 27 issues in 10 years. (Now THAT'S taking your time! So I don't want to hear any more complaints about how slow the Watchercast is coming out! Heh.) What a massive build up this has been. A poster advertising the final issue of Planetary went up in my shop nearly a month ago,
and I've been on pins and needles ever since. Now it's here, and this
was totally NOT what I was expecting.
First off, a quick explination of what Planetary is all about. Planetary is a group of superbeings (they're definitely heroic, but to call them Superheroes seems to cheapen them in this case, for some reason) that refer to themselves as "Archaeologists of the Impossible". They dig into every odd happening on the planet and try to understand what is happening and to make sure they cause as little harm as possible. It's been a fantastic ride so far, and the team has been involved with such diverse oddities as Hong Kong action hero ghosts and off-kilter superheroes. Most of the mysteries they explore are obvious references to well known properties, such as Godzilla or Sherlock Holmes. The three members of Planetary are Jakita Wagner, who is the powerhouse of the team, The Drummer, who can maniuplate "information streams", thus controlling computers, sound waves or anything else that Ellis requires from him, and Elijah Snow, who can suck the warmth from whatever he chooses. The mysteries often involve some form of "pseudo-science" that is invariably fun to think about and used in staggeringly imaginative ways.
Now, I have to
admit that it's been so long since I read issue #26 that I have no
recollection at all where we left off. So opening this issue, I was
expecting a giant, wide-screen final battle between Snow, Jakita,
the Drummer and the arch-villans of the book, The Four (a twisted version of what is supposed to be The Fantastic Four). Apparently, however, that's already happened. (I
really need to get my comics out of storage so I can re-read this
series beginning to end!) So this issue, we're left with a very quiet,
personal story. An odd way to end a book.
Yet, thinking about
what Ellis has done on Planetary, it all makes sense. 27 issues and 10
years, and Ellis gives us an ending that ends nothing. In fact, it
reads as the beginning of an entirely new tale. Planetary ends with a
beginning.
Whether we'll ever see another story with Snow and
his crew is up for debate, but Ellis has definitely left us at the
start of a new set of adventures for Planetary. We even have future
versions of the team showing up in the issue to tell them that "The really good
stuff hasn't happened yet. Well, not to you."
Planetary has
always been a very "meta" book. It investigates stories by telling
stories about stories. (read that sentence again, I swear it makes sense) And with this
final issue of the series, Ellis has brought us full circle, by ending
his story with a beginning. The mad bastard is truly a freaking
genius. I loved this.