Reviews

Absolute Planetary Book One by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday

garnetguardian's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious

3.5

macthebrazen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

acrisalves's review against another edition

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4.0

https://osrascunhos.com/2017/12/08/planetary-warren-ellis-e-john-cassaday/

Altamente recomendada por João Barreiros, este volume de banda desenhada centra-se numa estranha e fria personagem com poderes associados ao gelo, Elijah Snow. A história começa com a sua contratação por um grupo de investigadores de mistérios, um grupo de pessoas curiosas e aborrecidas que são pagas para usar os seus poderes e coleccionarem informação sobre a história secreta do mundo – principalmente aquela que envolve eventos sobrenaturais e pessoas com poderes.

Este grupo designa-se por Planetary e é financiado pelo quarto homem, um personalidade obscura e desconhecida, do qual só se sabe ser suficientemente rico para sustentar um projecto destes. Para além de Snow existem outros agentes, mas o grupo que o acompanha é constituído por mais dois, Jakita Wagner (uma lutadora quase invencível) e Drummer (que consegue invadir quase todos os sistemas informáticos).

Ao longo dos vários episódios em que Snow vai agindo com perspicácia e maturidade (apesar do seu ar mal disposto e anti social) percebemos que tem problemas de memória. Nascido, como tantas outras personagens especiais, no virar do século, Snow sabe mais do que ele próprio compreende nas situações mais banais.

Ainda que as personagens possuam super poderes não esperem vê-los em grandes intervenções e batalhas. Aliás, as intervenções desta equipa são bastante subtis, mais dedicados a observar do que a agir, compilando a informação de que necessitam de forma competente. Alguns dos fenómenos que acompanham não são justificados, faltando um enquadramento ao leitor, tal como falta a Snow, devido à falha de memória.

A dinâmica entre personagens segue um rumo estranho, com Jakita e Drummer a mostrarem grande familiaridade e companheirismo, e Snow a mostrar-se sempre distante, crítico e bem… frio – um membro mais útil pelas suas capacidades de observação do que pelos seus poderes.
Carregado de mistérios, Planetary mostra uma sucessão de episódios nem sempre dispostos cronologicamente que fornecem pistas para um puzzle maior que se vai construindo ao longo do livro. Existem forças maiores na Terra e o grupo Planetary poderá ter de escolher deixar o papel principal de observador.

Este primeiro volume fecha alguns mistérios e abre portas a algumas mudanças no Planetary, apresentando um grupo poderoso que poderão ter de enfrentar mais tarde. Ficam por explicar algumas coincidências entre os vários episódios que poderão ser relevantes e que espero que sejam exploradas no próximo volume.

qdony's review against another edition

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3.0

El concepte és bo i guanya interés conforme la història avança, i realment tinc ganes de veure com segueix la cosa, però narrativament, i sent generós, és molt, molt mediocre.

lottpoet's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

floorlibrarian's review

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5.0

Oh fortuna!
Why has thou not graced me with an abundance of dosh...

The format is lush and beautiful. John Cassaday's art leaps of the page, and the inimitable Mr Ellis crafts the best kind of mystery - the kind that's wrapped in nostalgia and capital H History.
As Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings as a History, this is Ellis' History of world steeped in Superhero Lore.

What utterly sucks is that I had to give the copies back to the actual owner.
Oh Fortuna!

docperschon's review against another edition

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5.0

Everyone's been telling me to read Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan for years. They were pushing the wrong drug. One of my comic pushers, Brandon Schatz at Edmonton's Variant Edition knew the right one to hit me with - it was Ignition City, Ellis's ode to Deadwood and Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I'm a sucker for retrofuturistic stuff, especially those old radio/film serial heroes. I loved Ignition City and told Brandon I needed more. He told me about Planetary. He said something about mixing Doc Savage with Godzilla and something else, but I had already decided I needed it - a book that combined two of my favourite pop culture creations? THOSE ONES?
Turns out Doc Savage and Godzilla were just the tip of the iceberg. Every issue was an homage to some facet of twentieth century pop culture, from John Woo cop flicks to Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, to the giant ants of THEM!
But those homages are just the "monster of the week" for a group of paranormal archaeologists -- it's the larger conspiracy behind the organization called Planetary that drives the story, and Ellis never loses sight of that arc.
The artwork is gorgeous - and unlike some great comic artists, John Cassaday knows how to craft sequential art really well. Ellis and Cassaday make a great team, and the art is both beautiful to look at as well as amazing storytelling device.
I know I'm over a decade late to the Planetary party, but I'm really glad I've arrived, and I'm looking forward to reading Book Two as soon as it comes out!

skolastic's review against another edition

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5.0

I decided to revisit this to see if I wanted to pick up the big Planetary omnibus that came out recently (I first read all of Planetary about 5 years ago). It's actually better than I remember - Ellis' little Ellisisms are not as pronounced here and his strange combination of reverence to and disdain for the source material (i.e. as much genre fiction from the 20th century as you care to name) actually works really well. I probably will get that big omnibus after all.

charliemudd's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 Stars -- Like a technological version of X-Files or Constantine, where secret technology and multiverse travelings substitute for aliens and demonic magic respectively. Confusing in all the right places, this GN has great art and story lines that close out each chapter but appropriately nurture the meta-story arch. Planetary is a group of three (or four, depending on how you look at it) characters that investigate strange technological and scientific happenings, with a goal of keeping the universe, and to some extent the multiverse, a healthy, thriving place for humans. Other groups, of both earthly secret geniuses and less earth-bound super-creatures, abound and contribute to the intrigue, but the Planetary team of super-heroes (and they do have their own super powers) does their best to keep track of the earthly goings-on.

hamikka's review against another edition

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3.0

Good stories in the issues, and I enjoyed the "secret history of the world" premise. As a collection, the volume was disjointed and I felt like I was missing something. The inclusion of the bigger DC characters was usually awkward.