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A review by beyadob
Planetary, Volume 1: All Over the World and Other Stories by Warren Ellis
5.0
Warren Ellis is a freaking genius. I loved Transmetropolitan to bits. Trees was amazing as hell. And now I finally got around to reading his best work ever - Planetary. And I am absolutely blown away by it.
Planetary begins a bit slow and takes the amnesiac route to familiarize the reader with the protagonist’s universe. What a wonderful, weird, glorious universe it is. Ellis uses some truly fantastic ideas here: a machine that creates realities out of fictional narratives and lets those characters cross over, a brilliant post-Gojira tribute, World War II supercomputer that can access other universes, and so on.
It’s also a stupendously awesome and different take on superheroes. I won’t spoil it for you here; I highly suggest you read and find out yourself. The characters aren’t immediately likeable, but that’s how they’re designed: with flaws and everything. Once you break the surface, though, you’re in for a wild cast of characters that you’ll learn to love and hate.
The writing is sharp and superb. No moments are wasted. The art complements the writing, drawing the characters in a realistic fashion while maintaining the standard comic book feel. It’s a brilliant package that must be enjoyed first-hand.
If I had the chance to wipe my memory and read this again, I’d do so in a heartbeat.
Planetary begins a bit slow and takes the amnesiac route to familiarize the reader with the protagonist’s universe. What a wonderful, weird, glorious universe it is. Ellis uses some truly fantastic ideas here: a machine that creates realities out of fictional narratives and lets those characters cross over, a brilliant post-Gojira tribute, World War II supercomputer that can access other universes, and so on.
It’s also a stupendously awesome and different take on superheroes. I won’t spoil it for you here; I highly suggest you read and find out yourself. The characters aren’t immediately likeable, but that’s how they’re designed: with flaws and everything. Once you break the surface, though, you’re in for a wild cast of characters that you’ll learn to love and hate.
The writing is sharp and superb. No moments are wasted. The art complements the writing, drawing the characters in a realistic fashion while maintaining the standard comic book feel. It’s a brilliant package that must be enjoyed first-hand.
If I had the chance to wipe my memory and read this again, I’d do so in a heartbeat.