You know, I like Planetary. Despite the long wait between issues and the rather glacial pacing, the comic has a lot going for it: characters who are interesting, though not all that likable; a storyline that allows for a lot of digressions into other genres; art that’s clear and detailed and fits the writing like a glove; eye-catching covers that are original and fresh; and a healthy mixing of superhero, pulp, and science-fiction themes. It’s got Warren Ellis writing it and John Cassaday drawing it. For the last 22 issues, it’s been great, sometimes brilliant.
In short, Planetary has a lot going for it.
That’s why when it lays an egg, its even more disappointing than usual.
Planetary #23 is an egg. I can’t recall how long ago issue #22 came out, but I do know that the wait certainly wasn’t on the script: this issue is just a warmed-over retelling of The Matrix, for the most part. Yes, it sheds some light on Drummer, a character who sorely needed some fleshing out, and yes, it does shed some light on Elijah Snow’s possible motivations, but overall I felt that I didn’t get my money’s worth. With possibly only five more issues left, it seems a bad time for filler, but that’s what it seemed like to me.
The cover mimics a movie poster, appropriately, since the plot somewhat mimics the movie. In a flashback, we discover how Morpheus saves Neo from becoming a cog in the machine…. whoops. I mean, Elijah Snow saves Drummer from becoming a cog in the machine…. The slow motion jump out of the window onto a plane is just regurgitated icing on the twice-eaten cake.
Still, I can’t help but enjoy the art: Cassaday does a great job of depicting the action in a way that does recall the action sequences in The Matrix: a nice trick. He’s certainly one of the more cinematic comic artists around, and this issue plays to that strength. And I probably shouldn’t be too surprised at the similarities of the plot to The Matrix: after all, Planetary is the type of comic that usually takes a core idea from some other work and twists it into something different, sometimes more interesting (we’ve had riffs on Doc Savage, Tarzan, Superman, Green Lantern, et al, and the main villains in the comic are Fantastic Four ringers). And, of course, it isn’t like The Matrix is all that original itself (cough cough Invisibles cough cough).
It might just be that Planetary works better when you can read a slew of issues in one sitting, rather than having to wait months between them. I might try to do that with the last few issues this weekend and see if my opinion softens any.
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