Planetary #27

Planetary #27
DC Comics / Wildstorm
(w) Warren Ellis
(a) John Cassaday
FC, 32 pgs w/ ads $3.99 US / Higher in Canada

Why bother? That is the question that ran through my mind as I stared down at the copy of Planetary #27 Shane had placed on the counter in front of me.

Releasing a new issue three years after the previous issue (Planetary #26 shipped in October 2006) is absurd. If the story was unfinished I could understand the need for the creators and DC Comics to offer readers closure but issue #26 did conclude the story, and those 26 issues comprise a fantastic piece of comics storytelling. Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and Drummer had stopped The Four, and with the accumulated knowledge and technology of The Four were going to start making the world a better place. It is true Elijah said he had one piece of unfinished business, but I understood that to mean he was intent on finding and rescuing Ambrose Chase. I closed issue #26 knowing Elijah would eventually locate and rescue Ambrose. The details of how it would occur were not important.

Writer Warren Ellis gives us those details in issue #27. A time machine is involved. Ellis devotes considerable time to the “science” of time travel, its mechanics, limitations and pitfalls. I get it– I saw the movie Primer– but then Ellis dedicates far too much time on gobbley-gook to explain how the rescue mission is going to work. You see, Elijah and his team are not travelling into the past to save Ambrose. They are scrambling the spantoglaticus with super-charged light beams and protopleons to disrupt the protective time cocoon Ambrose spun around himself the moment he got shot.

Actually, I lie. I made that last part up, but Ellis’ description is equally dense with crazy words and technobabble. I got bored reading the words, and frankly, was unimpressed and unmoved by the whole of this issue. Reading it only reaffirmed the opinion I had when Shane put the issue in front of me. Issue #26 concluded the story, so why bother? (Chad Boudreau)

Anna Mercury 2 #1

Anna Mercury 2 #1
Avatar Press
(w) Warren Ellis
(a) Facundo Percio
FC, 32 pgs w/ ads $3.99 US

Warren Ellis continues his alternate reality tripping super-heroine comic book. I wasn’t really blown away by the first mini-series. The story had to do with an agency that polices alternate Earths with agents that can only last an hour for each trip they take to the alternate reality. But as a bonus the agent gets extra strength and agility.

The first series featured agent Anna Mercury trying to stop a war between to rival nations in an alternate Earth. This series starts off with Mercury being sent a city called Three Souls Town on a newly discovered Earth. The folks there seem to have discovered a way into Mercury’s world and she is sent to discover what their intentions are. From the quick chase scene and subsequent gun fight, it might be safe to say that they might be hostile. I’m still not sure what I think of this series, the art is good, the action is entertaining but the overall effect of reading this series is like eating fast food at McDonald’s – it’ll sustain you but there’s better places you can be eating at. (Shane Hnetka)

Ignition City #3

Ignition City #3
Avatar Press
(w) Warren Ellis
(a) Gianluca Pagliarani & Chris Dreier
FC, 32 pgs w/ ads $3.99 US

I don’t know what to make of Warren Ellis’ Avatar work. For the most part it’s been pretty good, but every so often there are series like Anna Mercury that seem like they have some great ideas but somehow aren’t executed properly. But judging what I’ve read so far, Ignition City is Ellis at his finest.

In an alternate reality where space flight has occurred way earlier in the century, where space men have conquered space, pissed off the aliens, messed up WWII and then pissed the people of Earth. It’s the 1950′s now and space flight is now pretty much banned. The last free space port on Earth is a floating island called Ignition City where a bunch of former space jockeys all live – waiting to either fly or die. Mary Raven, the daughter of famed spaceman Rock Raven, has come looking for her father’s murderer. The culprits have been revealed, but there still some good old fashioned stand-offs and some shootin’ to do. This series has an old Buck Rogers / Flash Gordon feel to it and is as entertaining as Ellis’ Aetheric Mechanics was. (Shane Hnetka)

Black Summer

Black Summer

Avatar Press
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Juan Jose Ryp

FC, 192 pgs
Soft cover: $24.99 US / Hardcover: $32.99 US

Black Summer is about one superhero taking matters into his own hands. After he executes the President of the United States, the V.P., and members of their staff, John Horus tells the American people to begin steps necessary to elect a replacement government.

Our “hero” declared the ruling government was run by criminals, shown by how they stole two elections, started an illegal war in Iraq, and how their actions were made for corporate gain instead of benefiting the general population. John Horus claims his initiative to rid the country of evil was justifiable, and he had the power to do it.

Warren Ellis has taken the next step toward a new direction for the superhero genre. Like some of his past comics (The Authority and Transmetropolitan, for example), Ellis digs into the political ring and questions the corruptness found in government and elected officials. Ellis solves things with violence in Black Summer, making murder a justifiable means to solving wrongs.

Black Summer doesn’t cool down after the main plot is laid out in the first few pages of this collection. Ellis creates a dynamic world populated with only seven heroes, rich in history and character development. The action is intense as John Horus’ and his former team are targeted by the military, and the game that is played out because of this. It’s not pretty, as each player plays for keeps-if it’s for retribution, survival, or for questionable morality.

This series is a smart look at vigilante actions. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Really, does it matter? And it’s all put together elaborately by illustrator Juan Jose Ryp. (Dana Tillusz)