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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 12, 2023 18:00:08 GMT -5
Planetary #15 by Ellis & Cassaday
We start out with some Australian Aboriginal mythology and then segue in to Snow and Jakita arriving at the home of Ambrose Chase's wife and young daughter. Snow is there to make sure that they are provided for by the Foundation. And while he still won't take any guff he does show a softer side with the little girl. We learn that Jakita is possibly older than she looks and that Jakita and Drums had talked to Axel Brass to keep him from revealing too much to Snow. The Four are going to be up to some shenanigans at Uluru (Ayers Rock). Snow reveals that an adventurer named Carlton Marvell found a way in to the Dreamtime from Ayers Rock, as an alternative to rocket exploration. He suspects that the Four will attempt to do to the Dreamtime what they have done with The Bleed. Planetary gets in to a direct confrontation with The Four (though it's aerial) over Australia. The Four is defeated, though it's with a little outside help. I didn't love this issue. Even by Planetary standards, not a lot happens. We do get a bit of back-story and some character development. Snow shows some nuance in his ability to interact with others. We learn that Jakita is probably older than she looks. We get a bit more backstory about Snow and Brass. And we get a fairly direct confrontation between Planetary and The Four. On the other hand, Uluru is mis-identified as Ayres Rock...which would even be wrong if you were still calling it Ayers Rock. It was renamed Ayers Rock/Uluru in 1993. It was reversed to Uluru/Ayers Rock in 2002. It probably also doesn't help that this would be the last regular issue for two years. Obviously nobody knew that at the time, but there just wasn't a lot of meat here to sustain that meat. I'm trying to decide who exactly Carlton Marvell is an analogue for. The name and the look clearly scream Captain Marvel. But not the time period or the motivation. To me, that feels more like Flash Gordon. But let me know what you think. Overall, maybe my second least favorite regular issue so far.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 12, 2023 22:34:11 GMT -5
There is some definite Captain Marvel in there, as he traversed time and space, via the Rock of Eternity. I would ad there is also some of EE Smith's Skylark Duquesne, one of the earliest space opera heroes, who builds his own rocketship. Some Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, as well. Basically, that early space opera hero, but with a non-linear method of travel, to match the rest of the series. The art design is very much that pulp sci-fi/space opera style of the late 20s and 30s. I think the name is probably more of a nod to Flash and Buck.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Dec 13, 2023 12:36:27 GMT -5
This was a fast moving story. But there's a lot of depth here. The first overall arc of Planetary explored the 20th Century through what would be to us its popular culture. It only makes sense that Ellis and Cassaday would look at what came before and that exploration would focus on the archetypes of the genres that grew out of 19th Century literature, science fiction (Frankenstein), the detective novel (Holmes) and horror (Dracula). While those never went away, the 20th century saw different, but related cultural artifacts that had been previously explored in the series. Interestingly, Frankenstein's monster appears on the cover but not the actual issue. Some of the Wold Newton folks have postulated that the story in which Bulldog Denny gathers together a force to battle the monster is actually a disguised prelude to this issue, with Elijah Snow = Dr Frost, etc etc.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 13, 2023 13:34:02 GMT -5
This was a fast moving story. But there's a lot of depth here. The first overall arc of Planetary explored the 20th Century through what would be to us its popular culture. It only makes sense that Ellis and Cassaday would look at what came before and that exploration would focus on the archetypes of the genres that grew out of 19th Century literature, science fiction (Frankenstein), the detective novel (Holmes) and horror (Dracula). While those never went away, the 20th century saw different, but related cultural artifacts that had been previously explored in the series. Interestingly, Frankenstein's monster appears on the cover but not the actual issue. Some of the Wold Newton folks have postulated that the story in which Bulldog Denny gathers together a force to battle the monster is actually a disguised prelude to this issue, with Elijah Snow = Dr Frost, etc etc. One correction to that link: The name Bulldog Denny came about because someone (probably Dick Briefer) had read or seen Bulldog Drummond.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 13, 2023 15:02:04 GMT -5
Is John Cassaday just a bad cartoonist? Is that why I don’t like Planetary? The drawing is pretty good but from the samples here there’s not much sense of kinetic motion or panels flowing into each other. If, say, Steve Dillon had drawn the doll throwing scene above it woulda been hilarious!
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 13, 2023 15:07:41 GMT -5
Is John Cassaday just a bad cartoonist? Is that why I don’t like Planetary? The drawing is pretty good but from the samples here there’s not much sense of kinetic motion or panels flowing into each other. If, say, Steve Dillon had drawn the doll throwing scene above it woulda been hilarious! It may be that this is such a writer-dominated series; but it might also be that Cassaday is another of those who looks at comic storytelling as storyboarding a movie.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 13, 2023 15:09:50 GMT -5
Is John Cassaday just a bad cartoonist? Is that why I don’t like Planetary? The drawing is pretty good but from the samples here there’s not much sense of kinetic motion or panels flowing into each other. If, say, Steve Dillon had drawn the doll throwing scene above it woulda been hilarious! I think it might be fair to say his storytelling isn't the greatest. But man he does some amazing pages.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 13, 2023 17:30:00 GMT -5
I've never read these... at that point I was done with Ellis... I LOVE Doom 2099 and Transmet, but Excalibur was a bit meh for me and at the time I liked what Stormwatch was before he took over (the only original Image book I really stuck with) and for whatever reason carried that annoyance over. I've never been a huge fan of meta stuff like this, so probably best I did... though might be fun to read sometime.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 13, 2023 18:21:50 GMT -5
I've never read these... at that point I was done with Ellis... I LOVE Doom 2099 and Transmet, but Excalibur was a bit meh for me and at the time I liked what Stormwatch was before he took over (the only original Image book I really stuck with) and for whatever reason carried that annoyance over. I've never been a huge fan of meta stuff like this, so probably best I did... though might be fun to read sometime. Opinions are divided, by which I mean everyone likes it except for me. My top 5 Warren Ellis (who was vey prolific so I haven’t read everything) 1) Transmet 2). Crecy 3) the last arc of the Authority, seriously, only the last 4 issues. 4) Nextwave 5) Global Frequency, but this is soooo close with Frankenstein and Karnak and Thunderbolts.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 13, 2023 20:57:23 GMT -5
Next Wave was ok, but too much for me. I've never read any of those others.. that's definitely after I was done with Ellis
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Post by mikelmidnight on Dec 15, 2023 13:13:50 GMT -5
Is John Cassaday just a bad cartoonist? Is that why I don’t like Planetary? The drawing is pretty good but from the samples here there’s not much sense of kinetic motion or panels flowing into each other. If, say, Steve Dillon had drawn the doll throwing scene above it woulda been hilarious! It may be that this is such a writer-dominated series; but it might also be that Cassaday is another of those who looks at comic storytelling as storyboarding a movie. I loved Cassaday's art on Planetary, it seemed to fit the subject matter perfectly. However (to my surprise) when I've seen anything by him since then ... I've found his style really boring.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 15, 2023 22:18:17 GMT -5
It may be that this is such a writer-dominated series; but it might also be that Cassaday is another of those who looks at comic storytelling as storyboarding a movie. I loved Cassaday's art on Planetary, it seemed to fit the subject matter perfectly. However (to my surprise) when I've seen anything by him since then ... I've found his style really boring. Planetary is mostly where I saw Cassady's work; but, it is very much in that "widescreen" look that, quite frankly, comes across as lazy, to me. However, when the story is driven by the writer, who is stretching out the story over issues, as Ellis is wont to do, I get why you would go with it, to emphasize action beats, after a lot of exposition. I like Planetary, both conceptually and mostly visually, though I think there are some other artists who could have done those stories and brought something more to them; but, you can say that about a lot of work. I was happy it didn't look like the 90s Image wannabe stuff and that he could draw regular clothing and different body types. I kind of prefer the pulpier aspects to the pseudo-superhero elements and he does that stuff well; but, I can think of several artists who really excelled at that, who I would have loved to have seen on the material. Even so, Ellis and Cassady seemed pretty in sync and the end result is really great, even if Ellis does resort to vaguely explained powers that are suddenly really powerful, when the plot demands it. It wasn't as overdone as it was in the Authority, though, thanks to the archeological conceit; plus, the various homages kept it really interesting.
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