PLANETARY: SPACETIME ARCHAEOLOGY
August 15th 2010 23:54
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Publisher: Wildstorm Productions
Production Team: Warren Ellis – creator/writer, John Cassaday – creator/artist/covers, Laura Martin – colourist & Comicraft – letterer.
Cost: AU$31.95/US$24.99
It’s been a long time since I came across a hardcover graphic novel, in fact the last time I can recall seeing such a thing was many years ago, so many years ago that I was around about eight or nine and still living in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Back in those misty times comic publishers used to bring out what they called annuals which were released on a yearly basis (hence the annual term) for a reasonable price. I can recall having an Avengers annual as well as another Marvel franchise character’s annual although I forget which one. So it was in my mind something of a treat to receive this particular work in the post, taking me just briefly back to my childhood days back in New Zealand. Trips down memory lane aside no doubt you’re wondering just what the heck Planetary: Spacetime Archaeology is all about, good point...
It was the leader of the Four, Randall Dowling, who captured Elijah Snow and threatened him with killing his team if he didn’t submit to a memory wipe and fade into obscurity. This occurred as a result of a botched Planetary operation in Antarctica and rather than risk his team Snow agrees to Dowling’s request, thus Planetary lost its guiding light and was not as effective as it had been. This was exactly what Dowling had been aiming at. What he didn’t factor into the equation was the possibility of Snow regaining his memory and reuniting with his former comrades in arms. That occurred in spite of the Four’s threats and in the previous volume of Planetary, Leaving the 20th Century we saw the results of Snow’s recovery and the initial stages of him throwing down the gauntlet to Dowling and his cronies.
Now in this final volume the ante is being upped, William Leather one of the Four was captured at the end of “Leaving the 20th Century”, now the emphasis is being put on removing the world of the remainder of the group starting with Jacob Greene. With the aid of several alien ‘recording’ specialists that resemble angels, a plan is swiftly hatched that will allow the team to remove Greene from the equation. Although the basis of this whole scheme is the result of Snow recovering his memories and once again getting a feel and knowhow for the workings and resources available to the Planetary organisation. Greene is potentially an unstoppable killing machine, one that needs a rather unique means of removing and this particular plan he has hatched using the angels and the bait of a ruined space ship floating in the deeps of space is just what is needed.
With Greene taken out from the picture the focus then switches to what will be necessary to remove the final two members and potentially the most dangerous of the Four, Randall Dowling and Kim Suskind. The last two former astronauts who have been ‘romantically’ entwined and essentially the brains behind the Four are going to be tough to eliminate but Snow is no slouch. A former pupil of the master detective, Sherlock Holmes, he knows that to achieve his objective he needs to find out more about the Four, their origins and just exactly what it is that they’re up to. Sure Leather mentioned something about the Four being scientist gods and explorers engaged in the human adventure to which the rest of the world was most certainly not invited. All very well and good, but just how did the Four manage to get so powerful, where did their powers and skills come from?
Certainly each of them was fairly skilled to begin with, they were not what you could describe as also-rans if they had been they would have never become the major players in the Artemis program, the black space program instigated during the days of the Cold War. So how did they end up with abilities above and over what they were naturally gifted with? Ever heard of a gentleman by the name of Faust? Doctor Faust made a bargain with the devil; Mephistopheles, a bargain that saw Faust achieve what he wanted although the price was to be his soul. This is what the Four have done, made a Faustian compact with entities from an alternate reality, an alternate Earth that one could describe as being an infernal realm straight from the works of Goethe or Marlowe. Snow realises then that it’s not just enough to take the Four out of the picture but also to make it clear to their ‘masters’ in this infernal earth that the ‘deal’ is well and truly off – attempts to make good on it will be met with force.
I have said it before and I will say it again; Planetary as a series is a masterpiece work, it returns the superhero genre back to the heights it has previously enjoyed without having to have a world ending catastrophe each issue. Its artwork and storytelling is just superb. Ellis, Cassaday and Martin are simply a fantastic team who have hit the nail right on the head with this work and their other works in the series. It makes one realise that the whole arena of Western comics is not destined to disappear into obscurity, that it still has within it the impetus to create truly masterful works and hopefully that process will be one that continues onwards into the unforeseeable future.
| 35 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
