Planetary #1 and #3:
by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday and Laura Depuy
Wildstorm, color, $2.50
rating: Neat-O
The set-up for what Ellis promises (along with The Authority) will be his final shot at the super-hero genre is more-or-less as follows: A mysterious super-strong woman recruits a mysterious albino recluse to join a mysterious agency called Planetary, and dig into the mysterious goings-on of super-heroes and odd phenomena that existed before the modern age, but somehow escaped all notice. The idea has promise, but I can tell you right here and now that unless something is done to/about him, I'm going to get sick of the "Drummer" character right quick--in fact, I think I already am. I in the first issue we get to see yet another of Ellis' patented knock-offs of the JLA/JSA (for yet another version check out The Authority); it's always a treat to see how many changes he can ring on the same basic archetypes. In the third issue (somehow I missed the second), the three operatives stumble across a Hong-Kong cinematic ghost story, in which the ghost of a murdered cop is doomed to blow away bad-guys in John Woo action sequence style until another betrayed ghost can replace him. What purpose the Planetary dudes serve in the story, save to frame it, is unclear, but the action shots have style to burn--which is, I suppose, the point of a Hong-Kong cinematic ghost story.
