Planetary: Crossing Worlds is perhaps the least interesting of the Planetary collections. It contains three crossover stories in which the Planetary team meets up with The Authority, multiple incarnations of The Batman, and an alternate version of the JLA. The latter story is definitely not part of the Planetary storyline (it takes place in a different universe), and while the other two could be part of “our” Planetary, the stories stand apart from the Planetary series.The Planetary / Authority crossover is pretty straight forward. Both series inhabit the same universe, both are/were written by Ellis, and the story seems to mesh the basic attributes of each pretty well. In short, well done.
The Planetary / JLA crossover gives Planetary the Planetary treatment. In it, the team is re-cast as an analogue to The Four; they control the world by suppressing alien / emergent phenomena, then re-releasing it as their own. Opposing them is a faction composed of a naive Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent and Diana Prince.
The Planetary / Batman crossover starts with the Planetary team pursuing a fugitive in their Gotham City. The fugitive causes ripples in space-time, which allows the team to interact with various incarnations of The Batman. They are all here – Frank Miller’s Batman, campy TV Batman, standard 70s and 80s Batman - but tellingly, it is Bob Kane’s original pulpy Bat-Man who compromises with Elijah, thereby satisfying the Planetary theme.
Not a bad collection, over-all, but certainly not a necessary one.
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