Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man

Marc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:21:54 +0000

As you might expect from the title, Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man is where the Planetary story really starts to pick up the pace. In addition to some kick-ass stories, Ellis and Cassaday start to reveal some of the back-story, giving us a glimpse at parts of Elijah’s past and the mysterious Fourth Man that runs and finances the Planetary organization.The book starts with more of the same from All Over the World, if you can apply such a ho hum description to such a tasty treat. “To Be In England, In The Summertime” is a great little story about Vertigo comics, particularly during the British Invasion of the 80s when Gaiman, Ennis, Moore and Ellis himself (amoung others) came busting out of Merrie Olde and gifted the world with Watchmen, The Sandman, John Constantine and so forth. Less subtle than other stories, it’s still fun to pull out the cameos, quotes from the intro to V for Vendetta, and see the little tip of the hat to Ellis’ Transmetropoliton.

From there, we go straight for pure plot. Oh sure, the structure of the series is the same, it is still a great commentary on the genre of comics and its origins, but now Planetary begins to explore itself. We get back story on The Four, on the Planetary organization, on Elijah, and the Fourth Man. Thrown into the mix are 50s monster movies, a rocket crash landing in a house, and some suspiciously familiar characters.

It’s hard not to give anything away, so I’ll stop here. Simply put, if you like Planetary, you’ll be happy no know that the quality of the tales continues.

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Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man