Planetary
Thought I’d pitch this one to you. Planetary – it’s a comic by Warren Ellis and John Cassady. I thought it would be worth taking the time to lay out what it’s about in case some of you like the sound of it enough to try it out.
Premise – Planetary is a group of 3 (sometimes more) “super-powered” archaeologists. They don’t dig up dinosaur bones , they dig up the truth behind strange old phenomenon and mysteries the world over.
What makes this interesting is that these are mysteries we are already familiar with – slightly disguised for fear of lawsuit, we get a new look under the skin of Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage, Dracula, Godzilla, The DC/Vertigo characters – in fact anything and everything from the last 40 and more years of superheroic pop culture examined with a twist.
All this would be cool enough – but the world The Planetary organization work in is a dangerous one –
See back in the 60’s a group of four people went up in a rocket and came back changed. One could burst into flame, one could turn invisible, one had skin like rock… ah you get the idea. When “The Four” got back to Earth transformed this way they used their new powers in the most obvious fashion, they took over the planet. They own the earth.
In a world ruled by the twisted evil twin versions of the FF – well, you don’t want to know what happened to Superman… or green lantern, or…
(And the closer Planetary get to uncovering The Four, the hotter it gets.)
Issue #20 just came out – it would spoil things a little if you read it, but not by much. I’d advise the trade paperback of the first few issues. Trust me on this.