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Planetary Preview
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Planetary Preview
Warren Ellis
John Cassaday
Laura Depuy
Amie Grenier
Scott Dunbier

In GEN 13, Fairchild, Grunge, and Burnout hunt for their missing comrades  Rainmaker and Freefall, who disappeared during hurricane Claudia, but encounter Dr. Gideon Spunctry, a giant baby scientist (no, I'm NOT making this up) while John Lynch ponders leaving the team. 

In PLANETARY, the Planeatary team-Drummer, Jakita Wagner and Elijah Snow- investigate the mysterious death of Dr. David Paine over thirty years ago (more or less, anyway). 

Well, the reason that I bought this comic was for the 8-page PLANETARY preview, not for the GEN 13 story, although I had been hearing many good things about GEN 13.  So I figured, what the hell, I want the PLANETARY preview and this issue should be as good as any to see if GEN 13 is all it's cracked up to be.  Well, PLANETARY was interesting but GEN 13 was a waste of my time and money. 

Why ?  It was utterly pointless and stupid.  Dr. Gideon Spunctry, a scientist who transformed himself into a giant, super-intelligent baby, is not a sympathetic character.  He's an arrogant, misanthropic bastard, and not even a very interesting one at that.   I didn't care at all for his plight and the scenes featuring he and Gen 13 (which, unfortunately, was nearly the entire issue) bored me nearly to tears. 

Speaking of Gen 13 . . . Ugh.  I should care for these characters, correct ? Supposing that a meteor were to fall on them,  I should feel sad, yes ?  No, I don't.  If a meteor fell on any of them, I think that I would be happier. Grunge seems to be a cocky loudmouth, and Fairchild and Burnout didn't get enough screentime to make me care about them one or another. 

The most interesting characters in the issue were defintely Alex Fairchild and John Lynch.  They seemed to be very real and complex characters. Unfortunately, they were only on three pages !  The only other part of the issue that I enjoyed was the apeparance by the paranoid guy on page 15.  He was pretty funny.  Of course, he only appeared on two pages . . . 

Artistically, Gary Frank is good, no doubt about that, but he isn't remarkable by any means.  His figures look very nice (although Fairchild *still* looks too chesty; I mean, c'mon !  They're almost as big as her flippin' head !), and the clothing looks very modern, stuff that kids might actually wear.  And he does draw some rather nice facial expressions, too. 

But where is the rest of the artwork ?  Where are the lush backgrounds ?  Too much work is left up to the coloring, which, while very nice, shouldn't have to do that much work, IMO. 

Overall, a rather poor comic.  Apparently, it's better than it was before the  Arcudi-Frank team came on board, which means that those must have been some truly awful days . . . 
 

Score:  C-    
  
 

Planetary Preview

"Nuclear Spring"

PLANETARY is better, but doesn't show signs of measuring up to the high level of excellence Ellis has set with his work on STORMWATCH.  Of course, this is just an eight-page preview comic, not a full-sized regular issue, so it would be foolish to judge it too harshly now. 

I liked the plot about David Paine, a darker and more modern take on the Hulk's origin.  It seemed exactly like something Ellis would do, dark, sick, and nasty. 

The problem with the writing was the characters of PLANETARY, Jakita Wagner, Elijah Snow and Drummer.  I don't really feel for any of them.  In fact, Drummer already annoys me.  But, like I said, it's difficult to judge them in eight pages.  We'l have to wait and see how they develop in the ongoing series. 

Cassaday's art is also quite lovely.  It reminds me of a cross between former STORMWATCH artists Tom Raney and Oscar Jimenez's styles.  However, this art on the back cover of this comic was amazing.  That alone piqued my interest in PLANETARY. 

Overall, it's nothing too remarkable . . . yet. 
 

Score:  B-
 

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