This week on View from the Gutters our topic work is Planetary, by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. Release between 1999 and 2009 and running for a staggering 27 issues, Planetary is one of Ellis’ master works. Nominally set in the Wildstorm comics universe, it is the story of Elijah Snow—one of the Century Babies: a group of apparently immortal superhumans all born on January 1, 1900—and the Planetary Organization, a group of crypto-archeologists dedicated to uncovering the secret history of the 20th Century.
Planetary is in many ways an attempt to make sense of a century of popular media. It makes frequent references to other works, including numerous characters from DC and Marvel, as well as Kaiju films, 50s B-movies, various stories and characters from the pulp magazines, and many more. It is also an exemplary supers story in and of itself, and expands upon the ideas Ellis presented in his two other notable Wildstorm works, Stormwatch and The Authority.
We encourage our listeners to share your own thoughts and discuss this week’s book either as a comment on our website, or on our Facebook page.
In our recommendation section our hosts nominated Luthor Strode Vol. 1 & 2, Boba Fett: Death, Lies, and Treachery, Superman/Shazam: First Thunder, Mouse Guard, and Samurai Cat #1-3 for discussion, and our selected title is Mouse Guard. We will be reading the collected volumes of Fall, Winter, and The Black Axe, as well as the Spring one-shot issue.
Our hosts for this episode were Andrew Chard, Joe Preti, Matt McGinnis, Tobiah Panshin, and Cade Reynolds.
