Comics: Planetary Vol. 1

Story

Elijah Snow is drinking piss-flavored coffee in a diner in the middle of nowhere when a leather-clad female shows up and offers him a ridiculous amount of money to come work for Planetary, a group of “mystery archaeologists” whose goal is to discover the secret history of the world. Snow agrees, and we find out more about the Planetary organization, including the mysterious Fourth Man who funds it all.

Snow finds himself on his first mission in the Adirondacks, where they find lots of dead bodies and Doc Brass (an homage to Doc Savage), a hero last active in the 1940s. He and his Secret Society (full of homages to other pulp heroes) had developed a “snowflake” computer that they thought might help them not just stop World War II, but make a better world entirely.

However, once they switched it on, another group in another mountain hideaway, fearing that their universe would be destroyed by what the Society was trying to do, attacked. Brass and his colleagues ended the threat, but at the cost of almost everything. Only Brass survived, crippled, to be found decades later by the Planetary organization.

And that’s just the first issue!

Issue two finds Planetary responding to an incursion on Island Zero, a disputed island between Japan and Russia (based on the South Kuril Islands, I believe) where giant monsters once roamed before all dying out – or did they? Issue three has the group in Hong Kong investigating reports of a “ghost cop” very much in the style of John Woo’s films. We’re shown what may be a different facet of the snowflake from issue 1. Issue four finds the group investigating something that happened with the Hark Corporation, a name which we’ll revisit throughout the series.

We return to Axel Brass in issue five, as Snow is starting to get frustrated with his role, and the role of Planetary in general, and wants some answers. We learn a little bit about Century Babies – those born on January 1, 2000 – and the powers they possess, and Brass helps Snow put his concerns about Planetary in order.

The last full issue collected here (there’s also a short preview story) has Planetary’s first mission with Snow where they’re acting instead of reacting. The results, though, are not what Snow was expecting. We meet the Four, who turn out to be the antagonists of the series – a group intent on exploiting all of the mysteries of the universe for themselves.

Volume 1 is mostly teases, but it’s such a fun read you won’t mind. It’s not until the end of volume 2 that we really get any answers.