Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth

[lordultimus]

16 out of 48 pages.

Comments

[zylly]

Damn, that Bronze Age Batman in the scans just before the movie serial Batman is just about spot on perfect for how Batman should be.

[dragontail]

Amen. A-absolute-men.

[zylly]

Just the right mix of super-hero and scary bat-person, mixed with the right amount compassion that's not always present in the modern day interpretation. Where this one shows regret, a lot of modern takes wouldn't.

[scorntx]

Bat-Female Villain Repellent.
Does not get any less funny with age.
It doesn't even make any sense. In no remotely sane universe should it ever be able to work, and yet...
"It must work, Doctor. It is logical here."


Elijah freezing Crazy Steve's brain might be one of the better parts of this story, though.
Gosh, it's just so... so gratifying to see.

Whoever's decision it was to draw / ink / colour 70s Batman as being like the 70s comics, it's a nice touch.
(Especially since it looks like the colouring doesn't apply to the team or their target. Batman lacks the same shadowing and wrinkles they've got. Someone was working overtime.)

Crazy Steve gets brain-freeze, Adam West gets ribbed, but 70s Batman and Original Flavour Batman get respectful treatment.
Kind of strange for a cynical person like Ellis to do that.

(Also, someone actually pointing out "I'm Batman" is not an explanation.
Only Ellis.)

[lordultimus]

If he's not writing parody, Ellis tends to write mainstream characters with at least professional courtesy. The JLA story "New Maps of Hell" comes to mind. And Extremis had some of the best Tony Stark you'll ever read.

Mind you, his "just read a few early issues to get an idea of the character" style of writing can backfire, like the time he wrote Forge as a mustache twirling villain based on how he treated Storm in a story that had long since been resolved, or that time Steve Rogers condoned torture.

[katefan]

Honestly I thought Ellis' Extremis story was over rated. His whole I-have-to-fight-the-bad-guy-on-my-own mindset was as lame then as it is now when the Black Widow did it in her series. I have some issue with Soule's run on Daredevil but at least when DD needed help with something he called up Spider Man.

And Ellis simply doesn't get Stark. He gave Stark super powers and what makes Tony such an awesome character is he is a normal human being who stands side-by-side with super soldiers and gods. That's awesome.

[dragontail]

"New Maps of Hell" is, for my money, one of the all-time great JLA stories. One of the few times the team's been written as the indefatigable powerhouse that, on paper, it should be. The idea of Clark and co. taking down "Satan" despite being separated and played? Glorious.

[remial]

Bat-Female Villain Repellent.
Does not get any less funny with age.

personally, I think it would have been better if it had done nothing to Jakita. the spray only works on VILLAINS.

[thatnickguy]

Aw, you didn't include the "Tell me you're single" pages. Those are the best parts for me. Well, a lot of this book is the best parts for me. Aw hell, the whole book is the best parts.

It's amazing that Planetary only had three crossovers. I wasn't as crazy about the other two, though. The Authority one had its moments, but I thought it was a confusing mess by the end. And I really didn't like the Justice League one. I get what Ellis was trying for, but it didn't work for me at all. Of the whole Planetary run (if you include the crossovers), it's the weakest issue.

[q99]

-It's amazing that Planetary only had three crossovers.-

With Cassidy, they took time to make.

And I'm pretty much with you on the crossovers. This one was spectacular, Authority was ok, not a big fan of the JLA one.

[astrakhan42]

It actually worked in the book's favor to be delayed. Had Planetary kept in synch with the rest of Wildstorm, it would've come crashing down along with the imprint. This way it gets to stand alone as a masterpiece... and Ellis might just bring them back for The Wild Storm.

[q99]

Quite, being disconnected can be a bonus... though I doubt it'd tie in to the worldstorm stuff regardless.

[glprime]

Damn, but when Warren Ellis writes, he can write.

"There is more than your moral whateveritis at stake here."
"No, there isn't"
Everything wrong with Batman.

Neal Adams Batman and on.
Everything right with Batman.

[zapbiffpow]

"...Do you remember their smiles? Do you remember the times when they made you feel safe?"

What is this book, and why is it awesome?

Seriously, it's really enviable reading scenes like this, the ones that're really capable of piercing some kind of emotional armor. That's a gift, that is. Are all Planetary books like this?

[clayhornik]

Ultimately, they are. Only 27 issues from 1999 to 2009 they build toward an ending that's more than a payoff... and that's coming from someone who had to wait.

[zapbiffpow]

Awesome. Hope someone posts more of this.

[palgrave_goldenrod]

It's not here, but one of the funniest bits of this comic was the "Oh FUUUUUUUUUCK" expression Snow has when he turns around after all their snide mockery of the Adam West Batman to suddenly find himself face-to-face with the Frank Miller Batman.

[nyadnar17]

Funny and the Feels back to back to back. I love this sequence.

[akodo_rokku]

Planetary really is a masterpiece, and it's bits like this that show why Warren Ellis is one of the all-time greats.