Comic Book Review: Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta
by R.J. Carter
Published: September 19, 2002
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Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta |
"Terra Occulta" |
Warren Ellis, Jerry Ordway, David Baron |
DC |
$5.95 US, $9.95 CAN |
B- |
For more information: DC Comics link |
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Planetary.
JLA.
On the surface, it sounds like a comic fan's dream-team. Glancing through it at Jerry Ordway's pencils and David Baron's colorations, it seems to live up to the hype.
So what knocks it down to a B- grade? All that's left is the writing, which is a surprise as this one-shot comes to us from master scribe Warren Ellis.
The Planetary group--comprised of Jakita Wagner, Ambrose Chase, the Drummer, and Elijah Snow--have a base of operations on the moon. For years, they have watched over the entire planet, monitoring for people with special powers, then killing them and using their abilities and knowledge to create new technology in their goal to create a Utopia.
Because of their murderous activities, the JLA never existed, through incidents that are reminiscent of another Elseworld's graphic novel, Batman: Holy Terror. But Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and Clark Kent still exist, keeping their abilities secret from the world--or so they believe. Wayne is aware of Planetary's actions and is determined to bring them to justice, and he has brought Clark and Diana together to help him.
Bruce: I have definitive evidence that these four people, these four people who rain down toys from their moonbase, these four people who technically rule the world, are thieves, murderers and war criminals.
There are some interesting high pseudo-science scenes that only Ellis could conceive, and they are exceedingly well done. Dr. Erdel's time machine. Elijah Snow's explanation for Clark's abilities. The dialogue is fine indeed.
But it's the plot, or the holes in it, that leave the reader without a sense of closure. They're difficult to discuss without spoiling what is there, naturally. There are four members of Planetary; by the book's end, there is one unaccounted for, and no one seems to care. There's conflicting information about the Green Lantern Corps. And the plot itself is, all in all, a "let's go kick butt and take names / okay, we've done that, show's over" situation that just leaves the reader feeling a bit... unfulfilled, I suppose.
 Fans of Ellis's acclaimed The Authority will be sure to flock to this book, but if they're looking for the same brand of high adventure that they're used to, I'm afraid they're going to be disappointed. Which is too bad, because the concept really was a good one, that, perhaps drawn out over a mini-series instead of a one-shot, really could have been something worthwhile.
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