Review: Planetary #26 (Spoilers)
Dec. 15th, 2006 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayWelll, *that* was a... disappointing finale. Especially given the increasingly slow, multi-year release schedule.
On the one hand, I did like Elijah's cunning litle metatextual nods. He's completely confident that he'll win because he *knows* that he's a comic book hero -- and one in a finite series, so he actually can *get* closure.
But that doesn't forgive having a 'plan' that only works because of an Authorial Stupidity Field projected around the Bad Guy. I mean, this guy is an Evil Genius, explicitly meant to be at the level of a Reed Richards. Now put yourself in his shoes, and look at the plot from his perspective:
1. Your Nemesis calls you up and, using a combination of taunts and threats, gets you to agree to meet with him, while bringing along your greatest treasures. Ok, "walking into the obvious trap" is such a basic genre trope that you can't *not* do it, so you agree. But you do tell him to come alone, and he agrees.
2. When you show up, you see that Nemesis did *not* come alone, but brought a buddy. You make a snarky comment, but do not actually change your plan in any visible way. After all, the second guy is just a flunky, and any superpowers he has can't possibly be relevant, can they?
3. You scan the Nemesis for any hidden surprises. You also scan his flunky... no, wait, for some reason you don't. Huh? (Perhaps Ellis meant to imply here that Drummer was able to block Dowland's scan. But, A, he didn't actually say that, and B, that still requires monumental dumbness on Dowland's part. The man *must* have a dossier on the Drummer, and know he could do something like that. A proper Evil Genius would even have a way to circumvent it.)
4. Nemesis hands the treasure over to his flunky, and the flunky walks away. Your scan of Nemesis, which is running continuously just in case, notices that the flunky handed him a... nah, you're sure that a one-time scan is plenty.
5. Time for some witty banter with Nemesis. You love this part! You hope they're recording your excellent gloating, back in your hovering helicopter. After all, they have an always-open communication link, and contingency orders to act on if that link should happen to fail for any reason... what was that? Oh right -- you're trying to cut back on the monologuing, so you decided to forego the comm link this time. No matter.
6. Nemesis reveals that, before leaving, his flunky secretly handed him a Plot Gadget that nullifies you powers, technology, and communication with your own minions. Since you are an Evil Genius, you immediately reach for your the Counter-Plot Gadget, which you prepared earlier. Damn! must have left it in your other pants! That'll teach you to change costumes at the last minute.
7. Nemesis drops you down a very deep hole. I mean really deep. So deep that you have lots of time to think Evil Genius thoughts. So deep that you're almost certainly going to be out of range of that Plot Gadget. There will be plenty of time to pull out the Portable Antigravity Generator that you always carry in case of emergencies... in your other pants. Damn!
Of course, since Planetary is (at least technically) part of the Wildstorm Universe, which is *not* finite, it may eventually be revealed that Dowland *did* escape, and that the mangled body at the bottom of the hole was faked. But that just redirects the Stupid in the plot to the Good Guys, for failing to detect the fake.
There's sloppy logic elsewhere, too. Elijah threatens a bunch of invasion-minded aliens with a spooky threat, and then completely undercuts it by saying, "...and *we* figured ouy how to easily deal with this threat decades ago, HAH!" 'Cause, y'know, there's no way that hyper-advanced aggressive aliens could ever think that they might be able to duplicate the accomplishments of Puny Hoo-mans.
It really feels like Ellis phoned this one in. He even says "ancestors" where he means "descendants" at one point. I guess, in the small pond of comic books, Ellis has reached that unfortunate degree of fame where he doesn't get actual editing any more. Who *did* edit this mess, anyways? (Alexx flips through the issue again....) Huh. No credits. Almost as if an incompetent editor forgot to put them in....
Meanwhile, there's one issue of epilogue left to this story. One last chance to correct the gaping moral abyss that the story so far has depended upon. Any bets that they'll actually take it?
You see, the reason why the Good Guys get to take the 'moral high ground' against the Bad Guys is that the Bad Guys have access to oodles and boodles of Fantastic Knowlege, but they never let any of it be used to help the Teeming Masses, preferring to keep all that lovely power within the hands of their own Shadowy Elite. Whereas the *Good Guys*, see, the Good Guys seek out Fantastic Knowledge and put it all in a *book*, a book which gets published every year and then distributed to a Shadowy Elite... Um... Hey! Check out that super-cool pseudo-Victorian steampunk spceship that Cassady drew! Isn't that wonderfully distracting! (phew, close one...)
John Cassady's art is, as always, quite wonderful. I only wish the writing and editing had been as good.
On the one hand, I did like Elijah's cunning litle metatextual nods. He's completely confident that he'll win because he *knows* that he's a comic book hero -- and one in a finite series, so he actually can *get* closure.
But that doesn't forgive having a 'plan' that only works because of an Authorial Stupidity Field projected around the Bad Guy. I mean, this guy is an Evil Genius, explicitly meant to be at the level of a Reed Richards. Now put yourself in his shoes, and look at the plot from his perspective:
1. Your Nemesis calls you up and, using a combination of taunts and threats, gets you to agree to meet with him, while bringing along your greatest treasures. Ok, "walking into the obvious trap" is such a basic genre trope that you can't *not* do it, so you agree. But you do tell him to come alone, and he agrees.
2. When you show up, you see that Nemesis did *not* come alone, but brought a buddy. You make a snarky comment, but do not actually change your plan in any visible way. After all, the second guy is just a flunky, and any superpowers he has can't possibly be relevant, can they?
3. You scan the Nemesis for any hidden surprises. You also scan his flunky... no, wait, for some reason you don't. Huh? (Perhaps Ellis meant to imply here that Drummer was able to block Dowland's scan. But, A, he didn't actually say that, and B, that still requires monumental dumbness on Dowland's part. The man *must* have a dossier on the Drummer, and know he could do something like that. A proper Evil Genius would even have a way to circumvent it.)
4. Nemesis hands the treasure over to his flunky, and the flunky walks away. Your scan of Nemesis, which is running continuously just in case, notices that the flunky handed him a... nah, you're sure that a one-time scan is plenty.
5. Time for some witty banter with Nemesis. You love this part! You hope they're recording your excellent gloating, back in your hovering helicopter. After all, they have an always-open communication link, and contingency orders to act on if that link should happen to fail for any reason... what was that? Oh right -- you're trying to cut back on the monologuing, so you decided to forego the comm link this time. No matter.
6. Nemesis reveals that, before leaving, his flunky secretly handed him a Plot Gadget that nullifies you powers, technology, and communication with your own minions. Since you are an Evil Genius, you immediately reach for your the Counter-Plot Gadget, which you prepared earlier. Damn! must have left it in your other pants! That'll teach you to change costumes at the last minute.
7. Nemesis drops you down a very deep hole. I mean really deep. So deep that you have lots of time to think Evil Genius thoughts. So deep that you're almost certainly going to be out of range of that Plot Gadget. There will be plenty of time to pull out the Portable Antigravity Generator that you always carry in case of emergencies... in your other pants. Damn!
Of course, since Planetary is (at least technically) part of the Wildstorm Universe, which is *not* finite, it may eventually be revealed that Dowland *did* escape, and that the mangled body at the bottom of the hole was faked. But that just redirects the Stupid in the plot to the Good Guys, for failing to detect the fake.
There's sloppy logic elsewhere, too. Elijah threatens a bunch of invasion-minded aliens with a spooky threat, and then completely undercuts it by saying, "...and *we* figured ouy how to easily deal with this threat decades ago, HAH!" 'Cause, y'know, there's no way that hyper-advanced aggressive aliens could ever think that they might be able to duplicate the accomplishments of Puny Hoo-mans.
It really feels like Ellis phoned this one in. He even says "ancestors" where he means "descendants" at one point. I guess, in the small pond of comic books, Ellis has reached that unfortunate degree of fame where he doesn't get actual editing any more. Who *did* edit this mess, anyways? (Alexx flips through the issue again....) Huh. No credits. Almost as if an incompetent editor forgot to put them in....
Meanwhile, there's one issue of epilogue left to this story. One last chance to correct the gaping moral abyss that the story so far has depended upon. Any bets that they'll actually take it?
You see, the reason why the Good Guys get to take the 'moral high ground' against the Bad Guys is that the Bad Guys have access to oodles and boodles of Fantastic Knowlege, but they never let any of it be used to help the Teeming Masses, preferring to keep all that lovely power within the hands of their own Shadowy Elite. Whereas the *Good Guys*, see, the Good Guys seek out Fantastic Knowledge and put it all in a *book*, a book which gets published every year and then distributed to a Shadowy Elite... Um... Hey! Check out that super-cool pseudo-Victorian steampunk spceship that Cassady drew! Isn't that wonderfully distracting! (phew, close one...)
John Cassady's art is, as always, quite wonderful. I only wish the writing and editing had been as good.
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