Writer: Warren Ellis Artists: John Cassaday (p&i), Laura Dupuy (c) Publisher: DC/WildStorm
The plot: Elijah Snow seeks out an old friend as he tries to recover his memory.
Planetary hints at elaborate conspiracies that affect the lives not only of the protagonists but also, it is suggested, all of our lives. This issue, there is the slightest movement in the direction of some of the answers to the mysteries shrouding the conspiracy.
Elijah Snow has realized that he has significant gaps in his memory, and decides to seek out a well-trusted old friend in hopes of finding out more about his own past. The friend is “Stone. John Stone”, as Ellis gives us his take on the James Bond mythology.
The opening sequence of the issue is a flashback to Snow’s first meeting with Stone in 1969, and it’s a fun romp through the climax of every Bond film (with more gore, of course – this is Ellis.) Next we return to the “Last Shot” bar in Kazakhstan (Ellis had StormWatch visit the place early in his run on that title), as Stone and Snow meet for the first time in quite some time. Through talking to his old colleague Snow regains enough of his memory “to know more is missing”, and he realizes who has engineered his memory loss. He is (and we are) getting closer to learning who pulls the strings behind the scenes of the conspiracy, and who is the Fourth Man. At least, we seem to be getting somewhere. One expects Ellis to throw a curve next issue.
Cassady’s art is always exquistely detailed, even when detail results in gruesomeness, and he’s on top of his form here.
The coloring on a comic doesn’t always stand out to this reader, but it does here, at least in the opening, flashback sequence. It’s not for nothing that Dupuy just won an Eisner for her coloring.
