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| Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:10 AM |
| The Take, Continued |
 by Fëanor |
Planetary Volume One: All Over the World and Other Stories
I was totally in awe at how incredibly good this was, literally from page one, and at how it somehow then kept getting better from there, every time I turned another page. Alan Moore's introduction (which I read last, for fear of spoilers) sums the book up better than I ever could, and I don't want to give away too much of the story anyway because everybody should read this for themselves. Suffice it to say, this is some of my favorite work in comics so far, with Ellis in rare form and artist John Cassaday somehow attaching comparably awesome images to Ellis's fantastically imaginative stories and words.
...Okay, I'll say a little bit more. Planetary is about a group of superhumans investigating the secret history of the world, which happens to involve ghosts of vengeance with spirit guns that shoot fiery bullets of doom, alien spaceships that move between universes and can turn people into superheroes at a touch, a band of powerful beings building an ancient computer that can rewrite the world, and a visit to what is essentially the Godzilla mythos. It's kind of like X-Files, crossed with Fantastic Four, stuffed full of crack, and then set on fire. It's also kind of vaguely like a serious version of Nextwave. And it's also some of the best stuff I've ever read, ever. I will be purchasing the rest of it, however much there is.
Hellboy Volume One: Seed of Destruction
I actually borrowed this from somebody (perhaps Cyn?) and read it way back, but I decided I wanted to own it, and to read it again. So now I do, and I did! And I have to say, it's interesting to see how far Hellboy has come and how much he's changed. Originally Mignola's conception of the character was as more of a thinking monster, and more of a noir hero, in that he's constantly narrating in first person. I like much more the modern Hellboy, who thinks less, punches more, and says "Oh, crap" all the damn time. I also think Mignola's writing has come a long way. This first volume is far too wordy, a bit melodramatic, and a bit clumsy. His later work is a lot subtler, tighter, and more clever.
Which is not to say I disliked this book. Far from it. I sat down and read it all in one go because I couldn't stop. I love Mignola's art, and the story here is definitely a good one. I particularly like the fiery conclusion. And anyway, it sure beats the movie!
[UPDATE: I took another look at the credits for Hellboy and saw that the "script" is actually by a different guy named John Byrne. I assume this means Mignola came up with all the concepts and Byrne just wrote the "screenplay," as it were. Anyway this explains at least a bit of why it's written so differently than the Mignola stuff I've read!] |
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