Written by Warren Ellis
Art by John Cassaday, Jerry Ordway, and Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning
2004
Available now from Islington Libraries
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Even if you've never actually read one I'm sure you still know what superhero "crossover" books are like. Team X meets Team Y or Superguy 1 meets Superguy 2: it starts with a misunderstanding which leads to them having a fight - there's posing and some destruction before they realise their mistake - make friends - and join up and save the world: Blah blah blah. I mean - yeah - the marketing guys love them: but after they're done no one ever really pays any attention to them [1].
Fortunatly for us Warren Ellis isn't much for sticking to established templates - and so in Planetary: Crossing Worlds (which collects 3 seperate Planetary cross-over stories: one with The Authority, one with the JLA (namely: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) and one just Batman on his lonesome) the stories told are rather different (ok - maybe not so much the first one [2] - but the definitely other two). And - as this is Planetary - (and even more so Warren Ellis) - the parallel universe underpinings of so many other cross-over stories (it's rarely the case that Team X/Y and Superguy 1/2 live in the same universe - most of the time when these people meet up it's because someone's come across a hole/bridge in space and time or whatever) is expanded upon and used to achieve some cool striking effects: less parallel universes as convenient plot point and more: my name is Warren Ellis and I have a subscription to New Scientist [3].
I wanna say tho: that for those of you thinking of giving Planetary: Crossing Worlds a try that haven't already read Planetary (the series that spawned it) then you should - only not all the way to the end (maybe just Vol 1 and Vol 2?) because (damn you Warren Ellis! *shakes fist at sky*) there's stuff that happens in Vol 4 of Planetary that is only going to make sense if you're read this first. Confused yet? (Ha - and we haven't even got to the multi-dimensional Batmans yet... yeah - you heard me: multi-dimensional Batmans).
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[1] I guess the only exception to that (and one that I have on this blog) would be the Batman / Judge Dredd crossover book (link below) and that's only worth checking out because of the yummy-looking fully painted artwork: not the cursory stories it's based around.
[2] Altho H. P. Lovecraft does rock up at the start - so it's not like it's a total write-off.
[3] And I'm not saying that as a bad thing yeah?
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Links: An Existential Nightmare Review, Acephalous Article: How to Teach the Interrelatedness of Historical Context and Audience via Warren Ellis's Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth, The M0vie Blog Review: Batman/Planetary: Night on Earth.
Further reading: Planetary, The Authority, JLA: Earth 2, Batman: Snow, The Batman/Judge Dredd Files, Marvel 1602, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright.
Profiles: Warren Ellis.
All comments welcome.
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