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After 10 years and 27 issues, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday give us one last glimpse into the world of Planetary.  There are no neatly tied up plot points here but Ellis and Cassaday give us one last reminder of why Planetary was one of the first great books of the 21st century.

Planetary was always about the ripples; about how they interacted and magnified each other.  It was about stories and how one story rippled and echoed into another.  The story about giant monsters on a Japanese island was reflected in a later issue about giant Australian spirits around Ayers Rock.  A Hong Kong police ghost story played into the events that took down the 4, a secret cabal hording technology for their own benefit.  Even the 4 rippled into another Warren Ellis-penned book, Ultimate Fantastic Four, for a little bit.  Sporadically over the last 10 years, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday have reminded us how stories interact with each other in our imaginations and how they mesh together to create a large narrative tapestry.

With the 4 finally taken down in issue #26, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday spend the final issue revisiting some of the ripples they’ve set in motion in the past, giving a special focus on the fate of Ambrose Chase.  Back in Planetary #9, a flashback that told the story of Ambrose Chase, Jakita Wagner and the Drummer storming a stronghold of the 4, Chase was shot and presumed killed.  At the last possible moment, his body just disappeared from where it had fallen on the floor.  With the 4’s research and technology now in his hands, Elijah Snow focuses all of his organization’s resources on the task of saving Ambrose Chase.  Snow believes that Chase, instead of dying, used his own powers—control over time—to create a field around him that halted time and that Chase now lies in the same spot as he fell, undying but out of phase with reality.

With this final issue, Ellis and Cassaday give us one last visit with their archeologists of the impossible, reminding us one last time exactly how strange and wonderful of a world it really is.  They also show us that Planetary has never been merely about the fight between Elijah Wood and Randall Dowling, the leader of the 4, but, at its heart, a rescue mission.  On the first page, Ellis quickly establishes a new world order as we see news reports about how the 4’s technology has been released to better help mankind.  This sharing of technology by Elijah is itself a ripple of the Planetary/JLA story, where on an alternate world, Elijah was the hoarder of the new and strange.  Those Planetary/JLA ripples pop up again in Planetary #27 when the technology used to attempt to rescue Ambrose Chase looks remarkably like technology from Ellis’s previous story.

Planetary #27 has echoes from almost every Planetary story, including the other crossovers Planetary/Authority and Planetary/Batman.  Weird science, quantum physics, alternate realities and even some good old fashioned hokus-pokus and sleight of hand remind us of the magic that Ellis and Cassaday spun in this book.  Ellis’s own unique brand of internet research shows up in nearly every book he writes but with Planetary, he was always able to spin what he found into new and interesting ideas by blending it just the right kind of narrative.  Here he plays with the idea of time travel and even Schrodinger’s cat and makes it all fit into the rescue mission that the team is on.  It gets a bit heady and heavy on the exposition but it plays with Ellis’s favorite theme in this book; it’s a strange and wonderful world.

While Ellis tells us of the strange and wonderful world, John Cassaday has continued to show it to us.  Cassaday and colorist Laura Martin create a realism for all of Ellis’s grand ideas.  They ground it without ever making it feel mundane or ordinary.  Cassaday has told Ellis’s story through looks and glances.  The faces of Elijah and Jakita have marveled at what they’ve seen and mourned what they’ve lost.  That’s the story that Cassaday has been telling.  As Jakita, who feels her primary role for the last 10 years has been to hit things, has to stand aside and watch as others scramble to save Ambrose, you can see her feelings of helplessness on her face and in her eyes.  Elijah’s determination, the Drummer’s scared optimism and Jakita’s longing to have some role in the story are told as much, if not more, by Cassaday’s drawings as they are by Ellis’s words.

Stories never really end.  Planetary #27 isn’t a conclusion to the story of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner or the Drummer but it is the end of our time with their story.  The echoes and ripples of Planetary will go on as Ellis and Cassaday have made narrative connections between a wide swathe of stories and genres.  Whether it’s a Hong Kong action film, a Lone Ranger story or just a Fantastic Four story, the bonds between those stories will resonate with the story that Ellis and Cassaday created.  All stories are connected Ellis and Cassaday told us.  It seems only right that ideas and concepts from earlier in the series should echo and pop up again in this final issue of Planetary and give us hope for all the stories to come..

Planetary #27
Written by: Warren Ellis
Drawn by: John Cassaday
Colored by: Laura Martin
Lettered by: Comicraft

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