James Enelow's Planetary Annotations

Ellis, Warren. Planetary.  Issue 1 Vol. 1.  Art by John Cassaday. Wildstorm Productions: La Jola, 1999.

(Most of my quotes are from Planetary Issue 1 with Images from WWW.WarrenEllis.com, WWW.Wildstorm.com, with links to pictures from The Snowflake designed by David Curkovic and The Good Doctor from Bob's Pop Culture Place.)

Planetary Issue One:

Issue #1   Introduces the main characters of Planetary.

Jakita Wagner, Elijah Snow and The Drummer.
A fellow page-designer,Ivan 261has an excellent looking page which has brief bios and images of the characters.
Be sure and check out his page.
Minor Characters: Doc Brass and his people.

Cover Concepts:
The cover of Planetary #1 can be viewed via the Good Doctor Site.

Portrays the Drummer in the background seated in a stair leading up and ending in mid-air. Elijah Snow stands on the stairs behind Jakita Wagner, and the Drummer.
 

THE CHARACHTERS
 

JAKITA WAGNER looks a lot like Emma Peel from The Avengers.

Here is also a good comparison shot of Jakita. Also, thanks to Ivan 261,  I have an image of Anna Hark from his Webpage.  I have a theory about Jakita.  Check out the similarities in her appearance.  Check out her the similiarites.  If you've been reading Plantary, you'll also note that Jakita has Oriental Features from time to time.  I'm not saying that Jakita is Anna, but I have a Theory.

Elijah Snow  dresses as dapper as a John Steed, but without the bowler and umbrella.
One could make a case that their very images play off  "retro" concepts like The Avengers.

The Drummer is clearly, a figure not unlike the modern-day hackers and slackers of Generation X.

My initial thought was that he looked a lot like Mathew Lillard from Hackers.
To check out an image of the three main charaters click here.
For a really awesome write-up on the characters check out the information from Ivan 261's Sight.
 

Notes:

• The small staircase seems like modern art and serves no purpose but for the characters to sit on.
• This sort of ambiguous nowhere   staircase reminds me of concepts like The Prisoner.
• You can also take a look at the front cover on the sight of The Good Doctor.
• The fact that they are a 3 agent team is also significant.
• Three agents, who work for an unscene source also brings to mind such retro concepts as Charlie's Angels.

Now I know I'm going to get flamed for that, but I'm only comparing the concept, not the characters.
 

• Now, as you know Charlie's Angels was a group of specialists.
• They were led by a mysterious fourth individual a "Fourth Man" who funded them, much the same way Planetary is funded.
• The Prisoner worked for unseen individuals who were rather spooky until the end of the series.

Are we getting tired yet?

The Fourth Man is the title of an excellent film noir movie by Paul Verhoven.

This was long before he came to America and decided to make Starship Troopers.  If you can find this movie, I highly recommend it.
 

What does this all mean?

If you've read any of Planetary so far, you know that part of Planetary's charm is that it relies on retro concepts, that revist the past and give the pastit new life.
 

• I think I can safely say that Planetary, a secret organization, chronicaling the secret history of the world, has much in common with the shows I mentioned above.
• Their organization is sort of a mixture of all three shows. The Prisoner/Charlies Angels and the Avengers. Planetary does secret things and gets paid for them. The only difference is that their agents have super powers.
• Ellis himself has been very secretive and very forthcoming with information about Planetary.
• Before reading any further, perhaps you should read Warren Ellis' own words on his "Preposal for Planetary."

Planetary introduces us to Doctor Axel Brass, a victorian style super-hero, who has been operating since before World War II
with is own team of heroes.

According to Ellis, Brass' People represent essential archtypical characters. He even posted this on his sight to shut up the comic nerds over the matter.

Brass' People

I think, we can say that Brass and his men are the spoofed characters of Golden Age Comics and Victorian Characters. Tarzan, The Spirit, Fu Manchu, Doc Savage, Tom Swift, "The Spider/the Shadow" and a War Hero "The Aviator" (G8) who looks a lot like any number of famous war heroes.
 

• I have my own theories about their roles and who they represent which we will get to later.
• Ivan 261 has a great shot of all of them up together, so you should take a look.  Doc Brass's League

Cover of Planetary #1: First Comic introduces  the"Snowflake Structure" which is a lot like the infinite universes/multi-dimensions introduced in the early days of Excalibur by Marvel comics, which Warren Ellis wrote issues of.  In Excalibur,
Ellis introduced the world to the British-hero-hardass who looks a lot like
 

• Pete Wisdom,
• Jack Hawksmoor
• Elijah Snow.

The only difference is that Snow wears white, while Pete and Jack wear black

The Snowflake Structure can clearly be seen behind the main characters..

For now I'll let the concept go, but I wanted to get some of this off my chest.
 

Another Fact about the Cover:

Doc Brass Makes an appearance in the back ground, possibly alluding to the fact he will be a major player in this series, or that he contains
knowledge about the idea of the Fourth Man.

Behind the Planetary logo is the Snowflake Structre.  I just realized something.

• Elijah "Snow"?
• "Snowflake"  ?

(Naaaah, I'm probably stretching.)

Page One:  A small diner, somwhere in teh middle of the Las Vegas Dessert or any number of places:
a dead end road, and a loan woman named Jakita Wagner who is just stannding there without the need for transportation.

(This is out first indication that she is Super Human.)

Elijah Snow is sitting in the nest to last booth and the haggard Waitress exclaims that the air condition "
always freaks out when you come in."
 

• Jakita Wagner states, "Is it cold in here then?  I really don't feel the weather." (Indication of Invulnerability?)
• Jakitta Wagner.  Looking at her name.  Jakarta is cetainly a Eurpoean or possibly arabic name while Wagner is clearly an American name.
• Jakita has slightly oriental features which creep in and out from time to time.

Page 2.

Jakita has a lot of information on Snow.

Elijah Snow: Without talking about Snow, we already know that from most hard-nosed detective novels, whenever you have a man named Snow or Frost or even Ice or perhaps Cream (Playing off Alan Moore) *Evelyn Cream* from Miracle Man.
We find that a man with a name like this is usally a force to be reckoned with even if they have a funny name.

Elijah:  Clearly an old testement name, reflecting the harshness of both
Snow's nature and his old character.  snow could be a prophet.

Snow, "Explain to me why  I shouldn't kill you right now."

Okay, Jakita states three things Snow is

•  A hundred years old
• He's lived in a shack in the desert for the past decade doing nothing,
• Snow "regrets." this.

Jakarta offers him money to work for him explaing that the job offers "A million Dollars a year for the rest of his life.  According to Jakita, even if Snow quits working for them, they'll continue to pay him and her organization can apparetnly, wipe the records of his existence."
The Hitch: We want exclusice sue of you.

• Your Talents,
• Your Memories.
• Your Experience.
• (Translation, we tell you what to do, and you do it for us.)

Snow and Wagner walk and we see that there is a helicopter which essentiually came out of nowhere.

Page 5.

Snow is equipped with a new wardrobe, a platinum card and unlimited resources in New York.
Which According to Wagner is the "Planetary New York Office."
According to Wagner, Planetary is paying for everything.  The Organization.

Page  8.
Need to know basis.
 
 

Jakita says, "the Fourth man pays for everything. We don't know his name. That's part of the deal.  He could be Bill Gates.  He could be Hitler."

(First concept of a darker agenda perhaps.)

Strains of Vertigo.

• A Secret employer with a hidden agenda?
• Someone with a lot of money, who hires folks and stays secretive.

According to Wagner. "More Money than God.  He funds everything We do Without Question.

Jakita:  Planetary, always been a three person team.
(So as far as I can tell, what Wagner is saying is that the investigation team is always three people.
But there are other employees we find out about later..)

According to Wagner, there was someone who worked before Snow, but Planetary or Jakita for that matter, doesn't know what happened to him.)

Page 9.

We are introduced to the Drummer.
The Drummer. No other names.  Again, secretive and strange agenda.
The Drummer drinks Wham cola. (Play off Jolt?)
Jakita:
"He talks to Machines and he's crazy." "Machines doas he says."

Jakita asks the Drummer what the word is and according to the Drummer.,
they're going to the Adirondacks.

We seen on Page 10, that Snow is not to be messed with and he catches the bottle without looking.

Drums claims that they did "Resonance Scanning, thermal imaging all kinds of stuff looking for stressess and signs in the mountains."

According to Drummer, they found a complex of caves insaide a mountain, a very designed looking complex.
Man Made.  According to Drummer, they can't find the entrance."

Okay.  We discover that Planetary has a mole in a corporation that leaked the information and that Planetary bought some time on a Spy Satellite.

Now

If anyone's ever watched Patriot Games, we know that it cost a lot of money to use a satelite to spy.
According to a character on Patriot Games it costs something like 100,000 dollars a minute or something.

I'm relying on memory.

Second

The Drummer sees simply looking at what looks like a normal computer, supposedly hooked into a satellite, is that the can see the
entrance is masked by a Hologram.  Drummer can see things or the computer sees the hologram.

The imaging of the cave shows three distinct chambers.  Again the 3.

Three is constantly playing through this series.

• Three Agents.
• Three Helicopters.
• Three rooms.

Drums: "This would be weird, but do you remember those diaries we stole from the old KGB vaults years back Jakita?"

This means that Holograms were known about ny the KGB and that Planetary is skillful enough to have gotten into their vaults and stolen the stuff.

Last Panel, Drummer Mentions the name of Doc Brass, and his last know location.

Page 10.
Three Helicopters.
Return of the three.

We know that Doc Brass was born in 1900.  Same birth date as several other individuals who disappeared in January One, 1945.
According to Jakita. Brass, was your Renaissance man.
We learn that the Diaries were Brass' Diaries who were taken and kepts by someone who dies in Berlin on VE Day in 1845.
(Possibly One of the other men to be seen later?  The Aviator?  or Edison maybe? )
 
 

The KGB found the Diaries and decided to repress the inrmation from the general Public..

Planetary made a study of the books and found that Brass,
 

• (A.) Could Stop Aging,  and
• (B.) Found a way to survive without eating,

and Brass had a group who accordiding to Jakita. "Knew and dealt with things that History never recorded.  Things we should know about."

Snow Claims that Jakita is being evasive, but as far as I can tell she's being straightforward.  We found some diaries.  Diaries, that if I know a
Victorian here were probably pretty detailed and that they probably mentioed ideas and even inventions that the world had ever seen.)

Hypthoesis:  Snow doesn't like that he's been found and
(A) it sort of bothers him that Planetary could find him and that they're tracking down someone just like him, effectively.

Jakita walks away

Drummer claims Jakita can "Drop Kick A rhino over the grand Canyon."

We learn that Drummer is the "information Officer," and that he doesn't risk his neck.
Snow climbs down the Ladder. Jakita drops from the helecopter and survives probably a 50 foot drop, maybe more.  She leaves a crater.
 

The pass through what appears to be a holographic door.

Jakita says Planetary has been going for four years before she joined.

Jakita states that she gets bored easily which is why she took the job which is because she gets bored easily.

Inside the Hidden Vault:  Skeletens and Trophies, not unlike all Super Heroes and especially the Juistice League of America.(JLA)
 

• Trophy 1:  A skeleton of the "Vulcan Raven God."  (Some kind of Bird man)
• (Possibly Sauron?)
• Trophy 2:  The Hull of the Charnel Ship.   (Interdimensional ship)
• (an actual ship made of  what appears to be wood or brass or alien metal
• Reminds me Hourman's Ship and is clearly an interdimensional shift-ship)
• Trophy 3:  Vestements of the Black Crow King.
• (The Shade?)
• Trophy 4:  Stautes or actualy univorms of "The Murder Colonials"
• (No Idea.)

(Okay, I have no idea what these trophies might mean.  Perhaps Ellis is simply playing with Early golden age concepts, and that these could easily have just been cases that Doc Brass solved, recreating a sort of Golden Age Mystique.)

On the next page, we see Doc Brass, his clothes Shredded, brandishing almost space age weapons and his legs broken and lacerated heavily.  He is
surrounded by Skeletons and behind him is the first Glimps of the Snowflake. ( A returning concept in Planetary.)
Snow looks at the snowflake and says, "Christ..."

Jakita:

"Your guns are useless on me." (Okay. Invulnerabilty and Super Strength.)
According to Brass. we have no time.  Stopped the need for fool and sleep in 1942.  Stopped aging in 43.  Learned to Close wounds with the power of
my mind in 44.

According to Brass, "what he's been doing is important."
Brass:

"They called me here in January '45.  They built the cave structure ten years ealier.According To Brass, it was meant to be a headquarters and they didn't feel safe any other way.
 
 

v
Doc Brass
enters the room and surrounded by his Golden-Age Counter pats.  Room is Circular. with Seven chairs.  Four next to each other and three seperate
from the others. Seated and standing are Ellis' Archetypes.  Brass is clearly Doc Savage.  Look at the Resemblance between them.

Doc Savage
Doc Brass

Also, Here's a seperate section on Doc Brass, which can also be found through Ivan 261's Sight.
Here's a whole page devoted to the Good Doctor.
 
 

Hark is on the left, and  is obviously Dr. Fu-Manchu.

On the far right is the

Who is also standing.  The Shadow.
 

Now, returning to the character that appears to be

which could also be a tip of the hat to

as well, who I beleive had an African hide-out and a jungle origin as well.
Seated by Hark is aparently a guy in a blue suit and red tie

invoking images of both

or possibly

Both G8 and Edison get up and turn immediately toward Brass.

The round table, evokes the ideas of the best and the brightest, seemingly reminiscent of the Arthurian legend, and even though they were all equal, there were three, invidviduals who were in a sense the leaders and 3 wise men.  Much like the JLa, Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, or the alternating  Aquaman/J'onn, Guinivere, Arthur and Lancelot,  Father son and Holy ghost.--Kirk, Spock and Bones.

Also note That Brass wears mostly white, Hark wears mostly black.

In Brass's own words. "I left my Associates in New York." Where does planetary Start out?  NEW YORK Moving on.

The guy in the blue suit is named Jimmy.  He operates on the west Coast, and he describes things there as "Weird."
The straight laced suit and fedora reminds me of a government agent.  I almost want to say that this character is a Kolencheck character, someone dealing with problems, weird problems on the west coast.  I'm not sure where Kolencheck was based out of but I would imagien it might be Salem?

Okay, the Englishman, He is a lord. (Tarzan) but I do believe that the The Phantom was an English Lord as well.

The Shadow/Spider: He must get back to Chicago, alludes to both the Spider or the Shadow,

The guy in the lab coat is named Edison. apparently in 1940, Brass and he built computers.
According to the Kolchack/Spirt/FBI character, these ecomputers are simple electronics.  Binary Operation Electronic Calculation using two states. "On"  and "Off."

This possibly alludes to something to do with Thomas Edison?  I'm not sure.  Feel free to e-mail me with the correct answer.
In the Background Edison carries one and it looks like a Luminary lantern.

According the Brass, "Between us, We've come up with an Extrapolation of The Computer that's wellóit's kind of ...frightening."

I believe Brass is referring to the fact he ay have created the first Artifical intelligence, but there is an Ambiguity in that he never finishes.Edison states that things arn't just simple as black and (white) and that the world operates in areas between on and off in shades of Grey.

NOW!  Go back  to the Table.
From left and right, you have the Black Figures, Hark and The Spider
who believe in Hard vengence, and hard decisions and making the logical choice.

Moving through you have the Kolencheck and Tarzan,
both men who have seen things no one can exactly explain and have had to do creative solutions to get around them and make decisions.  They are both Colorful.representing shades ofBlue and Purple, colors that are closer to black on the Color Spectrum.

Next to Tarzan and Kolencheck you have the Fighter Pilot and the (Scientist.)
Two deeply archtypical figures and two archetypes of modern society.

Brains and Brawn!  One or the other.  The Haggard Brown reflects that his man has seen hardness and has experience, while the pure white of Edisons coat and his scientifc background represents ideas of innocence and yet research. Edison is also the most colorful character,  His shirt is red.  His pants are blue and his coat is white, but his boots are brown, reflecting that he is travelled and perhaps experienced in his travels. All these characters spiral toward the center who is

Hark talks about a calculating device.
The 7 are hooking up the computers and they are talking
Hark stares into the Snowflake and claims it to be the shape of reality.

• "He called it the Multi-verse
• A concept introduced in the pages of Stormwatch
• but also talked about in Marvel Comics
• and not unlike Hyper-time.

We see in the top Panel the three heads. Brass, Edison, and Hark.
Hark, the spirit of possibly

• Logos, what is Logical. With Edison taking up a possibly more emotional role
• Pathos
• (Hark is probably more emotional actually, but his cool oriental mind would probably be more logical.For now we'll place him there.)
• Brass is quite clearly Ethos."

The group of the seven heroes set out to save the planet, by apparently manipulating the snowflake to create favorable outcomes for the future.  As far as I can tell these men were explorers seeking to alter reality,but according to Brass, as the alter reality other realities vanished. This theme is not unlike that of the Authority.  The authority interfere in different deminsions at the end of Shiftships and wipe out many of the living people on the second earth.

Hark as the Mathemetician works with Logic trying to calculate statistics for Geo-Politices, Psychology and Weather systems as well as the Procession of Stars.

According to Brass: He and the others staying the cave most of the decade trying to
 manipulate postiver outcomes for the world and its future.

According to Brass: "We could never juggle all the myriad possiblities our actions set in motion."

Note:  Controlling the snowflake is like juggling an equation with a gazillion variables.

According to Brass:  "The brain could handle the equation."

According to Brass:  He moved it into life. (Translation:  He gave it life.  A.I.)

According to Brass:  One Flaw in his imagination was the ruin.
"the snowflake began to grow; universes lived and dies in a matter of seconds.

The last thing we see is another league of 7 people.

A group of people in a mountain hideway looked accross the gulf of realities at un knowing that their universe was on the verge of decoherance, destruction--and went for us.

Note: What we can clearly determine is that these 7 people were doing the same thing Brass and his men were.  The outcome of their battle would determine the fate of two worlds.

Note:  The conept presented here is a lot like that presented in JLA: Earth 2.  The notion of Balance between the worlds.  The Jal Heroes in Morrioson's novel fail to recognize importante of balance.  If one prospers the other must prosper or die.

The people here are clearly Ellis' incarnation of te Justice League.  Though they are carefully disguised they still wear the same colors and uniquely the iconic heroes.  Ellis portrays Superman and Martian Manhunter as uniquely alien and manners as excessively alien.  Ellis reverses the Flash's colors.  Reverses Green Lantern as Blue in stead of Green, but the large power ring is clearly visable.  Aquaman is more like the creature from the Black Lagoon and Wonder Woman has blonde hair and a shield.

Note:  The fight plays out as expected.
The Shadow fights Batman. Vigilante Versus Vigilante.
Tom Swift fights the Flash, killing him with a laser weapon, the only thing fast enough to kill him (The two youngest versus one another.

The amazon fights Tarzan.  (The Two noble savages.)
though she manages to kill The Spirit with her shield first which is probably a play off some reference, but I'm not sure.

G-8 Fights Green Lantern.  (Kills Him.)
Pilot versus Pilot.  Hal Versus a world War II fighter pilot.

Both pilots who were changed by extraordinary events.
In the Background Aquaman attacks G-8 from behind.

Hark, the truest Alien goes head to head with the Martian Manhunter (the two aliens.)
Brass and Superman go head to head.  (The Two Supermen.)

According to Brass:  They were going to kill everybody on this world and move their people to this one.
Note:  This is a far cry from the JLA, I know.

It does register with Morrison's Idea of Balance.

According to Brass:  Only I survived.
Note:  We can only account for certain bodies.
We make out Superman's Body.  We can assume dead.
We make out J'Onns' Sketelten (DEAD)
We make out Hark's hand.  Note:  Rule of thumb.  No body, Not dead.
In the Fight we see the Flash Die.
We also see Blue Lantern Die.
The Spirit Dies first

The death toll seems to equal 5.  4 Leaguers.  1 Brass League.
Hark could be alive.

Rule of Balance:  It's probably 4 death's both sides.
We make out three skeletens behind Brass when Planetary enters.
One Skeleten has a purple sleeve.  (Tarzan)
The other two skeletens are human.
Brass is using the Spider's Guns.  (The Spider is dead).
The other skeleten is unidentifiable.
The body count appears to be even.

It stands to reason that the three major heads lived.  Hark.  Edison, Brass.
I believe we can assume The Spider and G-8 died.  Again it's only conjecture.
None of the skeletens have long fingernails. Most appear to be human, though we only have a brief glimps of Superman's arm

Edison's weapon is enough to defeat most of the league.  We can only make guesses about who lived on the League's side.

In the Last Scene we see Elijah ask about the third helicopter, but Jakita only tells him "Not Telling."

I believe Snow  mistakes this for.  "No telling."

According to this, there are still come issue behind Planetary's purpose and it's secretiveness.