Mid-Omnibus check-in, this comic run is absolutely incredible.

As someone coming to the medium later in life than most, and to be quite honest, kind of fully disinterested in the very concept of superheroes, this run is so very much a joy.

Everytime I start to worry that it’s getting into ideas that are a bit too high-minded or scifi in a way that relies on some foundational comic book knowledge, I can almost count on the next page showing Elijah or Jakita putting a bullet ,or in Jakita’s case, the offending character’s teeth, through their skull.

Graphic imagery aside, I understand that Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (honestly 10/10 names, by the way) have a rich history of work in their fields in the comic/graphic novel industry, which I am simply unfamiliar with. I find myself frame-by-frame looking forward to the opportunity to resolve this in the near future.

I’m 14 issues deep into this 27 issue run, and only JUST NOW GOOGLING how many issues were in the run, realized this was in publication from 1998 to 2009. I honestly found this while scouring the internet looking for my next read and came to it pretty much blind after seeing numerous lists by posters on r/omnibus and various other comic book rankings mention it.

My last graphic novel I completed earlier in the year was “Day Tripper” by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, which was an incredible and probably brain-chemistry altering read.

Going from that to “Planetary” has been such a whiplash in terms of tone, theme, and style (obviously, if you too have read both of these incredible books, dear reader) in such a way that I can only marvel at the range of ideas the medium is capable of exploring, and find myself ashamed to have simply looked at it as superhero, good-guy-wins-bad-guy-loses, boy-scout type of storytelling for some 30 years of my life.

I honestly, despite only having just completed Book 1 of the omnibus, feel as though I could go on about this for ages (and to the chagrin of my close friends and family, likely will) but for the sake of this post, and likely several more that will accompany it as I continue my reading, I’ll break my thoughts here and likely return with more as I finish the back half of this exciting and mystery.

As always, dear reader, I hope this post, whenever and wherever it finds you, finds you in good health and spirits.

Until the next,

Eckophix