Continuing our “Comixology Sunday” feature here….

For the few people out there who have never read Planetary by Warren Ellis, John Cassady and Laura DePuy, you can get a taste of what it’s about with a free download of issue #1.a free download of issue #1.

The late 90s were a golden era for professional wrestling and Wildstorm Comics, if nothing else, and in particular writer Warren Ellis. The Authority has definitely had longer lasting repercussions with its introduction of widescreen comics, Apollo and Midnighter and  a whole era of cynical superhereos, but Planetary (which appeared in 1998) was the meta secret history of superheroes, conspiracy theories and  comics themselves. Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer went around the globe in a breathless race against the unknown, with characters just one dimension removed from some other publishers occasionally making an appearance as the mystery of The Fourth Man’s identity ran through the first few story arcs.

Like a lot of Ellis’s work, the publishing schedule wasn’t smooth, but it had all the excitement, danger, heartless heroes who turn out to have a soft spot after all, body modification, Pixies references, cyber and other themes of his work of the period at their finest. For Cassaday, it was an ultimate star making turn that he never looked back from. DePuy (né Martin) just continued to be the finest colorist of her generation.

So yep, if for some unknown reason you haven’t gotten on board,  here’s where it started.

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