Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

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-Warren Ellies http://www.warrenellis.com/

As the two adjourn to Wayne Manor, the tone of the liaison quickly changes from pleasure to business, as Bruce chastises Diana for using Planetary Portals, warning her that she risks being detected (by an as yet unnamed foe). She replies by stating that she's only kept alive by the foe because it amuses the foe to do so. Bruce has another focus, though, as the foe's omnipresent tracking has a gap that will allow Clark Kent to join the two of them at Wayne Manor undetected. Clark, a mild-mannered reporter from Metropolis, arrives on a balcony at the manor after flying here under his own power.

The three retreat to a cave underneath Wayne manor, where Bruce reveals that he's broken through the computer security of their foe, now identified as the Planetary organization. We learn that Planetary is responsible for the death of Clark's parents (who they killed to retrieve the ship that brought Clark to earth) and the destruction of Diana's island home and all who lived there. In short order, Bruce also reveals that he has uncovered evidence showing that Planetary have killed one Barrett Allen to unlock and market the secret of his fantastic speed; uncovered a glowing, green power ring and killed its owner; and killed scientist Raymond Palmer and marketed his ability to shrink humans. The four primary members of the Planetary organization, Bruce states, who have been responsible for every meaningful advance of the last 20 years, are murderers, thieves, and war criminals. Bruce describes the four main members, Jakita Wagner and Ambrose Chase, The Drummer, and Elijah Snow (and they seem to correspond exactly to the field team we have come to know outside this Elseworlds tale).

Bruce, Clark, and Diana leave the cave to access the time-physics experiments of one Dr. Julius Erdel, a scientist on the Wayne Industries payroll, to use it in an undisclosed fashion to take on the Planetary four. When they arrive, they find a drunk Erdel already activating his device. Because Erdel has tapped into the Gotham power grid to amplify the reach of his time-spanning device, Gotham is suddenly plunged into a blackout, attracting the attention of the Planetary four from their base on the moon. From Erdel's device steps a large, green-skinned alien from 75 million years in earth's past. As the startled group rushes to the alien in a futile attempt to help it, a Planetary portal appears and Ambrose Chase steps out.

At this point the story takes off like a runaway train. Chase, recognizing the people assembled in the room, activates his reality-warping powers and begins to draw his guns. Clark, moving with superhuman speed, attacks Chase and crushers one of Chase's guns, with Chase's hand along with it. Clark shoves Chase into the blinding field generated by Erdel's machine, and Bruce throws a bat like object across the room to cut power to the device. Erdel has died in the spray of bullets Chase had fired, and the green-skinned alien has died from the foreign atmosphere.

Using a Planetary-Portal generation device that Clark had freed from Chase with a blast of heat from his eyes, Bruce, Clark and Diana open a portal to take them to Planetary's moon base. There they are immediately separated by force fields, and Clark's chamber is opened to outer space. A voice is broadcast as this occurs, describing the likely source of Clark's powers and how they will not save him in space. Bruce and Diana split up, and each quickly finds an opponent: Diana runs into Jakita Wagner, and Bruce finds a bald, almost Lex Luthor-esque Elijah Snow himself.

While Diana reveals powers of her own, driven by bracelets that apparently allow her to generate energy filets as solid weapons with which to fight Jakita, Bruce first engages Snow in a conversation. Bruce accuses Snow of having killed his parents, and Snow doesn't seek to deny this. After some exposition on the marvels he has horded away from humanity in his one hundred-plus years, he attempts to kill Bruce by freezing him. Bruce, who has investigated other murders perpetrated by Snow and has noticed ice in the victims, has protected himself with an insulated costume. Pressed to other action, Snow attempts to shoot Bruce but is felled with more of those bat-shaped throwing devices. Diana then appears, having triumphed over Jakita, and delivers the coup de grace. Snow is dead, the Planetary four defeated, and Diana and Bruce begin to contemplate the future of the world they have liberated.

This is a very, very ambitious work. Think about the requirements here: create an alternate universe, leverage the readers' existing knowledge of Planetary and much of the DC Universe, and create then resolve an epic confrontation all in 48 pages. Certainly all of DC's Elseworld tales attempt some of this, to an extent. But to involve so many characters and so much history from two wholly separate universes is an awfully tall order. Everyone will judge for themselves the level of success Ellis achieved in this regard. Rather than debate this point here, let's focus on some of the better elements touched on in the story.

Jakita and Ambrose were a little less intriguing, apparently just evil versions of the characters we've come to know. Their roles here parallel that of Kim Suskind and William Leather of the Four. But what was really interesting here was the character development. We've perhaps learned more about these two characters in a few pages here than we have in several regular issues of Planetary. For example, Jakita reveals an aristocratic heritage. Just one item, but this matches the sum of our knowledge of Jakita's past as revealed in the regular series (i.e., that Snow changed her diapers). On the Chase front, we get a more complete explanation of his powers than we've seen to date in the regular series. His reality-distorting powers are explained as control over time in localized areas. (And Ordway's take on the effect, a hand-drawn execution instead of a computer-generated one, was a creative solution to interpreting someone else's effect in your own style.) The only character who seemed to receive little real attention was The Drummer. His absence from the action of the story did seem to mimic the absence of the final member of The Four, Jacob Greene, from the regular series. The Drummer had a live appearance in the first few pages, haunting the teleportation station of Gotham, tracking Diana's movement. Ellis, when questioned on the strange nature of Drummer's presence in the story, issued a coy reply that implied there was more to be read into it all, but we'll probably never get any more on it.

Questions Raised
If I promised to act like I'd never read this special issue, would Ellis, Ordway, and the fine folks at DC and Wildstorm expand this to a 6-issue prestige format limited series so they could reeeealy go to work on all the terrific ideas they only got to touch on this issue?

RDG