Review: Planetary #22

Planetary #22
DC Comics/Wildstorm Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: John Cassaday

Planetary remains one of Warren Ellis's better works, and perhaps one of the better comics out there right now. If only it came out more regularly! It's hard to remember what happened the last few issues, one almost hopes for a recap page or something.

William Leather of the Four was captured in a recent issue and now we learn more about his background and why he's part of the Four and what their motivations are. This issue is very strong, with a great backstory for Leather, who provides the primary narration. The art is beautiful as usual, and Planetary has once again bought itself a few months of me gushing before I get upset that it's so long between issues again. We must be in the home stretch since now only two members of the Four are at large.

One other side note - I noticed the Wildstorm imprint puts out about eight to twelve regular titles. Oddly enough, I buy four of them (Ex-Machina, Planetary, Sleeper, The Authority), making that the largest percentage of any "line" that I buy. Also, most of these books are high quality. Throw into the mix Alan Moore's line, America's Best Comics, and there are some really good comics being made at the Wildstorm group, with a wide range of genres. Too bad the titles don't sell that well.