What if every superhero and pulp fiction universe was condensed down into one universe, which was also the Wildstorm Universe? The Planetary team uncovers the secret history of their world and, in the process, performs a metatextual analysis on genre comics. But to what end? With one fan of the series and one hater on board, we debate whether Planetary restores a sense of wonder to superheroes and has anything insightful to say about them, or whether it’s just more guys with powers vying for control of the universe while making snarky comments to each other. We’ll also gush over John Cassaday and Laura Martin’s art, discuss the difference between pastiche and archetypes, and consider how the comics industry evolved over the course of the series’ highly delayed run.

This episode was recorded before John Cassaday’s passing. A brief introduction at the top of the show, recorded more recently, contextualizes how we ultimately decided to release this episode.

This episode also discusses allegations about Warren Ellis and the question of whether to revisit his work at all surrounding those allegations. For more information, we recommend reading SoManyOfUs.com.