And yet...at the site, Planetary is there. And far from their normal semi-undercover work, they seem to be in charge of the investigation. To say nothing of the fact that they spirit Ms. Hark's personal investigator away to their own private hospital.

She's not ignorant of events at Planetary's level. Her dealings with the Four prove that. The easiest, most obvious way to explain Issue 4 is that she's the Fourth Man.

Regarding Issue 7: well, anyone's guess is as good as mine. I will point out that (a) The "Long enough for me to know I trust you" remark causes problems for the theory that Ambrose is talking to his future self; (b) Miss Hark apparently makes a practice of hiring orphans (as referred to in #4). Ambrose has apparently been working his way up through Planetary, and he might have been surprised to discover that she was the head of both organizations. Maybe he was just going to say, "Anna Hark." (c) Her characterization in #4 is really much milder than elsewhere. Maybe she mellowed with age; or, perhaps, she simply couldn't show it around people like Dowling.

So that's my theory. Of course, as you've said, it could be someone we haven't seen yet! (Though I hope not. That would seem almost like cheating, at this stage.)

I admit that I'm taking Ambrose's "But you're..." comment at thepossibly-too-obvious (that it is a woman), but the hint I'm really interested inis that the 4th says, "I like white suits." I'm willing to assume that the 4thlikes white well enough to wear them as well, and I think it is significantbecause Ellis uses colors in significant ways. Who dresses in white? Well,Ambrose does (after that point), and so does Elijah Snow. Either could be the4th man through time travel, I'm sure, but one other person likes to wear white:Jenny Sparks. Remember, Doc Brass described her as "that little English girl inthe dark, all dressed in white". She got away from white with the Authority, butshe frequently wore white in Stormwatch. Sparks was born 1/1/1900, linking herto Snow and Brass. She's also one of Ellis' favorite creations, with a desire toimprove the world, and is going to be linked to Planetary in the upcomingcrossover. She's "the spirit of the 20th century", and Planetary's mission is to"uncover the secret history of the 20th century".

Problems: Sparks is currently dead, or maybe reincarnated as an infant. Ofcourse, we have seen no proof that the 4th has been personally active since theend of 1999. We've never seen any hint that she had "more money than God", butcan't rule it out, either. She did put together the Authority pretty quickly; itcould be that she had been content with a background role for many years, andgot directly involved with Stormwatch only because Henry Bendix had to be takendown, and then formed the Authority because other active controls were notsufficient.

I'm not certain this is the definitive answer, but I do think Sparks is a prettystrong candidate...

I'll elaborate on this later, but while I like the Ambrose Chase = Fourth Man theory, especially with the M.I.A. clue, don't discount Jenny Sparks entirely. She's a woman ["But you're a...woman?" "Yes, I noticed..."] who likes white suits, after all...

I'll start with an explanation, breaking down my thoughts. I should first indicate that I in NO way support my own theory, but hey, it kinda fits. Someone came into the Planetary universe from "Planet Fiction." But isn't Planetary fiction? So wouldn't it be someone from our reality. A man who could know what was going to happen financially, because he planned out the stories. Yes, I mean Warren Ellis. Wacky, huh?

In my opinion, the Fourth Man is Warren Ellis himself. Warren has used Planetary to explore almost every convention found incomics, so why not revisit the one set forward by Grant Morrison during theconclusion of his Animal Man run. Grant himself appeared in the finalissue, to have a conversation with Animal Man and explain what and who hewas. I can provide no basis of truth from information given in the comic sofar, except that the Fourth Man came from a world not like that ofPlanetary. We are given the impression that this person is totally unlikeanything currently operating within the comic book setting of Planetary.Alternate reality versions of characters already introduced really providesno spin on the elements Ellis has introduced. The world of the Planetary isfilled with wonders, albeit supressed wonders, but fantastic elementsnonetheless. We've seen supermen and monsters of all shapes and sizes. Iget the impression that "Planet Fiction" is unlike the world of Planetaryand what emerged from that ship suprised everyone involved in the project.If the world of Planetary is supposed to be "real" to the people that livein it, and that world has ghosts, supermen, giant monsters, etc. then a"Planet Fiction" could very well be our own world. That's my roundabout,reverse logic reasoning as to why Warren Ellis is the Fourth Man.

Since the underpinnings of the Planetary - Wildstorm universe seem torely so strongly on re-interpretations of many mainstream DC and Marvelcharacters, is it possible that the "fourth man" has not yet appeared, butis a re-interpretation of a major DC/Marvel character as well? The latest issue, and the Superman/Green Lantern/Wonder Woman reference mademe think that the fourth man could be a Bruce Wayne character who is smartenough to stay in the background, and is marshalling his forces to opposethe four. That would make the whole confrontation into a type of DC vsMarvel thing, where the evil 'four' have taken over 'Batman's' world, and heis getting things into position for a final confrontation.

and then later, from the same writer:

Planetary Theory - Bruce Wayne as the Fourth Man
Planetary is Warren Ellis’ re-exploration of the"history" of comics. He can take the best and mostinteresting concepts from the past, (as well as frompopular culture) and weave them into a brand newback-story for the Planetary universe. If Mr. Ellisis consistent with the use of the 'high points' fromcomics as the raw material for this work, we canalready identify themes he has already added to themix, as well as those that are most likely to beincluded in the future.

For this reason, I think that the identity of theFourth Man would come from incorporation of anothersource material into the mix - Frank Miller’s DarkKnight series. Dark Knight is one of the true highpoints of comics. I won’t go into a description ofthe series, except to note that it re-defined Batmaninto one of the most dangerous, calculating and fearedcharacters in comics. The series closes with theBatman, once a loner, now working behind the sceneswith his legion of helpers to set the world right. Batman is now a leader who picks his allies carefully,manipulates them as necessary, and is always incontrol.

This new Batman concept was used in the Kingdom Comeseries, as well as the current JLA books, and has morethan a passing similarity to the character ofOzymandias in Watchmen. It reflects the maturing ofthe superhero concept, wherein a heroic characterdeals with the larger problems of the world, not withfists and guns, but with intelligence, cunning and theability to strike at the true root of evil beyond theview of the average man.

Of course, Warren Ellis could just craft such acharacter from scratch, but the more consistentsolution would be to re-define an existing majorcharacter who could have great monetary resources, afondness for secrecy and a willingness to manipulatehis people for the greater good. The Dark KnightBatman is a good fit The Planetary organization wouldbe just an extension of Batman/Bruce Wayne’s effortsto marshall forces and manipulate the world frombehind the scenes.

The use of Bruce Wayne/Batman as the Fourth Man wouldalso frame the underlying conflict with the FourVoyagers as a Marvel versus DC and Fantastic Fourversus Batman conflict. The concept of an evil,supremely powerful Fantastic Four invading a secretiveBatman’s universe is pretty exciting.

I could be wrong, of course, but if that isn’t thestory that Warren Ellis is writing, then somebody elsesure ought to...

and finally....

I've got a fourth man theory. The short of it is that it must be Brass.The long of it can be found at: this link on the Mysteries page.

Return to the initial 4th Man page.