SYNOPSIS: Continued from last issue....
As Planetary watches via camera from Earth, a small ship docks near the mammoth construct. A spacesuited figure emerges and disappears into the craft. Snow asks Dr. Kwelo to bring the angels back to the ship's front section, to record Greene. Footage from elsewhere on the ship, meanwhile, is staggering -- floating dwellings; winged, firefly-like creatures in humanoid form; more wonders. Jakita and Drums express a desire to see more; Snow puts them off, telling them there's a mission. Drums talks of going up afterward; Snow says nothing. The angels continue to amaze with their abilities; returning to the main compartment, we see fleeing humanoids and deep claw marks, then footprints, in solid rock to mark Greene's path. After a corpse or two and the wreckage of a village, we see Greene himself: a grotesque stone monster on two powerful legs. Confirming he's been fully recorded, Snow gives Kwelo the order to "initialize the Trojan Horse." He's a had a bomb planted on the angel's craft, and to his teammates' dismay, intends to blow it up. Jakita's protests fall on deaf ears; Snow tells her she must have known he'd do anything to win against The Four. The small craft explodes, taking Greene's ship with it. Greene, the angels, and the countless wonders of the construct are suddenly on their own, and headed on a one-way trip out of the solar system. "I'm not sorry," says Snow. Jakita wonders if Snow is still the man she once knew.
REVIEW: Planetary's first real two-parter comes and goes and left me a little bit disappointed. As noted at right, the buildup to Greene was a bit drawn out. Once we learned he was humanoid, how bad could he really have looked? Cassaday did what he could, but really, the idea that he had to be stranded on a ship heading out of the galaxy as the only way to possibly defeat him didn't come across. And maybe I haven't spent enough time on message boards, but wondering what the unseen member of The Four looked like hasn't kept me awake nights. I mean hell, we've barely seen Dowling, either. ALL the members of the Four are underexposed at this point; Greene's prior absence wasn't dramatically different from the cameos we've gotten of basically everyone except for William Leather.
Speaking of Leather, it's still really bugging me that Snow keeps talking as if the capture we saw in Issue #18 hasn't happened. I think I saw somewhere that the issues were solicited out of order or somesuch, but it still grates on me. It's not like these things are coming out two weeks apart or anything.
Visually, as usual, the issue is great to look at. Greene emerging from his spaceship drips with doom and foreboding. And there's certainly some scary stuff here, in terms of the relationships within the group. There's more than enough angst and worry in each issue without us having to worry about Snow running afoul of his own teammates. We need a united team to defeat The Four! Or Three. Or Two, really...
So it wasn't my favorite issue, but at least there was some great stuff to look at and events which will certainly have repercussions in future issues. And that will have to be enough.
