| SYNOPSIS:
Included as a flipbook with Gen-13 #33 and C-23 #6, this eight-page story is the first appearance of Planetary. However, it is set at some point after Issue #1 of the regular series. The three-person field team -- Jakita Wagner, Elijah Snow, and The Drummer -- of the organization known as Planetary pays a visit to an elderly military general at a heavily guarded secret government facility. Telling the general that they are "mapping the secret history of the 20th century," they compel him to fill them in on what really happened to David Paine in 1962, a secret whose very existence should be unknown to anyone alive. The 30-year-old mystery involves a brilliant young scientist, Paine, who has developed and is experimenting with integral design theory -- creating a brain that could monkey with the machinery of the universe. Unfortunately for him, an illicit affair with the general's wife ends up putting him at ground zero of the explosion of one of his own experimental bombs. Though no one can quite explain it, Paine is transformed into a creature that is capable of surviving the ensuing blast -- a hulking gray monster who is only contained by the military after a month-long rampage of mass destruction. After being dropped to the bottom of an old missile silo, it takes 21 years for the creature to die. The general remarks that his wife had a son shortly after the creature's capture...one who he's never met.
REVIEW: A variation, of course, on the sad tale of Dr. Bruce Banner and Marvel Comics' Incredible Hulk, this short but rich story provides a good sense of what is in store for readers of Planetary. The story, though fantastic, is grounded in familiar and common themes of love, betrayal, vengeance, and death. The grim drama at its heart covers issues which crop up time and again in the series: brilliant men attempting the impossible, evil men manipulating/destroying them, and a shocking cover-up that only Planetary can bring to light. Moreover, the notion of using other popular comic book characters as source material will be repeated regularly by Ellis in the months to come. 
As a longtime Hulk fan, how could I not be thrilled by this attempt to present a 'realistic' outcome for Marvel's tragic superstar. I could even theorize that the 20+ years it takes the character to die is a subtle jab at the Hulk's present sorry state, but it's just a theory.
Although like most Planetary readers I didn't discover this "preview" until after I'd read Issue #1 (I'm guessing the crossover audience of Gen-13 and Planetary is slim, and even Jim Lee's mother probably missed C-23), it does a top-notch job of setting the stage for the series itself. Among other things, it quickly confirms that there won't be a lot of happy endings to Ellis and Cassaday's series. All too often, evil wins, brilliance is crushed or covered up, and it's only years later when Planetary arrives on the scene to try to make sense of it all.
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 Random Thoughts:
"Incredible" similarities: David Paine, whose name is somewhat closer to the TV version of the Hulk (David Banner) than the
comic book version. Banner's relationship with the General Ross's daughter is darkly mirrored by Paine's
adulterous relationship with the General's wife. And those big gray feet and skeletal remains
are certainly reminiscient of Marvel's own Hulk, gray in his first appearance.
How long after Issue #1 is this set? Snow seems more comfortable in a strong-arm role here
than he does at any point through the first year of the series.
Cassaday's art is somewhat cruder here, and at a mere eight pages, the story is over pretty
quickly. It does the job, though, whetting our appetites for more.
Speaking of which, though, how about that cover? Apparently the image, all too small here, was used on a promotional poster. Anyone has an extra copy they want to part with, let me know. It certainly lets us know what kind of covers we're in store for...
RATING: 9/10. What a start.
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