Given that this is the only issue of Planetary produced in 2002, I expect that many will be disappointed to find that these characters bear little resemblance to the characters in Planetary, and the story features an approach that doesn't really fit with either Planetary or the JLA. Also, by my count, we've seen about five different versions of the JLA from Warren Ellis by now, and this is the least interesting one, ironic given that it's the first time he's really working with the genuine article instead of thinly-veiled knockoffs. To be honest, I expected this book to be weaker in art, as Jerry Ordway was competing with John Cassaday, but it wasn't the artwork that let me down... it was the story.
There are some interesting ideas in this book, and oddly enough, while I didn't like the package we got all that much, if it had been presented as a longer graphic novel or a limited series, I think Ellis would have been able to explore the more interesting ideas in a way that was more entertaining. The story feels a little compressed, however, as Ellis relies on us knowing the characters from their prior incarnations, but then twists their powers and personalities so that we can't be sure what we actually know. Because this is an alternate world, these characters are the JLA and Planetary in name only, and there's not really enough time to get to know them or care about them. Rather, time is spent on concepts we've seen Ellis tackle before, such as killing off the entirety of the worlds' super-heroes before they get a chance to be born.
How much readers will enjoy the book will depend on how much they're willing to take at face value. Within only a few pages, Ellis tries to establish a world that is ruled by Planetary, with high tech wonders and an almost utopian facade, hiding a corrupt core. Unfortunately, the corruption at its core basically transforms Planetary into The Four, and there's no room in the story to explore what caused them to go so wrong in this world other than to accept that they're "evil duplicates," which is far too simplistic for the style that usually categorizes Planetary and indeed, much of Ellis's super-hero work. Ditto for this ersatz Justice League, all of whom are bland and lifeless, perhaps the result of living in a world so crushingly perfect and oppressive, but nonetheless it makes for protagonists who are less than easy to empathize with.
As always with Ellis's work, there's some great dialogue and some fun story moments. Bruce Wayne's confrontation with Elijah Snow was the most life that any of the characters showed in the whole story, and Jerry Ordway does a fantastic job of carrying out the confidence and skill that Bruce Wayne has brought to bear. In fact, Jerry Ordway is really the saving grace of this book, as his work has not looked this good in years. He's called upon to tackle some unusual concepts here, including a light-based time travel/teleportation system, Ambrose Chase's time distorting powers and how Clark Kent interacts with them and a variety of high-tech lairs, and the designs and storytelling are terrific.
Overall, however, I was disappointed in Planetary/JLA. It lacks the sense of wonder that Planetary and JLA both have generally had, and it seems in many ways to be covering territory that Ellis has covered before. Ellis has expressed boredom with super-heroes, and that boredom is quite clear in these pages.
