First of all, I can't take credit for the idea -- I read about it on a Planetary-related site, before I read Vol. 2, and it made sense to me.
But the argument is built almost entirely on the events in the "Planet Fiction" story:
(1) Another mystery person escaped from the vessel that was launched into "fictionspace" -- somebody whose nature was shocking even to adventurers who have seen the most crazy, wonderous things. If the world of Planetary is populated by well-established "fictional" characters who are percieved as being "real", then the escapee from "Planet Fiction" might be a flesh-and-blood human being, from our world. Most likely Warren Ellis himself.
(2) In the same issue, we saw a flashback to the meeting between Ambrose and the Fourth Man. Chase says "But you're..." The continuation of the sentence, if it were Ellis, would be: "Not real."
Also, the Fourth Man says he likes "white suits". Ellis hismself must like "white suits", or else why would he design them for Elijah (and, in Stormwatch, Jenny Sparks)?
(3) Warren Ellis IS the Fourth Man, in a way, in the sense that it is his brain, his creativity, his reintetpretation of story ideas that allows Planetary -- the organization -- to do what they do. No Ellis, no Planetary. No Planetary, no Planetary. It's as simple as that.
It becomes even more interesting when you consider the question that John Stone posed to Snow in #11: why don't the Four just outright destroy Planetary, if they are so intent on ending the organization's meddling? Well, it could be that Dowling knew that the Fourth Man was his "creator", and thus, would not be able to defeat him by "conventional means". The Four would need to take control of the narrative itself, in order to win.
Okay, looking back on it now, the whole theory admittedly *does* seem rather daft...
... because the entire "Planet Fiction" project was revealed to be an ELABORATE HOAX orchestrated by The Four to bring the field team out of hiding, as disclosed in Planetary #24, released a few weeks ago. Elijah has known this since his memory was restored, but he's been withholding that information from Drummer and Jakita. Ambrose Chase died on a mission to uncover something that wasn't even a legitimate discovery!
Actually, one of the most interesting theories I had read about the Fourth Man -- developed prior to the revelation of his identity, obviously -- was that he would be a Batman/Bruce Wayne analog. Which *does* make sense, if you think about it...
* It furthers the DC vs. Marvel theme that was implicit in the conflict between Snow and the Four.
* It's just the kind of thing that the Dark Knight Returns/Kingdom Come two-steps-ahead-of-you master-strategist plotter Batman would do.
Of course, this was disproved even further by the actual Planetary-Batman crossover.
Actually, the theory is quite clever and well thought out.
The problem with the theory is that if the Fourth Man is revealedin #12 as Ellis, the series ends with #13. There is no way that kind of story could last. The reality is too broken, making you far too aware that the story is just a story, and the series would quickly descend into arrogant pretentiousness and ego-pumping.
Morrison did it for onle one issue, and a page on the issue before. I honestly think the idea does make a wonderful sense, but if Ellis did it - it's the end of the series.
I do like the idea of the Batman/Bruce Wayne analog.
Also, Houde, the Batman/Planetary crossover is wicked. So is the JLA/Planetary crossover. They're just enjoyable. The JLA one is obviously not continuity, but the Batman one might be, I dunno. But they're both good.
1) I just read through Vol. 3 and it was awesome. Is there a release date for Vol. 4?
2) What is the latest issue? 24? 26?
3) How long is this going? I knew that originally it was planned for 24 issues but I vaguely remember Ellis saying in his newsletter that they would go a few issues past, but I don't remember if he said a final number.
3) How long is this going? I knew that originally it was planned for 24 issues but I vaguely remember Ellis saying in his newsletter that they would go a few issues past, but I don't remember if he said a final number.
I like cancelled comics. Its easier to fool people into thinking that cancelled comics are brilliant and trick them into making bad purchases as part of my grand scheme to coerce the globe into irresponsible cultural consumption.
Today I re-read the Sentry arc of New Avengers (which I do like) and realized it's a complete rip-off of Planetary/Elijah Snow. The whole mindwipe thing.
Maybe rip off is too strong a phrase, but it is very similar.
Without him, all of you would be lost souls roamin
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UltimateE said:
Today I re-read the Sentry arc of New Avengers (which I do like) and realized it's a complete rip-off of Planetary/Elijah Snow. The whole mindwipe thing.
Maybe rip off is too strong a phrase, but it is very similar.
