fajrdrako | Planetary Batman: Night on Earth

By Warren Ellis, the clever bad boy of comic book writing. I like Warren Ellis' writing much more on Marvel and DC characters than his own creations, but this comic made me want to read "Planetary".

Beautifully set up, this story brings us through a series of alternate-world versions of Batman, most of them familiar to us, with subtle changes in costume and big variations in character. Amazingly enough (for a story of this type) the plot makes perfect sense. Batman is tough but compassionate - how I love that!

Nice art, too, by John Cassaday. In a story of this type (or any type) that makes so much difference. And I see he's going to be drawing Astonishing X-Men which Joss Whedon is writing - ooh. It's already on my subscription list. I confess to being excited already.

I loved the beginning on this story, where the Planetary characters are looking with distaste at grotty, dangerous Gotham, but my favourite bit of dialogue comes at the end:

Jakita: I totally beat you up, you know.
Batman: If that's what you want to believe. [Disappears.]
Jakita: I totally kicked his ass.
Snow: You like him, don't you? He's your special bat-friend.
Jakita: Get away from me.