History ComicBook / Planetary

-->'''Jakita''': (Americans) had [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan a doddery old president]] who talked about the end of the world a little too often and was being run by the wrong people. But (Britons) had [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcherInFiction a prime minister]] who was genuinely mad. You know there were even feminists and women's studies theorists who denies she was really a woman anymore, she was so far out of her tree? She wanted concentration camps for AIDS victims, wanted to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28 eradicate homosexuality even as an abstract concept]], made poor people [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Charge choose between eating and keeping their vote]], ran the most shameless vote-grabbing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War artificial war scam]] in fifty years... England was a scary place. No wonder it produced a scary culture.

* {{Metafiction}}: In additional to all its other themes, you can read ''Planetary'' as a metacommentary on 20th century North American comics, in which the superhero genre eclipsed all other genres (crime, horror, spy, western, pulp sci-fi etc.) at the start of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} with the release of the ComicBook/FantasticFour. See [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/14/absolute-planetary-review/ this review]].

''[[ComicBook/Outsiders2023]]'' is revealed to be a sequel to this series, featuring a new Drummer who is [[spoiler:Jakita Wagner trying to find Elijah and the original Drummer in the DCU]].

*** Kevin Sack, Lord Blackstock is Franchise/{{Tarzan}}, AKA "Lord Greystoke", with a little of Marvel's Kevin "Ka-Zar" Plunder added ([[IncrediblyLamePun Sack = Plunder]], after all). Notably, [[spoiler:he's Jakita's father, begat on the high priestess of a HiddenElfVillage in DarkestAfrica]].

* '''The Four''': A quartet of super-powered ex-astronauts who bore a [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent disconcerting resemblance]] to a certain [[Comicbook/FantasticFour family of superheroes]]. They oppose the Planetary trio, as part of a conspiracy to keep the various wonders and marvels of the universe hidden from the population, in order to protect the Earth from alien forces who would destroy Earth in order to gain control over them.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Pretty much every character who appears apart from the main ones, including versions of the Comicbook/FantasticFour, Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}, Film/JamesBond, and more besides.

** Even many minor and background characters fall into this. For example, the caped man in the Vertigo homage is Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}, and the Bride is [[Comicbook/CaptainAmerica Madame Hydra/the Viper]].

* {{Expy}}: In an odd double way. Jakita's ex-lover Jack Carter is a blatantly obvious (London-based, blonde-haired, trenchcoat-wearing magician) one of [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine.]] Then at the end of that story, he's shaved his head, changed his trenchcoat for a black jacket, and gotten tattoos reminiscent of [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} Spider Jerusalem]]. (Though he was originally meant to be [[Comicbook/TheInvisibles King Mob.]])

*** The Fourth Man is also an inversion of Comicbook/DoctorDoom. The source of his problems really is his Reed Richards nemesis, but the Fourth Man isn't really obsessed with his foe -- Dowling is an obstacle to be overcome, and once removed from the picture, the Fourth Man barely acknowledges his victory before returning to his real agenda. The Fourth Man is also a ThirdPersonPerson; much as Doom refers to himself, the Fourth Man usually discusses himself as "the Fourth Man" rather than in the first person. [[spoiler:Because Elijah spends most of this time unaware that it's him!]]

** In the final issue, it's mentioned that the Planetary's job has now become a "rescue mission". Those same words were used in the final volume of ''Comicbook/TheInvisibles'' to describe how the eponymous group's job description has changed. Both series end with the protagonists getting past a simplistic black-and-white conflict, and trying to save the whole of humanity instead.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Kevin Blackstock was undeniably a force for good in the world, but at the same time he's casually racist and elitist. A member of an advanced hidden African tribe he occasionally associates with explains to Elijah that, while Kevin is always polite to them, they can tell he sees himself as superior and thinks of them as his subjects. He also seems bemused that Elijah could find a black woman attractive and he describes Africa as his “childhood haunt”, indicating that he sees an entire continent as his personal estate/playground he can drop into whenever he feels nostalgic.