History WMG / Planetary

The whole cross-over directs us over the whole history of the Dark Knight: the gun-toting [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden-Age]] Bill Finger design, the silly Creator/AdamWest incarnation, the DarkerAndEdgier Neal Adams of the 70s, the Creator/FrankMiller [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark-Age]] Old Knight, and the [[UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks Modern-Age]] fighting-Jakita-first, ask-questions-later one.

[[WMG: The fictional man form ''Planetary'' #9 is <a href='https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/TheVentureBrothersTheGuild'>The Sovereign</a>.]]

[[WMG: The fictional man from ''Planetary'' #9 is GrantMorrison.]]

[[WMG: The last Batman in Night on Earth is the [[AllStarSuperman All-Star Superman's ]] Batman.]]

The whole cross-over directs us over the whole history of the Dark Knight: the gun-toting [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden-Age]] Bill Finger design, the silly [[AdamWest Adam West]] incarnation, the [[DarkerAndEdgier Darker and Edgier]] Neal Adams of the 70s, the [[FrankMiller Frank Miller]] [[TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark-Age]] Old Knight, and the [[TheModernAgeOfComicBooks Modern-Age]] fighting-Jakita-first, ask-questions-later one.

But at the end, we get the "Planetary" version, which represents an amalgam (no, not that ComicBook/{{Amalgam|Universe}}) of all the other versions, and explains in two pages how his origin really makes what he is: someone who will honor his parents' memory above all else, and someone trying to save people. You could draw a parallel to what [[GrantMorrison Grant Morrison]] did with his "Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple." and the general tone of AllStarSuperman.

But at the end, we get the "Planetary" version, which represents an amalgam (no, not that [[AmalgamUniverse Amalgam]]) of all the other versions, and explains in two pages how his origin really makes what he is: someone who will honor his parents' memory above all else, and someone trying to save people. You could draw a parallel to what [[GrantMorrison Grant Morrison]] did with his "Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple." and the general tone of AllStarSuperman.

[[WMG: the last Batman in Night on Earth is the [[AllStarSuperman All-Star Superman's ]] Batman.]]

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Think about it. Why does he even argue with the other members of the Four ''ever''? Why didn't he stretch his mind into the Planetary team, Anna Hark or the City Zero survivors and their children? Because he ''couldn't''! It is doubtful that the paranoid immortal superhumans from that alternate Earth would have ''ever'' allowed someone with a power like Dowling's to exist if it posed ''any'' threat to them at all! They almost certainly scanned the Four after they passed through the transformation device to see what the end result was. If any of the Four possessed an unacceptably dangerous power then they would have blown that space capsule to bits. Instead they allowed them to leave. So Dowling's power allowed him to stretch his mind into ordinary humans (probably the people that worked to build all of the Four's massive bases and vehicles), but he could never control superhumans, although he might imply that he could as a threat.

[[WMG: The fictional man from Planetary #9 is GrantMorrison.]]

In issue 26, the power of [[BigBad Randall Dowling]] is not shown because it was deactivated by The Drummer before the former tried to use it.

The fictional man from Planetary #9 is GrantMorrison. Specifically, the Morrison AuthorAvatar that appears in comics (King Mob, The 7 unknown men of Slaughter Swamp, Mo-G, 'The Writer', The Architect etc.) The issue itself was dedicated to Morrison and in the final issue they mention that he moved on to other stories.

In issue 26, the power of [[BigBad Randall Dowling]] is not shown because The Drummer deactivated it before the former tried to use it. Said power is "stretching his mind to touch yours" and "grow clones of his mind inside others' brains"... now, human mind being information, it is evidently susceptible to The Drummer power, and his distorted informational space could disrupt a floating mind tentacle as much as it disrupted Suskind's cybernetic link to the goggles.

More, we have no hint that Dowling's power works on Century Babies, and more than one that it doesn't (he would have had no need to brainwash Snow if he could have just deposed one of his mind clones in Snow's brain, and we have no real clues about Stone being compromised either).

Admittedly, it makes a lot of fridge brilliance...
Now, there is also a very good reason why such a power should not be used lightly: unless otherwise constrained, the created mind clone could very well decide that he does want to be the big boss and going on to overthrow original Dowling, once he started diverging significantly from the original. Given this consideration, and Dowling's arrogance, it comes as no surprise that he didn't try immediately to overtake The Drummer's brain.

That is, believing it was possible for Dowling to tamper with The Drummer's mind, as such a brain is probably even more impervious to Dowling's power than a normal Century Baby.

The fictional man from Planetary #9 is GrantMorrison. Specifically, the Morrison AuthorAvatar that appears in comics (King Mob, The 7 unknown men of Slaughter Swamp, Mo-G, 'The Writer', The Architect etc.) The issue itself was dedicated to Morrison and in the final issue they mention that he moved on to other stories.