So this is the job? Get jabbered at by some half-tame lunatic, get stuffed in a chopper, go somewhere with mountains and do goddamn nothing? Exciting. I'm earning my millions dollars, yes I am...
- -- Elijah Snow
Appearing in "Island"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Shinya Fukuda (First appearance)
Adversaries:
Other Characters:
- Japanese Army (some die)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- Planetary helicopter
Synopsis for "Island"
A infamous and militantly radical Japanese writer/philosopher and several acolytes land on the mysterious Island Zero, on the farthest northwestern tip of the Japanese archipelago. The object of opposing territorial claims by Japan and Russia, it is thus occupied by neither. Sneering at such concerns, the arrogant "master storyteller" claims it for Japan, but he and his followers find something unexpected -- the immense, rotting carcasses of vaguely prehistoric monsters. They've also caught the attention of Planetary, which has helped preserve the secret since uncovering it years earlier. Jakita tells Snow that after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, there were reports of a storm -- or something -- which resulted, five years later, in Island Zero being populated by monsters. Radioactive mutants? Refugees from a door opened from a parallel earth? Extra-terrestrial? No one is sure, but what is certain is that the monsters never left the island, and died off by the mid-'70s. A small armed defense and observation force was left on the island, which also responds to the trespassers. Planetary arrives on the scene too late to prevent the writer from unleashing a deadly nerve gas, killing everyone all but Snow and Wagner. En route to the military station to gather information, the two are awestruck by a giant, dragon-like creature flying overhead. Evidently monsters still live on Island Zero after all.
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in:
- Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories trade paperback (2000);
- Absolute Planetary vol. 1 hardcover (2005);
- The Planetary Omnibus hardcover (2014);
- Planetary Book One trade paperback (2017).
Trivia
- The immense carcasses are right out of classic Japanese monster (kaiju) movies including Mothra, Ghidra, Rodan, and Godzilla himself. In retrospect, they really did die off in the 1970s as the "Shōwa series" of film studio Toho's Godzilla franchise ended in that era. It was later revived with the "Heisei" and "Millennium" series.
- The Japanese author is said by Shinya Fukuda to have "that Yukio Mishima, Aum Shinrikyo smell." Yukio Mishima was a Japanese writer, poet, playwright, and nationalist who was infamously known for making an attempted coup to restore Japan's pre-World War II state only to end up committing seppuku. Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese cult that was notorious for carrying out the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways.
See Also
- Write your own review of this comic!
- Discuss Planetary Vol 1 2 on the forums
- Images from Planetary Vol 1 2
Links and References
Footnotes
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