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Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on The Outsiders as Planetary

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly have been talking about Planetary to DC Comics. Without mentioning Warren Ellis or John Cassaday once.



Article Summary

  • Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly discuss Planetary's modern revival in The Outsiders.
  • Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's creation gets a backdoor return, minus their mention.
  • The duo explores the impact of DC Comics fiction on culture through a 21st-century lens.
  • Themes of inquiry and reflection are central to this bold exploration of the DC Universe.

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly have been talking about Planetary to DC Comics. Without mentioning Planetary creators Warren Ellis or John Cassaday once, which is quite the trick. It's all because, as Bleeding Cool has been reporting, The Outsiders is basically a Planetary and Authority revival by the back door. Jackson Lanning says,

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on Outsiders as Planetary

"I genuinely think the idea of continuing Planetary is ultimate hubris. It's why we didn't talk about it in marketing. Not because we didn't want people to know what the book was. We wanted to make sure that we draw a nice demarcation line between the objectives of Planetary and the objectives of this book. The objectives of Planetary, in my opinion, is that that book takes the 20th century as a fictional framework and looks at all the fiction that took place in the 20th century and deconstructs it in an effort to talk about what that fiction did to us as a culture. But it had this really great freedom, because it was allowed to have all fiction in everything. If you wanted Dracula, you have Dracula, if you wanted Sherlock Holmes, you have Sherlock Holmes, if you wanted DC Comics, you have DC Comics. Everybody can be in this book, as long as you play by the legal framework."

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on Outsiders as Planetary

Could be more of a League Of Extraordinary Supermen?

"Outsiders provided a really exciting opportunity to do the counterpoint to that, which is what if we did this just for the DC Universe? What if we took this fictional universe framework that has now existed for almost 100 years and has rebooted itself several times and thrown a million little problems under the rug and use that to talk not about what all of fiction has done for us, but about what DC Comics has done for us? What if we talked just about what DC Comics means and what these characters mean? Why certain characters are popular and certain characters aren't? And to do that in a way that's reflecting the 21st century, when people have become much more media literate about the DC Universe than they ever were before."

Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on Outsiders as Planetary

Collin Kelly concluded, "Just like Kate and Luke, we are boldly diving into places we do not have the answers for, but someone must ask the questions. That is what we are here for, and hopefully Bruce doesn't get too mad at us." So Bruce Wayne at least gets a namedrop…


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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