Secrets And Mysteries

Well, I certainly took my time, uh? But it's finally done. I have translated three articles so far and I guess I'll put 'em up here every 4 or 5 days along with some aditional comments to help build something of a context for these pieces. So, without further ado, I present you with the first installment of Secrets and Mysteries.

This piece was originally published in its Spanish version in the issue number 1 of the Mexican edition of Planetary, by Grupo Editorial Vid.

SECRETS AND MYSTERIES
By Alberto Calvo.

Welcome to the first issue of PLANETARY. Since its inception this has been one of the hottest titles on the racks, mostly due to its originality. And what could possibly make this title so different from anything out there? Well, for starters, PLANETARY its not a superhero comic book. It's a comic book about superheroes. And superheroes its not the only theme PLANETARY deals with. It has Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Adventure aplenty. It tells the story of a team devoted to uncover the greatest secrets and mysteries in the world from the last hundred years. In its pages you will find all kind of homages and references to classic Marvel and DC Comics, as well as those referring to cult movies or pulp adventures, as in this first issue. But lets start at the beginning. What's a Pulp?
Pulps were the most popular form of cheap literature back in the twenties and thirties, right before the appearance of comic books. Its format was really simple, stories were in prose form and were abundantly illustrated by some of the greatest artist from the time. Pulps covered a wide diversity of genres, from old school westerns to adventures in far space, without letting out hardboiled detectives or otherwordly horrors. And in some cases they were unknowingly preparing the world for the coming of superheroes through the adventures of some strange heroes. Already famous characters, such as TARZAN, shared space with some new characters, some of them still present in diverse forms in today's media, as it's the case with THE SHADOW or DOC SAVAGE, with recent appearances in movies and comic books.
And precisely those heroes take center stage in this first issue of PLANETARY. If you look closely you'll find out that Dr. AXEL BRASS and his team are actually a homage to heroes from a time long gone. BRASS himself is a tip of the hat to DOC SAVAGE, The Man of Bronze; the british gentleman raised by beasts is no other than TARZAN; JIMMY is quite possibly inspired by OPERATOR 5, a U. S. Government's secret agent. As for EDISON, I guess that he is TOM SWIFT and his name is an homage to real life notorious inventor, Thomas Alva Edison; The pilot must be G-8, Flying Ace; HARK is quite clearly the master plotter and manipulator FU MANCHU while the dark, brooding man with the fedora and two handguns must be THE SHADOW, or maybe even THE SPIDER. What the hell, he could be a fusion of both of them.
And much in the same way the other group, the one fighting for the very survival of their world, its quite clearly based upon DC's Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE, who kept a secret HQ inside a mountain. Those characters represent the most popular heroes from the JL: BATMAN, SUPERMAN, FLASH, GREEN LANTERN, WONDER WOMAN, AQUAMAN and THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER.
The battle between these two teams becomes something symbolic as they offer a reverse representation of what happened in the real world. Here we see the superheroes falling as they try to save their world from oblivion, while what actually happened was that the pulp heroes just couldn't avoid to be overcame by superheroes who, dressed in colored outfits and sporting unbelievable powers finished the age of the pulps to start the GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS.
Each month, within these lines, we'll try to expand a little on the secrets and mysteries unveiled by PLANETARY as we, along their side, start our quest for the secret history of the Twentieth Century. It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.