Giffen and Dematteis' Planetary Brigade

by J.M. DeMatteis

Captain Valor! The Grim Knight! Mauve Visitor! Mr. Brilliant! Third Eye! Earth Goddess! And introducing The Fighting Man! Now it can be told for the first time - how Planetary Brigade formed! And how Brigade dealt with the man who wouldn't die: Harry Cutter. More Bwah-ha-hilarity from Giffen and DeMatteis, a follow-up to their sold-out fan favorite Justice League work!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

128 pages, Trade Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Also Credited As:
DeMatteis, John Marc
Ellis, Michael
Lombego, Wally

Bio:
J.M. DeMatteis was a professional musician/singer and rock music journalist before entering comics in the late 70's.

Credits include Spider-Man, Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, Justice League, Abadazad, Hero Squared, the Life and Times of Savior 28.

Created I, Vampire , Creature Commandos, Moonshadow, Hero Squared (co-creator), Abadazad, Stardust Kid, Savior 28 and more.

Reviews

[Will Cooper]

Eh. Usually Giffen is funnier. :(

[Art]

I thought this was a pretty good send up on JLA and some Marvel stuff, too. Had a good time with this. Would be interested to read more.

[Daryl]

It's amazing to me that the back of this graphic novel blurbs it as being "from the creative team of I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League" since it's a painfully transparent parody of the Justice League. It's not a bad book, but it never seems to find its place: it's not laugh-out-loud funny (the "hilarity" that it promises amounts to barely more than an occasional chuckle), and it's really just more of a super-hero story than a satire on a super-hero story. The Mauve Visitor (the PB's version of the Martian Manhunter) is by far the stand-out character here, as he's more interested in drinking martinis, making sexual innuendos, and keeping his thousands-of-dollars custom suits clean than he is in any sort of crime fighting. But the rest of the book is a bit too serious to be funny; and just slightly too funny (or intended to be, at least) to be taken seriously. The art varies widely - 10 different artists in all - that distracts from any continuity; at one point, I had to flip back to realize that the two characters being presented were the same two characters we'd seen previously. Not a high point, though occasionally a bit fun.

[Nick]

Flippant parody, like much of Giffen's work, but this has some substance to it. The real weak spot is the art, which varies wildly in quality, as the series showcases too many artists for the length of the stories.
The characters include parodies of Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and more. Some of the parodies are better than others...the Mauve Visitor is an effete purple telepath who finds Earth's greatest creation to be the martini.
Unlike Giffen's sometimes-painful Justice League work, since this is more openly a parody, he isn't harming anyone else's continuity. In this context, you can see that he and DeMatteis CAN do something other than wreck a team book. While some of this mini-series is just goofy, it also includes a character study of an abused girl turned villain turned hero, and other interesting character studies.

[Bryan Variell]

Both and homage and parody of comics

To put it's simply this book is a spin off of Hero Squared. It also acts as and homage Too silver age comics mostly the justice league. You do not need to read the main series to understand this 1 It's a good stand alone with Art That pays tribute to various other styles.Interestingly enough this book and series was made by a team that worked on the justice league. Here's a bit of trivia In the series the batman standing is called the grim knight Years later DC comics with also release a new version of batman called the grim knight.

[Fugo Feedback]

Leído de la edición española de Norma publicada en dos tomos: "Brigada Planetaria" y "Brigada Planetaria Orígenes" que no subo para no partir la edición. En cuanto al comic en sí, ni es el mejor trabajo de los autores ni el peor, supongo. Cuando me termine "Héroe al cuadrado" quizás relea este spin-off y lo rerreseñe.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel]

No sé cómo será leer este título sin conocer la etapa de Giffen en Justice League (con reparos, la más brillante del grupo), pero el lector más fogueado difícilmente empatizará con este trasunto de Authority en plan cómico. Personajes medianamente logrados, bromas que no llegan a encajar y un trama poco entusiasta recuerda que un chiste debe estar muy bien contado para hacerte reír dos veces.

[Dawn]

More of Giffen's great dialog, but unlike with his Justice League stuff, this got old for me.