Planetary #17

Planetary's seventeenth issue takes readers "In the Lost City of Opak-Re," and John Cassaday's cover sets the mood perfectly — a bare-chested, blond man wrestles a massive, saber-toothed lion amid jungle grasses and violet-draped foliage, knife raised for a desperate strike. The pulp-adventure energy here is palpable, evoking lost-world tales of wild survival with Cassaday's fluid draftsmanship and Laura Martin's lush coloring doing all the heavy lifting. Warren Ellis, Cassaday, and Martin were clearly firing on all cylinders in 2003, and this issue looks like a thrilling detour into dangerous, mythic territory.