Planetary Preview is an issue of the series Planetary (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1998.
Synopsis for "Nuclear Spring"
The three-person field team—Jakita Wagner, Elijah Snow, and The Drummer—of the organization known as Planetary pays a visit to an elderly military general at a heavily guarded secret government facility. Telling the general that they are "mapping the secret history of the 20th century," they compel him to fill them in on what really happened to a scientist named David Paine in 1962, a secret whose very existence should be unknown to anyone alive. The general, visibly shaken from hearing Paine's name, begins telling his story of David Paine.
The 30-year-old mystery involves a brilliant young scientist, Paine, who has developed and is experimenting with Integral Design Theory—creating a brain that could monkey with the machinery of the universe. The military used Paine's work to building a quantum computer that is also a bomb. Unfortunately for Paine, an illicit affair with the general's wife ends up putting him at ground zero of the explosion of one of his own experimental bombs. Though no one can quite explain it, Paine is transformed into a creature that is capable of surviving the ensuing blast—a hulking gray monster who is only contained by the military after a month-long rampage of mass destruction. After being dropped to the bottom of an old missile silo, and leaving him with no food or water, it took 21 years for the creature to die in 1983. The general remarks that his wife had a daughter shortly after the creature's capture...one who he's never met.
Appearing in "Nuclear Spring"
Featured Characters:
- Planetary (First appearance)
- Elijah Snow (First appearance)
- Jakita Wagner (First appearance)
- The Drummer (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- David Paine (Flashback only)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Originally published by Image Comics.
- This story appeared as a flip-book in the back of Gen 13 (Volume 2) #33 and Jim Lee's C-23 #6.
- This story is collected in Planetary: All Over the World and Other Stories Vol. 1.
Trivia
- This issue marks the first appearance of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and the Drummer.
- David Paine is an analogue of Marvel's Incredible Hulk. 1962 was also the year of the Hulk's debut.
See Also