400 years ago, an alien ship carried a gigantic asteroid as cargo that ends up being lost in the vastness of space. Fast-forward to modern times, the asteroid is about to collide on Earth, but it ends up dissolving upon entering into the atmosphere releasing two spacecrafts from within, one landing in Washington D.C. and the other in Bloedriver, South Africa. Alien spiders emerge from the UFOs and they start slaughtering everything around them and humans are unable to stop them. Their only hope lies in the last survivor of an alien race that was also destroyed by the spiders and wants to find some redemption by preventing what is happening on Earth the same thing that happened to his world: becoming a Bad Planet.
This is brainchild of actor Thomas Jane in conjunction to Steve Niles, Bruce Jones and Tim Bradstreet. The premise was literally conceived on drugs as Janes was hopped on Vicodin following a car accident, where he dreamed about horrible alien deathspiders. The first issue was released in December 2005 with planned 12-issues though a very irregular schedule with the most recent issue being released on 2013.
A first volume was released with the first 6 issues on TPB format with some sections having 3D pages. The second volume was promised in 2010, though only two issues have been released so far. There is no word on whether the series will be concluded or not.
This comics features examples of the following tropes
- After the End: In the aftermath of volume one, this is what happens to Earth. After all the energy of the world was turned off, civilization has fallen into complete anarchy and some kind of mysterious event covered the planet in complete darkness.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Grid is a galactic federation of several alien species that have mastered interstellar travel, and their laws state they cannot interact or share any technology with civilizations that hasn't mastered it yet. Even the last Phaedon, who is an escapee convict, abides to this rule and is unwilling to leave alien technology at the hands of human beings because of the catastrophic consequences.
- Anti-Hero: The Last Phaedon. He is motivated by revenge against the monsters that destroyed his people and wants to settle the score on their most recent attack: Earth. Even though he has no reason to care about what happens to mankind one way or another, he show a soft spot for them nonetheless.
- Apocalypse Cult: A cult in Atlanta is formed to worship the giant spiders and they have its followers strip themselves naked before being devoured.
- Apocalypse How: Class 2. All technology in the world is turned off by the massive Tesla coil used to destroy the death-spiders and society as a whole has fallen. Rape gangs and cannibals run the streets and governments are in shambles and as if that wasn't enough, a second invasion of alien parasites is underway.
- Asshole Victim: Wahrmunger is killed at the end of Volume 1 by one of the new parasite lifeforms invading Earth.
- The Atoner: The Last Phaedon was unwittingly responsible for the destruction of his people by bringing a spider-carrying craft to their planet.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The first volume ends with the last Phaedon sacrificing himself to activate the Tesla coil all around the world to destroy the spiders at once. This act also causes an world-wide blackout, turning off all technology on Earth and the last shot ends with a vast alien fleet looming over Earth.
- Bizarre Alien Biology:
- The spiders emerge from the bodies of alien animals and they start harvesting living creatures' bodies and natural resources in their nests.
- The Phaedons also qualify. They are large, brutish beings with Extra Eyes bred for combat with no individual names, have no concept of family and they can heal their wounds when exposed to sunlight.
- Death Seeker: The last Phaedon has a death wish: he wishes to kill himself bringing down as many death-spiders he can, both to atone for accidentally unleashing them on his planet and to die as a warrior like his comrades did.
- Easily Conquered World: The death-spiders manage to quickly overrun Earth in a small period of time thanks to being invulnerable to fire, making conventional weaponry like guns, bombs and other things useless against it.
- Establishing Character Moment: The very first thing that Wahrmunger does upon naming himself chief-in-command of the US after the President and everyone else goes missing was to fire a nuke on Washington D.C. to stop the invasion!
- Fan Disservice:
- Several people strip naked for the Apocalypse Cult that worships the death spiders just before being devoured.
- In volume 2, Dr. Veronica suffers clothing damage and gets her dress ripped from her... By cannibals who proceed to tie her to a cross and imply they are going to rape her before eating and killing her.
- Fantastic Slur: "Ersmastus" is an insult given to the last Phaedon by his captors, it means "untouchable".
- The Federation: The Grid. Very little is known about it, but they do seem to have a bureaucratic set of laws and rules and are made up of several different entities.
- From Bad to Worse: The death-spiders were destroyed by the Phaedon warrior's sacrifice so everything seems fine right? Nope. All technology has been fried and society has been set back several decades by the effort to defeat the aliens, leaving psychos and gangs to take over the world. Also another invasion is happening, brought by another alien occupant that was brought alongside the Phaedon warrior.
- General Ripper: General Wahrmunger. Its a wonder someone with a name like that was allowed to move through the ranks and become the highest chief-in-office during a time of crisis.
- Hate Sink: Wahrmunger is an unhinged and psychotic General Ripper, but he is not an actual villain. The spiders are the real threat, but they are a mindless force of nature that devour everything on sight and they have no leader to qualify as Big Bad. Therefore Wahrmunger is saddled with this trope.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The last Phaedor gives his life to serve as a conduit for the world-wide Tesla coil in order to destroy the spiders. Subverted in that, he is revealed to have survived in Volume 2.
- Hide Your Children: No children ever dies on-page, even though carnivorous spiders are eating everything on sight. Several presumably died of course, but the reader never sees it.
- Humanoid Aliens: The Phaedon has an human-like body structure as you can see in the picture above, but he is taller than humans and has an extra set of eyes all over his face.
- I Love the Dead: In volume 2, a psycho finds the corpse of a just recently dead woman and decides to just take it right there, proclaiming she is still "warm".
- Killer Space Monkey: One of Deep 6 wardens that pursues the last Phaedon to Earth looks like a alien gorilla.
- Language Equals Thought: Being a race bred for fighting and killing, the Phaedons have no concept of family. The last living one is baffled by the word "father", not knowing what it means. They do have a concept for camaraderie, though.
- Last of His Kind: The only reason why the last Phaedon survived the destruction of his race was because he was locked up in a prison while all others were fighting to the death against the spiders. It appears his race is finally destroyed with his Heroic Sacrifice, but he is revealed to have survived.
- Mars Needs Women: The Phaedon is revealed to have gained romantic feelings for Dr. Veronica. Played with in that he only expresses them while inhabiting another human body.
- The Night That Never Ends: The quadropoids attempt to kill off what is left of Earth by provoking volcanic activity that unleashes a cloud covering up the skies.
- No Name Given: Phaedons had no individual names or identity. The last still living Phaedon used to be referred as "ersmastus" which was a insult given by his prison wardens and is never given a nickname by the humans he interacts with. As such, for the sake of convenience, he is referred in this article as the last Phaedon.
- Not Quite Dead: The Phaedon is revealed to have survived after his body was presumed to be destroyed by the Tesla coil, but his body is now inert due to the lack of sunlight to revive him. He is able to transfer his consciousness to a human scientist that was experimenting on his body.
- Once-Green Mars: Dr. Veronica theorizes that Mars was once a green and lush planet that was teeming with life before the death-spiders landed on the it and turned Mars into another Bad Planet.
- Pet the Dog: Even though the last Phaedon is mostly only interested in destroying the death-spiders in revenge for his people's extinction and saving mankind being merely an byproduct of his quest, he consistently has moments like these that show he cares about humans more than he lets on: he wants to keep alien tech out of their hands just so it wouldn't lead to any catastrophe, despite having no real reason to care about what happen to us. He also uses his technology to revive Dr. Veronica after she is nearly killed by Wahrmunger when he shoots her flying car out of the sky.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: In the second volume, the cannibals crack a joke about loving "dark meat" when threatening Anza.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Desconstructed. The Phaedons were a warrior race bred for the only purpose of fighting and killing, and warring among themselves has greatly weakened their people. By the time, the spiders invade their world, they were completely unprepared and were eventually wiped out completely.
- Starfish Aliens:
- The death-spiders naturally. They even resemble facehuggers, though instead of depositing parasites in other people's bodies, they can slash a person in half with their claws.
- The quadropoids that appear on Volume 2 look like tentacles monstruosities with four eyes in one head.
- Teenage Wasteland: Anza's village was destroyed by a plague long before the events of the series, leaving only the kids alive.
- Title Drop: "Bad Planet" is the official designation given to planets that were infected with alien arthropods who have completely wiped out all life and natural resources.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The death-spiders are invulnerable to fire and bullets pretty much don't work on them. Electricity is revealed to be their only weakness.
