Category: Promethea

 

By Alan Moore, J H Williams III & Mick Gray, with Jose Villarrubia & Jeromy Cox (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0094-X

Sophie Bangs is a student who can transform into the metaphysical, god-like being called Promethea. Throughout history some individuals have been able to manifest bodily as a Spirit of Imagination that resides in a meta-world of creativity named the Immateria where all gods, stories and ideas dwell. In practical terms Sophia can transform into a beautiful, powerful Amazon; a super hero – but like none the world has ever seen before.

Collecting issues #13-18 of the monthly comic, this volume deviates greatly from what we’ve come to expect of a heroic comic book. Sophie begins an epic saga of exploration as she determines to travel the ten spheres of the Kabbalah via the Thirty-Two paths revealed to her by the magician Jack Faust in her search of ultimate knowledge.

When she leaves she teaches her best friend Stacia how to access the power of Promethea – with unexpected and ultimately tragic results – before embarking on a visually stunning and intellectually challenging, graphically astonishing pilgrimage.

This is a graphic narrative experience that no word of mine can do justice to. Moore goes where no other comic writer has. The artist’s variety of style, line and even palette to accommodate the differing planes of reality are simply incredible. Not since Steve Ditko has the beyond looked so conclusively unnatural.

Although not to everyone’s taste, this is a landmark of experimental comic work and should at least be tried, but one word of warning; this story arc does not end with the volume. You will need volume 4 for the conclusion. In fact perhaps you’d be best advised to pick them all up at the same time.

© 2001, 2002 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

By Alan Moore, J H Williams III & Mick Gray, with Jose Villarrubia & Jeromy Cox (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 1-84023-370-2

Sophie Bangs is a student who has discovered the metaphysical nature of a god-like being called Promethea. Throughout history women – and even some men – have been able to manifest as incarnations of a Spirit of Imagination that resides in the greater world of the unconscious named the Immateria where all Gods, Stories and Ideas dwell.

In real terms that means Sophia can transform into a super-powerful flying Amazon, and perhaps join the legions of Science Heroes who protect – and endanger – the world. Collecting issues #7-12 of the monthly comic, this volume begins to show just how different this version of an old story can be. Sophie is not some frustrated do-gooder suddenly flush with new-found power; she is and always has been concerned with knowing things.

As various real-world forces align themselves in response to the latest return of Promethea, Sophia is exploring the Immateria, looking for answers, and examining the careers of her predecessors. When those antithetical forces attack the hospital where her new-found friend Barbara is slowly dying, the resultant battle with the forces of Hell reveals just how potent a weapon Promethea can be. The serious reader is advised to examine closely the running sub-plot with hero team The Five Swell Guys and the psychotic serial killer The Painted Doll. As well as divertingly action-packed in a very cerebral tale, the long-running side-bar will have major repercussions in volumes to come.

Having dealt with the demon-horde, and the secret organisation that summoned them, Sophie again deviates from the expected in her dealings with infamous Sorcerer Jack Faust, and has a Y2K monster battle before the volume ends with a mystical primer on the history, meaning and symbolism of The Tarot that is the closest I’ve seen the printed page get to a multi-media experience.

This series always had the most experimental aspirations. It will never have universal appeal, but if you are serious about comics it is an experience you owe yourself to try. And don’t be fooled. This book isn’t a lecture or a lesson, it’s a journey…

© 2001 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

By Alan Moore, J H Williams III & Mick Gray (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0032-X

I wonder if when Alan Moore first conceived this ‘Strong Female Character’ as part of his private superhero universe, he realised quite how far he would take this tale, or just how far he and collaborators J H Williams III and Mick Gray would push the boundaries of Graphic Narrative?

Ignoring the superficial resemblances to Wonder Woman – herself more archetype than property these days, but don’t tell the lawyers I said that – what is on offer in this series (issues 1-6 of which are collected in this first volume)?

Sophie Bangs lives in the big city, in a world of Science Heroes, multi-powered villains and real, scary monsters. She’s a smart kid, if not traditionally pretty, doing teen-age things with her best friend Stacia. She’s also researching a term paper on a name that has cropped up in esoteric poems, art and popular culture since the fifth century AD. She seems inexplicably fascinated by the concept of Promethea.

After interviewing the widow of the writer of a Promethea comic book she is attacked by a shadowy demon and rescued by the widow, who is the comic heroine. Promethea is a little girl who was taken into the Immateria, the Realm of Imagination, and became a concept. Throughout history, she has become real by incarnating in the women – usually – who inspire art and creativity. As the monster returns, Sophia finds her own artistic method of calling the Immateria and becomes the newest incarnation.

Thus begins a journey of metaphysical as well as metahuman adventure. Sophia fights monsters and meets heroes, but the never ending battle is not what this series is about. She wants to know more, and whilst various flamboyant forces array themselves against her, she is seeking deeper answers for questions she never knew she had.

Moore’s sly and subversive scripting, in a superhero universe pushed to its illogical extreme is superbly matched by artists Williams III and Gray, who increasingly raise the bar on graphic creativity and printing technology for a visual experience that is simply staggering to behold.

© 2003 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Alan Moore, J H Williams III & Mick Gray with Jeromy Cox & Jose Villarrubia
(America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0619-0

In the final collection of the adventures of the goddess of Myth and Imagination, Alan Moore and JH Williams conclude their epic exploration of creativity and reality with a spectacular visual tour de force that resembles nothing so much as the early “Underground Comix”. Those attempts to depict pharmaceutically enhanced consciousnesses (hey it was the sixties, OK?) were just as ground-breaking, confusing, memorable and ‘Gosh-Wowie’ as the work in Promethea, albeit here it is greatly improved by the miracle of computer-aided colouring and way better printing technology.

Regrettably, in terms of actual story it’s all a bit of a letdown, as the exploration has to also encompass the tying up of narrative loose-ends before all the Armageddoning-cum-Ascending can transpire, producing an unnerving feeling of sweeping up the bedroom just before your mum comes in.

As a monthly series that was always coming from the very edge of mainstream comics Promethea was challenging and pictorially stunning. Some of the narrative may have suffered from a lack of story fundamentals occasionally but as an honest attempt to move beyond the pitifully retarded norms of that mainstream’s usual output it should be seen by as many fans as possible. So it’s a good thing that we have graphic novel collections

Whether this series becomes part of the oft-cited canon of Moore excellence, and ranks alongside Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, From Hell and Watchmen, only time will tell. In the meantime, perhaps we should all sit down with the complete set and read ourselves into another, “Higher”, place…

© 2005 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Alan Moore, J H Williams III & Mick Gray (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0032-X

In this collection of the adventures of the goddess of Myth and Imagination, Alan Moore and JH Williams conclude their epic and surreal exploration of “The Higher Realms” known as the Immateria, which began in the previous volume.

The plot, as such, is in the classic formula of the pilgrimage of wonders, where the protagonists explore radically variant realities and philosophies for our voyeuristic edification, challenging a lot of comic book preconceptions about narrative and giving the illustrator a chance to show his versatility with a spellbinding variety of art styles and designs.

It’s not all avant-garde however, as the interwoven subplot of Promethea’s replacement on Earth follows much more traditional paths, with absolute power absolutely corrupting the substitute Goddess, thereby threatening the world with a very real swathe of destruction. This is yet another challenging yet rewarding read from the very edge of mainstream comics.

© 2003 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All Rights Reserved.