Comic Book Review: Promethea

Promethea

Writer: Alan Moore

Artists: J. H. Williams III and Mick Gray

Published by Wildstorm/America's Best Comics

Whew. This was one hell of a magical comic book ride.

The whole book is set in fictional-futuristic New York City in the year 1999 and tells the story of Sophie Bangs, a young-college student who is the newest vessel of a powerful entity known as Promethea  - originally a young girl whose father was slain by a Christian mob in Alexandria back in 411 B.C who became a "living story" after the god Thoth-Hermes took her into the Immateria,  a different plane of existance made of pure imagination - who's purpose is to bring about the Apocalypse/Doomsday. Several human beings through time were able to "summon" themselves or others as Promethea by channeling her energy through imagination, most of them poets and playwrights (which Sophie meets as well early in the story).

At first you would think that this is an ordinary  "good vs evil" kind of thing because at the start, Sophie/Promethea battles lots of demons from hell disguising as human beings while trying to figure out how to cope up with her "other identity." She continues to fight them through issue #12, using her newfound powers and magic, but that's as far as the superhero-action sequences go, because the book immediately becomes some sort of  magic instruction manual, with Moore writing his own philosophic views and spiritual beliefs.

Sophie's first fight as the demi-Goddess Promethea

It kind of gets a little bit boring with those "lecture" issues, where Sophie/Promethea just travels into the Immateria itself trying to learn magic and stuff. Alan Moore shows a completely different world, leaving the "Promethea vs demons" story line and jumps into telling his philosophical views, even telling the story of how the whole universe and life came about through tarot cards! He also talks about the afterlife, on what happens and what we would see when our souls leave our earthly bodies and so much more. A lot of those things I don't really understand, but I found out that you don't really have to dig in everything that Moore writes in order to enjoy the journey. You just have to go with the flow of his masterful storytelling as he takes you to a journey into the vast oceans of the imagination.

Good thing he immediately got back on track after more than 10 issues of Aleister Crowley 101, continuing Sophie's saga as she starts to realize that there is no escaping her destiny (as the Doombringer) even if she changed names and ran away from New York (where she is being hunted down as a terrorist at this point since her and Promethea's many battles in the city against foul demons) and even if she didn't transform into Promethea for 4 years.

Random Ramblings: Current Reading ... Cinderella by Chrissie Zullo... Superman to be "physical"... and some cool art from K.Rocafort and Olly Moss

I immediately became a fan of artist J. H. Williams III after reading is awesome work and the latest Batwoman #0 issue to which I quickly searched for his previous works. Again, I am pretty much new to comic books so anything good before the 2000s for sure is out of my radar. But thanks to the wonderful thing called the Internet, I'm able to get my hands on one of this earliest works in 1999:

Promethea with legendary author Alan Moore 

Image courtesy of DC Comics

This has 32 issues in all and I have just started reading the first 10 issues, so I won't make a review yet (later I will), but this is one of a kind comic book that mixes the superhero-action genre with spirituality, religion, magic, mysticism, and history. I'm gonna save the other details after I read it. 

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I stopped reading Fables at issue #60 almost 3 weeks ago because I got a little tired reading the storylines I guess. Its not that its because of bad story telling or art - i guess its just that you have to pause a little bit and continue it later. You can't read the same thing and see the same characters all over again, can you?

Speaking of Fables, it spawned a couple of stand-alone spin-offs like Cinderella: Fables are Forever, which by the way has been released just yesterday!  . For your enticement, here is the awesome cover for its very issue #1, courtesy of the beautiful and talented Chrissie Zullo:

Superspy-ish, and chillingly sexy. Wow.

Do not forget to visit her blog and deviant page for more of her lovely artwork, and show some support by getting a copy of Cinderella Fables Are Forever # 1.

Comic Book Review: Batwoman # 0

Batwoman # 0

Pages: 15

Writers: J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman

Artist: J.H. Williams III
Published by: DC Comics

The first time I ever heard of Batwoman, I'm like - are you kidding me? - and with reason because I never heard of a superheroine counterpart to Batman ever existing in mainstream comics. And to my surprise, she has been around since 1956, which I didn't saw coming.

Created by Batman creator Bob Kane and artist Sheldon Moldoff, this character was purposely made - to my surprise... again - to be a love interest for Batman and also to counter the homosexuality allegations made by the book Seduction of the Innocent in 1954. And because of that, a new whole new character with a lot of potential was born, and in her newest reincarnation, Batwoman is now depicted as a lesbian... - yes you read that right, a lesbian - in an attempt by DC Comics to diversify its current demographic and attract new readers.

Now on to the book itself....