Did I Mention Alan Moore?
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: J.H. Williams III
So I get onto the DC Universe app one Tuesday—when they load the new comics for that week—and saw an announcement that PROMETHEA, the entire series, was now available to read on the app. What’s Promethea, I wondered. So I checked it out, saw it was written by Alan Moore and that was all I needed.
Having read WATCHMEN, FROM HELL, V FOR VENDETTA, and my absolute favorite comic of all time, MIRACLEMAN, the words “written by Alan Moore” sealed the deal for me and I immediately added the book to my reading list.
Now, having finished the first arc, which covers the first 6 issues of the monthly series, I’m not sorry. Not that I expected to be, it’s Alan Moore. Did I understand every word I read? No, it’s Alan Moore. Am I positive there are things going on in every page that are being written at a higher level of understanding than my brain is able to comprehend? Obviously, it’s Alan Moore. Am I going to keep reading the entire series and just enjoy it on whatever level I am able to? Hell yes, it’s Alan Moore.
PROMETHEA tells the story from Sophie Bangs’ perspective. She is a college student in an alternate 1999 New York, who is writing her college thesis on Promethea, a mythic figure who has come up in stories and folklore repeatedly throughout history.
As the story opens, she’s about the interview Barbara Shelley, the widow of the last writer to tackle the character when she’s warned, “You don’t wanna go looking for folklore. And you especially don’t want folklore to come looking for you.” Upon leaving the apartment, Sophie is attacked by a creature called a Smee, then rescued by a very real, flesh and blood Promethea. Taken to safety, Sophie discovers Barbara is the current incarnation of Promethea.
Badly wounded, though, Barbara tells Sophie that Promethea is born of stories and myths and she challenges Sophie to write about Promethea, and in so doing, Sophie becomes the newest incarnation of the hero. Just in time, too, because there’s obviously lots of bad dudes out there looking to get their claws in, both in the real world and the Immateria, a fantasy land where all the previous Prometheas live out their days once their service is over.
J.H. Williams III co-created the book and provides the art and this is not a book to be just breezed through. I’m also doubting very much it’s a book to be read on a screen via an app. The work Williams has done here is nothing short of astonishing and game-changing. Every page here is a masterpiece. With Mick Gray on inks and Jeremy Cox’s colors, each page shines with vibrant colors and sharp lines and Williams amazing layouts. Remove the word balloons and these pages would be posters worthy of framing.
PROMETHEA is a book that is both thrilling and intimidating. Thrilling because it’s an Alan Moore book I’ve never read. Intimidating because Alan Moore is not a light summer beach read, the man is dense and packs his stories with philosophy and satire and all things brilliant, while I am a dumb donkey who just likes to read comics. But I’m going to carry on most definitely because it’s Alan Moore. Maybe one day I’ll read a thorough dissection of the book and its themes and be able to go back to it with more knowledge and insight, but for now I’m just going to read it and enjoy it for the pure Alan Moore-ness of it. Sometimes that’s enough.
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