Story: 
Art: 
Written by Alan Moore
Pencils by J.H. Williams III
Inks by Mick Gray
Colors by Jeromy Cox
Letters by Todd Klein
Published by DC/Wildstorm/America’s Best Comics.
Price: $2.99
My Verdict: More, please.
Sophie, as Promethea, continues to help Barbara, a former and still Promethea, in her search for her deceased husband. In the meantime, back on Earth, Stacia, the stand-in for Sophie, who is now also Promethea–makes a new set of rules.
Part of the fun of Promethea for me is that it’s what I imagine reading a comic book by Robert Anton Wilson would be like. Filled and overflowing with ideas about ontology, it continues to push the envelope for what can be discussed in a so-called “superhero” comic book. Promethea may be the titular character of the series, but the true story is about stories–and how they factor in our lives. Even our afterlives.
[ad#longpost]That being said, it’s not for everyone. Nor is it supposed to be. If you don’t like a comic book you can really sink your mind’s teeth into, then run away. It does require a bit of dedication to follow, but it’s worth the investment. The Tarot Issue from a few months back is probably one of the best single issues of a comic I’ve read in quite a few years.
One of the other things that Moore and company do is play with the medium. The Tarot was an issue-long example. Here you have two characters walking along a moebius strip, and it requires flipping the comic pretty much every which way but backwards to read the two pages in question.
All this stuff and I haven’t commented on the story at all. Okay, the journey of Barbara and Sophie is merely a vehicle to bring across Moore’s ideas–but not so transparent that it’s an annoyance and you wonder why you’re not just reading a thesis. And Stacia’s increasingly violent interpretation of the Promethea story, as it were, looks like it’s going to be something juicy to await the resolution of.
Each issue is something I profoundly look forward to. Top 10 is a good character-driven story, Tomorrow Stories is fun parody/satire at times, but this is the ongoing star in the ABC lineup, as far as I’m concerned.
Quote: “Ha ha! Real life. Now there’s a fiction for you.”
