Promethea: Issue #1 August 1999
The Radiant Heavenly City
Created By: Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III with Mick Gray
Writen By: Alan Moore
Penciled By: J.H. Williams
Color and Ink By: Mick Gray and Todd Klein
Publisher: America's Best Comics
Promethea is a metafictional fantasy about a debatabley (because the back story indicates the fictional character arrived in literature basically out of nowhere in the 1700s) ancient goddess who inhabits the bodies of humans via the mechanism of the written language over several generations giving them her god-like powers. Now, I pretty much never like metafiction. I like the concept of it; it’s paradoxical and complex. Yet somehow the eloquence always evades me. Unfortunately, at a young age The Never Ending Story pretty much ruined me on the concept. (Go back and watch that movie now that you're grown, and tell me if it makes any sense to you). The series is 32 issues long and is said to explore concepts not often touched upon in the graphic novel industry, which, along with my kismet introduction to the book, is what sold me on it. Later throughout the series we'll see such concepts as the Apocalypse, the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, transcendentalism, and (more subtly) post-structuralist feminist theory or Écriture féminine (believe it or not).
In the first issue we are introduced to the main character Sophie Bangs and her best friend Stacia. I appreciated the rapport they held with each other; it was playful and realistic. The first issue very quickly throws us into the world of Promethea via flashbacks to a theoretical origin of Promethea, as well as Sophie's initiation as the new host of Promethea's essence. The setting is an alternate reality/futuristic type city referred to as The Radiant Heavenly City, with flying saucer police cars and the Five Swell Guys superhero team on call as an ever present sense of Moore-ian social commentary, ala Watchmen.
I felt the illustrations overall were great. I liked the colors and texture just fine. But best of all (for a geek like me anyway) for 1999 it was probably one of the least predictable comic books as far as framing and arrangements go. There is a lot of symbolism in the arrangements alone that I think adds a depth to the comic book that would be noticeably missed without it. Take for instance a two page spread of Barbara Shelley's (the previous Promethea host) apartment in which the building creates an outer framing for the scene where Sophie inquires, for her term paper, about Barbara's late husband who had been the writer of the most recent Promethea-related comic book. The image unfolds a timeline for the entire interaction while also portraying a mirror like quality. I think the imagery suggests that upon Sophie's introduction to this woman, which is seemingly fruitless, she has transcended into a new existence.
The storyline itself, I felt, was a little weak in this first issue. That could be because it was all set-up and no real plot. And on that token, it could be a good thing for future issues that the reader was rushed so fervently into the concept. Were it not for the 2 page back story at the end of the issue, I might have been disappointed. But I think good things will come from this series as I move forward.
The Grading Scale will hereafter proceed as follows.
Overall Story (per issue): 6 out of 10 points
Back Story Development: 10 out of 10 points
Character Development: 6 out of 10 points
Illustration and Framing: 8 out of 10 points
Cover Art: 7 out of 10 points
2 bonus points for the Star Ocean ad at the end. ( I need a copy of that game).
Overall that gives it a C+, which is a modest score, but I'm optimistic about what's to come. For those who would like to read along with me but don't want to buy the entire series you can download it (illegally) on www.scrapetorrent.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment