Promethea, Book 3

The Promethea series was the most interesting and inspiring graphic novels I've ever read. I can't see how Moore can top these.

Alan Moore decides to share his ideas on religion and magic with the world. To make it more palatable, he chooses to interweave it with a conventional super-heroine comic, and in volume 3, she sets off on a literal journey through the Kaballah (and finishes it in volume 4) seeking a dead comrade. If you are already neck-deep in mysticism and magic and Kaballah and stuff, this book might prove to have novelty value. The art is quite amazing, and is always appropriate to the subject matter. If you have no interest in magic, religion, or any of that, then do not buy this book. You will be confused and bored. If on the other hand you are new to magic, and wish for a stepping stone to deeper waters, I suggest this series as an excellent "get your feet wet" exercise. I've read it multiple times (out of necessity) and I still feel I haven't gotten to the bottom. No research is required, but it makes the read all the more engrossing.

Prior to reading this I had read Book 1 in the Promethea series. I picked up on what was going on here OK, but starting in at this book would not be a good idea. The Background for the series: Basically Promethea is the Goddess myth embodied. She enters the real world (modern day New York but with flying cars and other advanced technology) through Sophie, a college student. She has entered the world through other women at other times. These women are now dead and they lounge around in the after life and watch Sophie-Promethea for entertainment. Sophie-Promethea can enter other worlds. So she can visit the other Prometheas or can travel through the land of myths (the Immateria). Her main job is to maintain order in the real world and keep balance between all these forces that we learn about as they emerge. The story here involves Sophie-Promethea leaving to go on a journey through the realms of the soul to find Barbara-Promethea (one of the deceased Prometheas), who wandered off in search of her deceased husband sometime during Book 2. Meanwhile 20's Promethea merges with Sophie's roommate to maintain order in the real world while Sophie-Promethea is gone. As you would expect from the series there is a lot of numerology and occult stuff here. Most of this happens in the Sophie-Promethea plot-line which is all serious. The real world plot line has mostly action, with 20's Promethea fighting in style, and comic relief since 20's Promethea and Sophie's roommate don't get along so well but are sharing a body. These two plots parallel one another especially at the conclusion. The graphics: The artistic style is the normal comic booky style done well. However the layouts are spectacular. Almost any spread of two pages hangs together as one coherent whole. The highlight of the book for me was a layout in the chapter entitled "Gold" This layout shows a small sun in the center of the spread, with frames radiating out like rays from the sun. You can read the dialog and action in the frames clockwise or counterclockwise and it makes sense. You can read left to right across the top half, then left to right across the bottom half of the spread and that makes sense. You can read top-to-bottom on the left page, and then on the right page and that makes sense. It is very very cool. This book is good, but you will likely be confused unless you have read others in the series. For example if this review is incoherent for you then read the earlier books first. I liked this one better than the previous book I had read, but without having read that one I would have been beating my head against the wall. The one spread that I mentioned with the sun is very cool. If you are interested in comic book design then you should check out that spread.

This book takes off in two directions. The second one (I'll come back to the first) introduces a new Promethea. That plays by the rules - there have been lots of them and will be lots more. This plane of reality just has one at a time, though. The new one embodies "punk", in attitude and style. Promethea is a semi-mythic ideal of womanhood - certainly too rich and complex a topic to embody in any one person. Various Prometheas carry various parts of that vision: motherly, raw and angry, innocent, and sensual, but always powerful and involved. Some parts of the complete image are unpleasant but needed for the image to be complete, and that's where Promethea/Stacy fits. She exorcises demons by being more demonic than them.The book's other direction explains why the first Promethea was off duty. She is on a trip through the mythic planes, led by a succession of spirit guides. She acts as a passive display of each realm she traverse, and that seems a real under-use of a very worthwhile character. It's a verbal and philosophical trip, but Promethea is a character of action. Worlds of fantasy, sensuality, and judgement could have been settings for active exploraiton of each idea, but Promethea just talked about them while passing through. I consider that an opportunity lost.Still, the series is readable, well-drawn, and full of ideas well beyond the usual comic. Despite some flaws, I intend to keep reading.

There is no comic book being published today that even comes close to the beautiful, intelligent art in Promethea. J. H. Williams goes all out. The story is very challenging to the mind and spirit. Kabala stuff is not really my thing, but if Alan Moore cares about it enough to do it, I care enough to come along for the ride. This, along with Top 10, LOEG, and Greyshirt, is the best of the ABC line. And it is a good time to jump aboard. In the 5th and final book, now being published in comic-book format, Promethea brings about the end of the world. But remember it is Alan Moore's version of the end of the world--so it may not be what you expect. Remember, too, the kind of generous swan-songs Moore did when he closed out his runs on Swamp Thing and other books he cared out. We may be in for something amazing in the final volume.Even if you looked at Promethea when it first came out and found it confusing or preachy, I recommend taking a second look at it in collected form. It rewards close and repeated readings. And the examinations of occult theories turn out to be, for the most part, a metaphor for creativity and growth.