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Prophet #2
Prophet, Volume 2: Brothers
The distant future war continues, Old man Prophet is awake now and searching across the universe for old allies that have survived the centuries since the last war. Collects PROPHET #27-32
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
19 people are currently reading
368 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Graham
197 books198 followersBrandon Graham (born 1976) is an American comic book creator.
Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
April 24, 2015
While Prophet, Volume 2: Brothers retains the forms of its predecessor volume, it does not retain its substance. The artwork continues to be surreal and sometimes breathtaking, but the storyline is much more "standard" than volume 1, and I fear, just a little, that it is slipping back toward its superhero roots (in the unsubtle and, frankly, silly original Prophet series).
Thankfully, some of the vestiges of volume 1 remain: the very alien life forms reminiscent of Matt Howarth's cult-classic '90s title Konny and Czu; the use of a veritable guild of artists and writers (some the same as in the first volume, but also including newcomers Fil Barlow, Helen Maier, and Boo Cook), rather than a single writer and artist; and the premise that a slowly-gathering army of clones of John Prophet will re-establish the Earth Empire.
Let me emphasize that phrase "slowly gathering". This is why this volume didn't receive my highest rating. I am fine with slow story lines (heck, I read Moby Dick and loved it), but the meandering nature of this story weakened it a great deal. The first volume had the excuse, and a good excuse it was, that the disorienting feeling that one got from reading the book could be viewed as the submersion of the reader's consciousness into John Prophet's own confusion at awakening from a thousands-of-years slumber into a wholly different universe. But that's behind us now. Now, the story is focused ("gathered?") primarily on the original John Prophet, known as Old Man Prophet, from whom the army of clones (or near-clones) has descended.
Volume 1 was more diffuse, with the stories of the different clones getting more or less equal playing time. In Volume 2, Old Man Prophet gets the lion's share of attention, while the tailed(!) John Prophet (Farel Dalrymple's "baby") gets a little vignette in the middle. Frankly, I liked the more diffuse volume, as it felt unlike a "standard" comic book, with a much more complex multivariate narrative that I found surreal and intriguing. I guess I find the linearity of this volume a little disturbing! Then again, "linearity" doesn't really fit so well - the narrative tends to meander, but not enough to break away into true surrealism. It's in an uncomfortable interstitial space between bold and bland. If you're going to do weird, go big or go home!
I will be very interested to read Volume 3. If the series returns to the substance, and not just the forms, of Volume 1, I am in for a treat. If it continues too much further down this path, well, I am forgiving, but only to a certain point.
Thankfully, some of the vestiges of volume 1 remain: the very alien life forms reminiscent of Matt Howarth's cult-classic '90s title Konny and Czu; the use of a veritable guild of artists and writers (some the same as in the first volume, but also including newcomers Fil Barlow, Helen Maier, and Boo Cook), rather than a single writer and artist; and the premise that a slowly-gathering army of clones of John Prophet will re-establish the Earth Empire.
Let me emphasize that phrase "slowly gathering". This is why this volume didn't receive my highest rating. I am fine with slow story lines (heck, I read Moby Dick and loved it), but the meandering nature of this story weakened it a great deal. The first volume had the excuse, and a good excuse it was, that the disorienting feeling that one got from reading the book could be viewed as the submersion of the reader's consciousness into John Prophet's own confusion at awakening from a thousands-of-years slumber into a wholly different universe. But that's behind us now. Now, the story is focused ("gathered?") primarily on the original John Prophet, known as Old Man Prophet, from whom the army of clones (or near-clones) has descended.
Volume 1 was more diffuse, with the stories of the different clones getting more or less equal playing time. In Volume 2, Old Man Prophet gets the lion's share of attention, while the tailed(!) John Prophet (Farel Dalrymple's "baby") gets a little vignette in the middle. Frankly, I liked the more diffuse volume, as it felt unlike a "standard" comic book, with a much more complex multivariate narrative that I found surreal and intriguing. I guess I find the linearity of this volume a little disturbing! Then again, "linearity" doesn't really fit so well - the narrative tends to meander, but not enough to break away into true surrealism. It's in an uncomfortable interstitial space between bold and bland. If you're going to do weird, go big or go home!
I will be very interested to read Volume 3. If the series returns to the substance, and not just the forms, of Volume 1, I am in for a treat. If it continues too much further down this path, well, I am forgiving, but only to a certain point.
August 13, 2013
As you may recall, I lauded the first volume of Prophet published by Image comics as a startlingly original, unpredictable, almost revolutionary work in that it went against the grain of most comic book conventions. In the first volume, we witnessed the rebirth of several John Prophets and followed their plights in unusually alien worlds. It didn’t’ reveal much of what was going on, did not focus on any one character for too long, explored an expansive universe, and displayed a wildly visionary story. I’d never read anything quite like it and instantly became a devoted fan.
Or so I thought.
Unfortunately, in the second volume, Prophet comes back down to Earth as it realigns with customary comic book craft.
In this second volume, we meet the original John Prophet. And though the story takes place far into the future, he is joined by Diehard, who you may remember from the comic book series Youngblood. We even are given a brief glimpse of the character Supreme. Old man Prophet is seeking out past allies to aid him in the coming war.
This volume is linear and, though the art is still gritty and thrillingly unattractive, rather boring. The first volume seemed intent on creating an entire universe, one that delighted with its uniqueness. But this volume focuses on one character with his prerequisite band of misfit cronies. It all seemed the antithesis of the first volume.
I’ll be honest, Diehard really ruined the book for me. I just wanted this book to continue being so inimitable, but with Diehard in it, it can’t help but make me think that this is a “super hero” book when that is the last thing it set itself up to be. And with all of the imaginative alien names and language, having a character called “Diehard” is jarring to the experience and takes this reader out of the moment.
I will read volume three upon its release, because I believe in the creators’ work, but if things don’t change, it may be my last volume.
By the way, if you haven’t read the first volume, entitled Remission, do so immediately. As probably made evident, it’s one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in some time.
Or so I thought.
Unfortunately, in the second volume, Prophet comes back down to Earth as it realigns with customary comic book craft.
In this second volume, we meet the original John Prophet. And though the story takes place far into the future, he is joined by Diehard, who you may remember from the comic book series Youngblood. We even are given a brief glimpse of the character Supreme. Old man Prophet is seeking out past allies to aid him in the coming war.
This volume is linear and, though the art is still gritty and thrillingly unattractive, rather boring. The first volume seemed intent on creating an entire universe, one that delighted with its uniqueness. But this volume focuses on one character with his prerequisite band of misfit cronies. It all seemed the antithesis of the first volume.
I’ll be honest, Diehard really ruined the book for me. I just wanted this book to continue being so inimitable, but with Diehard in it, it can’t help but make me think that this is a “super hero” book when that is the last thing it set itself up to be. And with all of the imaginative alien names and language, having a character called “Diehard” is jarring to the experience and takes this reader out of the moment.
I will read volume three upon its release, because I believe in the creators’ work, but if things don’t change, it may be my last volume.
By the way, if you haven’t read the first volume, entitled Remission, do so immediately. As probably made evident, it’s one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in some time.
January 1, 2019
This second volume is not as compelling as the first. Simon Roy is not present, and I think the story that he illustrated in the first volume was the most interesting there. Dalrymple continues his story of Prophet (with tail) and is probably the best thing here - it allows us to get more information about the Earth Mothers and their/its influence on the other John Prophets.
The bulk of this book is concerned with the Giannis Milonogiannis illustrated story of Old Man Prophet, who was introduced in the final chapter of the first book. I didn't even mention Milonogiannis is my review of the first volume because he was my least favorite of the four artists in that book. His art, while not bad, is a bit boring. The story concerns John Prophet going around the galaxy rebuilding Diehard and organizing his team - it plays out a bit like a galactic Avengers story might.
While not as wonderful as the first volume I think this is a nice continuation of the story. We can already tell that the individual story strands presented in the first volume are all coming together in a meaningful way.
The bulk of this book is concerned with the Giannis Milonogiannis illustrated story of Old Man Prophet, who was introduced in the final chapter of the first book. I didn't even mention Milonogiannis is my review of the first volume because he was my least favorite of the four artists in that book. His art, while not bad, is a bit boring. The story concerns John Prophet going around the galaxy rebuilding Diehard and organizing his team - it plays out a bit like a galactic Avengers story might.
While not as wonderful as the first volume I think this is a nice continuation of the story. We can already tell that the individual story strands presented in the first volume are all coming together in a meaningful way.
July 5, 2013
I enjoyed the first volume of the re-launched Prophet, but I found this volume really hard to follow at times. The first had that sense of "okay, I'm not sure if I get this but it's still pretty cool", this volume seems to turn that up even more. Maybe it's the whole point, or maybe it's just me.
It is a very pretty comic though. And unlike a lot of other stuff that you get in other comics. Just be prepared to be left with the feeling of "...urm, wut?".
It is a very pretty comic though. And unlike a lot of other stuff that you get in other comics. Just be prepared to be left with the feeling of "...urm, wut?".
Read
February 10, 2016Still not sure how to rate this series. This one did feel like a step back from the first volume.
December 16, 2015
With volume two, one really sees why Image is becoming one of the more interesting publishers after feeling like it was an "edgier" variant of superhero fair for the first part of its 20-something year life. Graham really ups his game here as the relationship of the clones becomes more clear and the scope of the world starts to add up into something coherent. Graham is zooming outward in narrative structure, showing us glimpses of a massive mythology, and hints of a relationship to the Liefeld comic universe. The art remains fascinatingly alien, and the grit remains in the comic. Indeed, however, unlike Prophet, whose "grit" was a 90s conceit to male adolescent fantasies, this is necessary to the world. Great work overall.
May 15, 2019
Another excellent arc. The old man prophet storyline explains aspects of plot while at the same time generates other unknowns. I'm really becoming a fan on Milonogiannis' story rendering. Farel Dalrymple's long tail Prophet is still my favorite and I feel his issue was again the best issue of the collection.
It might be sacrilege to say, but I think I'm liking Prophet with Graham and Friends more than Jordo-verse / Moebius stories. It might be too premature to say aloud, but this Prophet is at least a close modern relative to Moebius.
It might be sacrilege to say, but I think I'm liking Prophet with Graham and Friends more than Jordo-verse / Moebius stories. It might be too premature to say aloud, but this Prophet is at least a close modern relative to Moebius.
July 31, 2017
A consistent series. Unfortunately it is consistently bad. Terrible writing, uninteresting characters that probably should be interesting. Wild science fiction backdrops that some are somehow not the slightest bit compelling. Dumb place names, dumb peoples names, dumb character names. How the heck did this ever get into print?
September 9, 2019
An intergalactic team of outsiders comes out of a (very) long retirement to go back to being... something, wait, what is this book about again? I honestly have no idea, but I’m already looking forward to re-reading the whole run.
December 23, 2023
Book Review 69 – Prophet, Volume 2: Brothers by Brandon Graham (et al)
I’m at this point reading these as quick palate-cleansers between longer books. Which is probably a terrible idea, both because I’m sure forgetting all manner of plot-critical details between volumes, and also because this series is so goddamn weird it’s the literary equivalent of having a spoonful of cinnamon between courses. But eh, reading the volumes in a row would both rapidly exceed my patience and also feel far too much like cheating to get my reading challenge counter up higher.
The story continues on from Volume 1, mostly but not entirely following ‘Old Man’ Prophet, a truly ancient superhuman soldier as he goes around the galaxy collecting a ragtag band of misfit allies and trying to organize a resistance to the reborn Terran Empire and its legions of other non-defective Prophets preparing to restore it to its ancient glory. The individual stories within that are pretty episodic, contained within each individual issue – all fairly minimalist and simple to fit within that constraint.
The style of story-telling is honestly the most striking thing about this whole series to me. Everything is very...zoomed out? Mostly, it’s an omniscient voice narrating the events occurring and how the protagonists feel about and react to them, with only comparatively few snapshots of actual dialogue or character beats occurring ‘on screen’. The result feels like a whole book of ‘previously on’ segments, as much as anything – it might be entirely normal in comics, but the few (very strange) ones I’ve really gotten into before this don’t do anything similar.
The art remains wonderfully bizarre – though it often gets to the point where I have difficulty actually parsing the action and whose doing what, which is a real issue in such an incredibly visual series. Still, by far the biggest selling point here is all the weird and wild aliens and gonzo worldbuilding that’s just thrown into the background and namedropped like it belongs there with zero exposition about how anything works beyond what’s absolutely necessary for the plot.
Speaking of visuals, I would like to take a moment to properly appreciate the fact that the Old Man’s dead love who he reminiscences about constantly was a lizard alien and they did not give her breasts (or make her particularly humanlike at all, really). Female alien character design in comic books is a low, low bar but crossing it with flying colors here.
Compared to volume one the story here’s much more conventional – more or less following one protagonist on a mission that’s either archetypal or generic depending on how nice you’re feeling, collecting a quirky and sympathetic supporting cast as he goes. My perspective is probably biased by the fact that the friend who lent me these also said that they technically take place in the far future of one established superhero universe or another, but you can kind of see the trappings of the genre starting to peak through here and there? Not necessarily a bad thing, but this definitely read like what you imagine a comic book to be than the last one.
I’m at this point reading these as quick palate-cleansers between longer books. Which is probably a terrible idea, both because I’m sure forgetting all manner of plot-critical details between volumes, and also because this series is so goddamn weird it’s the literary equivalent of having a spoonful of cinnamon between courses. But eh, reading the volumes in a row would both rapidly exceed my patience and also feel far too much like cheating to get my reading challenge counter up higher.
The story continues on from Volume 1, mostly but not entirely following ‘Old Man’ Prophet, a truly ancient superhuman soldier as he goes around the galaxy collecting a ragtag band of misfit allies and trying to organize a resistance to the reborn Terran Empire and its legions of other non-defective Prophets preparing to restore it to its ancient glory. The individual stories within that are pretty episodic, contained within each individual issue – all fairly minimalist and simple to fit within that constraint.
The style of story-telling is honestly the most striking thing about this whole series to me. Everything is very...zoomed out? Mostly, it’s an omniscient voice narrating the events occurring and how the protagonists feel about and react to them, with only comparatively few snapshots of actual dialogue or character beats occurring ‘on screen’. The result feels like a whole book of ‘previously on’ segments, as much as anything – it might be entirely normal in comics, but the few (very strange) ones I’ve really gotten into before this don’t do anything similar.
The art remains wonderfully bizarre – though it often gets to the point where I have difficulty actually parsing the action and whose doing what, which is a real issue in such an incredibly visual series. Still, by far the biggest selling point here is all the weird and wild aliens and gonzo worldbuilding that’s just thrown into the background and namedropped like it belongs there with zero exposition about how anything works beyond what’s absolutely necessary for the plot.
Speaking of visuals, I would like to take a moment to properly appreciate the fact that the Old Man’s dead love who he reminiscences about constantly was a lizard alien and they did not give her breasts (or make her particularly humanlike at all, really). Female alien character design in comic books is a low, low bar but crossing it with flying colors here.
Compared to volume one the story here’s much more conventional – more or less following one protagonist on a mission that’s either archetypal or generic depending on how nice you’re feeling, collecting a quirky and sympathetic supporting cast as he goes. My perspective is probably biased by the fact that the friend who lent me these also said that they technically take place in the far future of one established superhero universe or another, but you can kind of see the trappings of the genre starting to peak through here and there? Not necessarily a bad thing, but this definitely read like what you imagine a comic book to be than the last one.
June 10, 2022
Like the preceding volume, this features some great-looking, highly dynamic artwork, a load of really cool sci-fi ideas, and very strong, non-expository world-building. That said, the story in this volume isn't quite as tantalizingly enigmatic: whereas the first volume was all about atmosphere and world-building, this one's more plot-driven, with one cohesive main arc instead of the last volume's collection of little vignettes. The general thrust of the plot is fairly conventional, with a series protagonist seeming to have emerged who's now travelling around the galaxy to put together a team of allies, in order to take on the evil empire. I still really appreciate the series's subtle, intelligent approach to storytelling – its trust in the reader's ability to keep up without everything being spelled out – but as a complex overarching plot emerges, I have to admit I'm starting to feel lost at times, struggling to keep track of all the factions and machinations. The series is also starting to lean a bit more into the '90s Prophet stuff than I'd expected, something I honestly hope it doesn't delve into much further, because it just doesn't seem very interesting to me.
In sum, I wouldn't say this volume is disappointing – it's still really good – but it's definitely not quite as amazing as the volume that precedes it.
In sum, I wouldn't say this volume is disappointing – it's still really good – but it's definitely not quite as amazing as the volume that precedes it.
December 17, 2023
Nop, no es para mí. O sea, entiendo que al lector promedio gringo que solo lee superhéroes le vuele la cabeza porque es "raro", pero esto es pura forma y nada de sustancia. Si quieren ciencia ficción "rara" agarren a Druillet, Bilal, Moebius o cualquier Metal Hurlant de los 70 y van a encontrar esto mismo pero mejor. O capaz es que se necesita haber leído la obra original para que te vuele la cabeza, no sé. Me suena que nadie entendió nada pero es cool decir que te parece lo mejor del mundo. Yo paso.
November 22, 2019
Forma je pořád dostatečně zajímavá, spousta perfektních detailů.
Jen vývoj příběhu už není tak ustřelený jako byl v prvním booku a to mě mrzí.
Jen vývoj příběhu už není tak ustřelený jako byl v prvním booku a to mě mrzí.
April 14, 2020
Strange, Bizarre, Amazing, Inventive and Good!
November 20, 2020
We have the main narrative forming and while maybe the end game doesn't make sense/isn't clear - I'm loving the trope-y, pulpy feel of this.
February 3, 2021
I don't really understand what's happening but I like his new teammates plus the robot of course. Art is good and weird still. Very creative.
November 18, 2013
Prophet continues to be one of the most ambitious comics being published today. Volume two sees the continuation of the excellent art, and inventive settings and alien creatures. I found myself wishing that a stronger plot thread emerged drawing the issues together. The storyline is a bit loose, and is at times hard to follow in a larger sense, more than just issue-to-issue. Another pet peeve: we are in the second volume of trades, and there still seems to be an ever-expanding alien vocabulary, new words and species introduced it seems on every other page. It hurts the pacing a bit, getting hung up on the new terminology and trying to commit it to memory. That's why this is 3 instead of 4 stars. I will still gladly continue reading. I hope a stronger plot emerges, especially now that Diehard is involved and we get a glimpse of Supreme.
April 1, 2015
A masterful mash-up of themes and sensibilities from Metal Hurlant Magazine and The Metabarons. Highly recommended if you enjoy weird, psychedelic science fiction...
Image by Druillet
Image by Druillet
May 19, 2020
Continues the weird and warped visioning of the first volume. I like this one better than the original because I found Old Man Prophet easier to relate to than the younger Prophet from the original volume, and because I found the whole getting-the-band-back-together plot intriguing for its reflections on the previous Image universe.
Overall, a fun volume that makes me want to reread the first and watch for the next.
Overall, a fun volume that makes me want to reread the first and watch for the next.
March 27, 2023
See the centuries-old space war that is the Ixtano Circus! Meet the silly-natured young assassin Rein-East, she of the Scale! Say Hi to Old Man Prohet's dear friend, a sentient tree-root!
One thing about Prophet that I like so much; Although it can be read quickly, it never feels overly speedy, a complaint I often have regarding comics. Perfectly paced.
Worth it.
One thing about Prophet that I like so much; Although it can be read quickly, it never feels overly speedy, a complaint I often have regarding comics. Perfectly paced.
Worth it.
May 21, 2015
This will probably sound like my review of the first book, which I am too lazy to re-read right now. :)
This is very Mobius-esque sci-fi that stretches my imagination into very delightful places.
I loved it, and I hope to see more of this!
This is very Mobius-esque sci-fi that stretches my imagination into very delightful places.
I loved it, and I hope to see more of this!
August 26, 2013
I have no clue why people like this book so much. I wish this ended instead of Glory.
May 11, 2015
Only for lovers of hard core scifi. This was set so far in the future and filled with so much gobbedy-gook that I couldn't even tell you what it's about. Pretty much incomprehensible.
August 24, 2020
The art in this series continues to be the big draw. Aliens and landscapes that don't quite look like anything else in comics, backgrounds that vary from stark to highly detailed, some amazing color pops. I love the look of this book.
But while volume one threw you into a strange world, and made you follow along with a series of cloned characters who didn't really know what was happening, this volume brings back characters from the 90s supehero universe.
The first 20 issues of this series came out in the 90s, and were part of Image's rapidly decayed superhero universe of Supreme, Prophet, Glory, and Youngblood. In that series, John Prophet was a poorly drawn rip-off of Captain America, including him being put in stasis after a World War. But in volume one of the relaunch, he's part of some clone project in the far flung future with an unclear mission. It was glorious. But now we're tying this vibrant new idea to the old ones by reintroducing Diehard, and putting much of the focus on the "original" Old Man Prophet.
Ehhh.
It's by no means terrible, but it also doesn't have the spark of the previous volume. I'm going to keep reading it because I love the artwork, but I am much less excited in the weirdness of the story than I was during the last arc.
I still recommend it to people who enjoy unusual sci-fi landscapes and creatures, and maybe this will also appeal to fans of the old Liefeld Image superheroes.
But while volume one threw you into a strange world, and made you follow along with a series of cloned characters who didn't really know what was happening, this volume brings back characters from the 90s supehero universe.
The first 20 issues of this series came out in the 90s, and were part of Image's rapidly decayed superhero universe of Supreme, Prophet, Glory, and Youngblood. In that series, John Prophet was a poorly drawn rip-off of Captain America, including him being put in stasis after a World War. But in volume one of the relaunch, he's part of some clone project in the far flung future with an unclear mission. It was glorious. But now we're tying this vibrant new idea to the old ones by reintroducing Diehard, and putting much of the focus on the "original" Old Man Prophet.
Ehhh.
It's by no means terrible, but it also doesn't have the spark of the previous volume. I'm going to keep reading it because I love the artwork, but I am much less excited in the weirdness of the story than I was during the last arc.
I still recommend it to people who enjoy unusual sci-fi landscapes and creatures, and maybe this will also appeal to fans of the old Liefeld Image superheroes.
July 6, 2020
After reading the second volume of this series, it almost makes sense, but creates new problems. Set in the far future, it seems to be an actual sequel to a superhero story, since it now includes characters directly derived from the Youngbloods continuity. This was probably a bad idea, since those of us who remember that comic may not have fond memories of it. Also, it's like putting a Heavy Metal story into the future of, say, the West Coast Avengers, for no really good reason.
Okay, so let's ignore that part. Was it a good story? Well, the storytelling style being used becomes a tad iffy. It's more of a single story than the first volume, but not better for that. The story is largely told in captions that do not actually expand on the action, such as "Its life is ended with a single cleaving strike." In the panel, the image is of the main character of the story killing something with a knife that looks much like a meat cleaver...and yet is somehow balanced for throwing, overhand, as a piercing weapon??? Okay, so let's ignore that part, too.
The fact is that the story is interesting, but could have been better, and that's too bad.
Okay, so let's ignore that part. Was it a good story? Well, the storytelling style being used becomes a tad iffy. It's more of a single story than the first volume, but not better for that. The story is largely told in captions that do not actually expand on the action, such as "Its life is ended with a single cleaving strike." In the panel, the image is of the main character of the story killing something with a knife that looks much like a meat cleaver...and yet is somehow balanced for throwing, overhand, as a piercing weapon??? Okay, so let's ignore that part, too.
The fact is that the story is interesting, but could have been better, and that's too bad.
September 13, 2023
A signficant step down from the first volume since we shift away from the more deliberate pacing of the opening salvo to Prophet in favor of something that is overly exposition heavy and more plot driven. The story here fleshes out the history of the original John Prophet and his time working alongside Diehard from Liefeld's Youngblood run. You don't have to read any of the pre-Brandon Graham comics to understand this volume since he does a decent job catching the reader up. The narrative here is much more linear and hyper-focused on Old Man Prophet, making the series feel much more like standard sci-fi fare compared to the previous one which was an innovative shake up for the medium. Absent from this volume is the contributions of artist Simon Roy, whose contributions in the previous volume were amongst my favorites. Instead, the series leans more heavily on Giannis Milonogiannis who does a servicable job but doesn't quite pack the same punch as Roy, Graham or Dalrymple do with their pages. This isn't a bad entry per se, but it does feel like a noticeable step down in quality.
May 22, 2019
I so wanted to like this, but the story - such as it is - just felt so disconnected, like a bunch of inspired scenes strung together but with little relation to each other. This volume also sees the main character start to assemble a kind of "super squad". A bit too classically comic booky for me.
I'm done. No moving onto Vol.3. I just don't see any point. The art is still intriguing... and the world-building "fresh", if lacking in coherence. But at the end of the day this saga strikes me like many of the Heavy Metal tales of my youth. I get lured in by the eye candy... and a few neat ideas lurk in the mix. But I just find that I can relate to the story. I turn the last page disengaged and disappointed.
I'm done. No moving onto Vol.3. I just don't see any point. The art is still intriguing... and the world-building "fresh", if lacking in coherence. But at the end of the day this saga strikes me like many of the Heavy Metal tales of my youth. I get lured in by the eye candy... and a few neat ideas lurk in the mix. But I just find that I can relate to the story. I turn the last page disengaged and disappointed.
March 13, 2017
The first volume in this series kind of walked the line of being too obtuse for its own good. Flawed in terms of character development, world-building, and clear narrative, it was saved in part by some mindbendingly cool set pieces. Volume 2 has set pieces too, but in this case, they aren't enough to save it. The story just goes haywire, shooting off in all directions at once, and the layout doesn't do the mess any favors. Good luck figuring out what the hell is going on and where, or when. I'll give Volume 3 a shot based on the strength of the first volume, but if the creators continue going down this path, I'll hoist the white flag.
October 26, 2017
The first volume was a slow burn, but now I'm engrossed in the mystery of John Prophet and the Earth Empire and this ancient war. You really need to know that it is "more Conan than Conan" because that explains all the infodumps of this strange and magical world, and how the character development all happens with quiet moments.
I love the core concept that the human civilization is one of clones, and our hero is the clone who rebels. Because I never followed the old backstory it's weird when all of a sudden there's Supreme and I remember that this is part of a superhero comic continuity rather than it's own thing.
I love the core concept that the human civilization is one of clones, and our hero is the clone who rebels. Because I never followed the old backstory it's weird when all of a sudden there's Supreme and I remember that this is part of a superhero comic continuity rather than it's own thing.
December 5, 2019
If you liked the first book but weren't sure if this was for you, then you probably will not like this book. The only outstanding art would be Dalrymple's work. Wait, I take that back, artist Milonogiannis does art that varies between ugly and rough to really nice. So if given more time to polish his work he is probably really good.
And too bad the plot makes no sense. I think that if I reread the whole thing again, the story would be more rewarding. But it's so grim that I'm really not very interested.
And too bad the plot makes no sense. I think that if I reread the whole thing again, the story would be more rewarding. But it's so grim that I'm really not very interested.
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