Promethea, #1

Promethea #1

by Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III (Artist), Mick Gray (Artist)

Sophie Bangs was a just an ordinary college student in a weirdly futuristic New York when a simple assignment changed her life forever. While researching Promethea, a mythical warrior woman, Sophie receives a cryptic warning to cease her investigations. Ignoring the cautionary notice, she continues her studies and is almost killed by a shadowy creature when she learns the secret of Promethea. Surviving the encounter, Sophie soon finds herself transformed into Promethea, the living embodiment of the imagination. Her trials have only begun as she must master the secrets of her predecessors before she is destroyed by Promethea's ancient enemy.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Mythology

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought this would suck and it didn't.
Where were the pages and pages of text that I've come to expect from Alan Moore? This was unbelievably like a normal graphic novel!



The story shows its age because of things like references to Ally McBeal. <--ha!
I'm not sure why authors think adding pop culture references is ever a good idea. It just has a dated look to the whole thing even though it is set in some sort of an alternate timeline. In fact, I thought it was much older than it actually was, assuming (before the McBeal thing) that it was written in the 80s.



Still, storywise it's pretty easy to read.
Now, that's not to say I'm interested enough to read any more of this, but it did make me think that I might actually want to give Moore's Swamp Thing a try.



The gist of this is that Promethea is a figment of imagination that comes to life through an avatar, and each avatar reinvents her own version of Promethea. Said avatars have access to, and eventually end up in, the Land of Imagination. <--not the real name



The current avatar fights monsters and bad guys like she's a magical Wonder Woman knock-off, in a surprisingly coherent story. I would think fans of Moore will more than likely eat this entire series up.
If you're on the fence, go for it.

[Heidi Wiechert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Promethea is a brilliant fantasy graphic novel by the legendary Alan Moore. It follows a woman who is researching a story for her thesis, only to discover that the story actually lives in the imagination and can explode into the real world in surprising and mystical ways.

"Tell me, child, what is your name?" "Promethea."

It is a clever, gender-bent retelling of Prometheus. But, it presents the exploration and knowledge of the mystical worlds of the qabalah as Prometheus' gift to the world, instead of the usual literal interpretation of the gift of fire to light the night.

It seems to be Promethea's destiny to bring fire and knowledge back to the imagination of humanity in order to change the world forever for the better.

"I am Promethea, the rumored one, the mythic bough that reason strains to bend. I am that voice left, once the book is done... I am the dream that waking does not end."

To free her conditioned mind from the limitations of this reality, the woman, now bearing the incarnation of Promethea, needs to learn from her previous incarnations. If she doesn't quickly grasp the secrets of the four sacred weapons, the cup, sword, pentacle and wand, Promethea's ancient enemies will rip her to pieces.

"Humans are amphibious, Sophie. That means they live in two worlds at once: matter and mind. Yet many people only notice the solid world they have been conditioned to think of as more real while all about them diamond glaciers creak and star-volcanoes thunder."

This graphic novel is pretty far out there. I really liked the mythic and occult themes, and strong female characters.

There's some near nudity, but nothing too ridiculous. One of the incarnations of Promethea was brought into being by an author who used words and his imagination to shape his mistress into something more. Because of this sexual-themed awakening, she only wears a sheet, but it covers all the wobbly bits. Barely.

Highly recommended for adult readers who like fantasy graphic novels. There are few authors who write such themes better than Alan Moore.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so Alan Moore and so interesting. It's somewhat a superhero goddess Alice in Wonderland type story. It's trippy and the meaning of life is discussed. It's a very interesting story. I really appreciate the artwork. I hope I can get some more of these because I would like to read more.

There is a scene Promethea is speaking with the original or high power of Promethea. She talks about using the sword. The original says " 'I'm going to teach you the way of the sword.'
'What like chopping people up and stuff?', 'Oh darling you're rather literal. You see, darling, on this level, everything is symbolic. Swords stand for reason and discrimination. Frankly, dear, they cut through bullshit.' " She goes on to say "Reason slices through illusion and hallucination."

Then they both go on to face a usurper of that land of imagination. He is a writer who wrote down the 1st pulp stories of Promethea in the 1920's. They begin to fight and the new avatar of Promethea begins to use reason to hack at this evil presence. She knows there were lots of people who wrote the stories and she begins to list them all and this hack this idea down to size that is easily defeated.

I mean, I think all of that is some pretty amazing stuff right there. I love this kind of thought and ideas and wow! To me this is the kind of thing that is powerful. It's a higher level of thinking and it is one of the reasons that I love fairy tales and other fantasy stories so much. They get at a higher truth about life. Here, Alan Moore simply lays it all out. This is some brilliant stuff. It took a while to get to this, but it was a great pay-off.

I am looking forward to reading more.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminds me a lot of Sandman. It delves into myth and folklore. It gets very meta at times as Sophie explores the Immateria. It also has a Alice in wonderland vibe to it as the Immateria is powered by humankind's imagination. I like how Promethea comes to artists and creators over several generations, inspiring them as if she was a muse.

The real star of this book though is JH Williams III. He explores these unique panel structures that were even more creative 20 years ago when this was first published. I love how the panel work becomes part of the page art itself, acting like the frame of a painting.

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

99 Percent Of My Life I Was Lied To/ I Just Found Out Alan Moore Smokes More Dope Then I Do.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is amazing. I've read a lot of Alan Moore, but I hadn't gotten to this one yet, and when I finally read it I was taken by surprise. The deconstruction of story and fiction and imagination, the mixing of fantasy and myth and sci-fi -- all of that was as lovely as I would have expected from Moore. But what surprised me was the handling of the women in the story. Alan Moore's always had a... troubling relationship to female characters, I think; he draws them well, but he can never quite escape his obsessions with rape and prostitution. Here, those tropes are present, but they don't have the same impact because almost every character in the story is female, not just one or two. From all the former Prometheas to the protagonist, Sophie, and her best friend, the characters represent a wide swath of humanity, and none can be said to stand for "all women"; none is representative of all stereotypes. Yet Promethea as a concept IS all women, a force of myth to be reckoned with, and there's no doubt as to her power and influence.

That's not to say there aren't problems. I'm going to give the book the benefit of the doubt that the running gag about the mayor with multiple personalities will eventually amount to something, but for now it just seems like unnecessary mockery of the mentally ill. It's mean-spirited in the same way some of the gags about aspects of modern pop culture are, and holier-than-thou scorn of the masses is a bit of a turnoff for me. But the rest is so brilliant and well-executed that I can't really complain, and I'm eager to start book 2.

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"So you just wrote a POEM about Promethea and you BECAME her?"
"That's right. Do you think if I want to be Sophie again I should write about HER?"

Stacia, the sidekick who treats the skinny college girl heroine upstart as the shadow's embarrassing shadow is in her darkened behind sidekick place. I never really craved that kind of female friendship anyway, (what is it to anyone else how many guys their girl pals screw, anyway?). So Stacia has this bee hive kind of hair-do and she has a big mouth that opens wide to talk and eat a lot (this is seen later with donuts). Big comic book lips, vintage style bossiness. She pipes down to slowly "get" and demand or mourn the answers that the lead doesn't possess. I mourned these girls in Sunday comics. I always wanted Charlie to tell Peppermint Patty go run her own show. Why am I talking about Stacia for? I like her when her hair comes down. If you could see the story come down. The friends can sleep together, maybe there's more. But I probably wouldn't that feel that much persistent bitchiness was worth getting behind. College student Sophie Bangs isn't behind her anymore in the dumpster light. She's behind the vision of Promethea. Behind the curtain in her own brain. So far the point sadly doesn't seem to be what that is all about.
So in the panel Promethea has white eyes and she's losing Sophie. Made up in her own Promethea vision. Stadium head gear and save the day heroics. Not doing anything, though. Not quite Promethea, not almost Sophie. They are behind the rock concert venue where The Limp is playing (with appropriate lyrics). It reminds me of all of those scenes from the club The Bronze on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I can hear the 1999 wah wah wah playing. Buffy would slay a lot of vampires in this behind the club dumpster. I wish Buffy was real. The bad guys are after Promethea. They are now after Sophie. She is the new Promethea. She represents something. I wish there was less representing. She wishes Promethea was real because she needs her. She's not doing anything. I wish there had been more longing in her visions than needing her ass saved. I always wanted to hang out with Buffy and the gang. On bad depression days I'd always watch season two episodes because that's when the gang are best friends. Do I want what Promethea/Sophie has? What does she have?

The story goes that if you go looking for stories they will come looking for you. It has happened before. Sophie has been thinking about Promethea. People think about Promethea a lot. She is writing for college about how people think about Promethea a lot. I liked that Sophie wrote her own poem about Promethea. It's when she does her own thinking about her. According to the other Prometheas (they are all watching her from the world of imagination, called Immateria) and the bad guys she's in the new stage when she is still part herself, part Promethea. I like that she doesn't know who her Promethea is if she's writing the story with her. Some of the other girls (and one man, Bill) were made into Promethea by male writers. I loved the later chapter when they take down the ghost writers for the pseudonym for the trashy 1920s pulp series about her. The poet that made his "muse", the housemaid Anna, into his phantom lover from his own story (ghost child and all) was moving. She loved him. He never loved Anna. She's behind the vision and he doesn't see her. My guess is that Moore really wanted to write about male fantasies imposed on women who act them out here. I don't know because I'm not that far into the series yet (there are only six comics in this collected "volume one" edition), but how much was Anna, and how much was Promethea? The Promethea girls seem to share a collected memory, yet are their own women. Some, like Margaret, embody the archetypal image more. Save them and clasp their teary eyed faces to her hoo-has. Margaret wears wispy fabric to barely cover her bosom and bottom. She wants to comfort the soldiers who really just want their mothers. Grace Brannagh rebels against the writers of those trashy Hy Brasil warrior princess novels (her breasts have never heaved, thank you very much). I love Grace because she's her own Promethea (damn the man) but I suspect my favorite may be Barbara. Her introduction has been in the mortal world (she's dying by the end of what I've read, though). Her Promethea imagination wasn't a lot and hers resembled her self very much. That would be interesting to explore as Sophie still wants to be Sophie and not just Promethea. But who is Sophie, besides a college student in uniform of jeans and a tank top? I wish this was real, that the world of the imagination was a place you could live in. I wish that you could write about Promethea and be her. I don't know if I'd want to be me at all. I wish that Moore had wanted to write about that and less about sending up what others have done. What do those girl heroine comics mean to the Promethea comic creators other than other dudes liked them to dress up in tight outfits and have them narrowly miss the fatal grasp of some big bad dude? If you want to write about it at all it should make you wonder why would this woman Anna be someone else's Promethea? Who was Sophie that she would do this at all? What attracted her to this woman that a lot of others before her thought about? Besides the skimpy outfits. Sophie puts her Promethea in hard golden casing (mini skirt style). I really don't care about clothes.

Okay, so there's a misstep a bit in the fifth and sixth chapters. When the Prometheas Margaret and Grace teach Sophie about the "powers" of Promethea they explain too much that had been there in the squirmy heart thump in thinking that you just might be able to go there. It was already there when the original Promethea was a little girl in Roman Egypt. Her father gives (or sacrifices if you see it that way) her to the world of Immateria after he is taken by the Christians. The baddies (I'm not worked out on them yet) warn Sophie that Promethea wants to end the world. Imagination versus unreality but so far this is only hinted at, what Promethea is meant to do, when she's an idea of someone like the father, or who is "playing" her. The Prometheas warn her that some benefit from the we are living in a material world and you are our material girl ways. Get a job, get a car, all the stuff Alice Cooper can't do because he has no shoes and he can't go to school. I had brighter eyed interest in working it out for myself that stories and are we writing the stories or are we just consuming them. They mean a lot to me. I know that. I want them to be real more than anything. I know about dreams, fictions, sexual fantasies and hopes. They fill out a future that looms as alone as what came before. Tell Promethea on a poster Margaret to shut it, Alan Moore. I got it already. What would you do if you could make it all real?

I already knew that the (I loved him) Weeping Gorilla comic sweeping the futuristic 1999 New York City with t-shirts and catch phrases was the story safe with irony-clad armor. Cry and make a joke in the same breath. I know all about self protection. Live this way. I know about the Big Bad Wolf being scary when you are a child because he could really get you. Look at him now, did he get smaller or did I get bigger. But I loved it when they meet him in Immateria and you have to imagine you and Little Red Riding Hood to save you. I love it when they meet Weeping Gorilla and it's just like when I'd play Thom Yorke's music and feel sorry for myself because I was letting myself flunk out of school again. I can't do this! Tell yourself a story. Collected human pain. You know it and now forget it. Laugh at that monkey he got divorced and he works in telemarketing. Stacia doesn't think he's so funny anymore. Where is her inky heart on the pages. Sophie wants to believe in something better. That's why she loves stories so much. I know the feeling. I know the feeling, and I bet others do too. Exposition isn't need THAT much. That was too bad because I was gonna say that these comics are pretty damned good for all of the potential flaws. I'm intrigued about how all of these different minds dreaming about their Promethea are gonna converge. Where do Sophie's dreams fit in? Where does Sophie fit in? Can you save yourself with stories? Some amazon review starts out with "it's nothing new" or some thing like that. Sure, it isn't. I read/think about this stuff pretty often. It's because I really want it. These days I'm reading William Carlos Williams book poem Paterson and there's a lot in it about how you can't have the art without the person. That's true, it meant something to someone, burned somewhere first. In William Gaddis' The Recognitions we get to have us with the art, if you need it enough on your knees. It burned still because of you. I think a lot about what I wouldn't have without the art. What you can't get close to without it because who is going to let you? I'm leaning more towards loving the art more because I don't know how to have anything else. I lost my breath a little wondering if some thing like Promethea would just let you do that. Maybe I like big comic book ideas a lot myself. I hope these story strains are picked up about these other Prometheas. The ones who made Prometha, the ones who were "made" by others. It's a great idea. I don't care if it's not new.
But is it too late to tell them (duh they are already written, M) that Buffy the movie wasn't brilliant like Buffy the series because they lived outside of what writers could say. Buffy was a heroine because she fought for herself too. It always meant more than that some dude thought the blonde cheerleader couldn't save herself. She can and if you are the sort of person who would dream of that happening, let that happen, then maybe that's more interesting in the first place than sending up the paler story. So who the hell is Sophie and who is her Promethea? My jury is still out.



I didn't have my "staring problem" about the art work. I wanted to take Promethea out of there. The dressing up by others female super hero outfit look. That didn't really interest me too much. It's like the Buffy turning the cheerleader myth on its head thing. I don't think of dumb blonde girls as damsels in distress anyway. They can dress however they want to. I guess a lot of this is lost on me because I didn't read those kinds of comics in the first place.
The facial expressions I tuned out the way I will forget that I'm reading subtitles on foreign films. I didn't notice them the way I do in other pictures. The good feeling of spacing out and the slightest change in posture from panel to panel means something to me. The only one that really meant anything to me was Barbara the heavier Promethea. I could see Barbara in the Promethea. That was something. She imagined Promethea as herself. Maybe she didn't know how to relate to Promethea so she was just herself (I guess this is saying she's like Keanu Reeves or some other bad actor that doesn't really do anything. If you want to look at it that way). But I liked it because she's there and I could look at the pictures to puzzle out Promethea parts and Barbara parts. I'm not too sure about the futuristic setting of 1999 either. I feel the storytelling yearning is timeless anyway. I guess the art is like when you get to the Munchkin village and everything is in technicolor. You want to be in fantasy land but what if there is a big bad witch and what if you are going to want to get home. I looked at what else was going on. But I didn't feel what they wanted on their faces. I miss that because that's what I am always studying in films and in life to maybe some day (I wish) know what the hell people mean and if I can believe it or not. I kinda wish these faces were more interesting, since there is a lot more behind the imagination than the story. There should be. I'm less a fan of the art than the story because of the faces.

Okay, so some of the dialogue is cheesey. I need a speech bubble.

I feel full of meaning.

I like it though. They wanted to live in super hero comics and pulp novels. Maybe they don't want to sound cool.

I only have the one volume. I wish I had more because I hate not knowing what happens.

[Nnedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. The idea of a heroine who is the ultimate champion of imagination- I was instantly hooked. But I also like how it's in an alternate super-futuristic 1999. I enjoyed the detail of that in the art. I also enjoyed comparing that time to now. And the Weeping Gorilla was *genius*!!! Now I have another superheroine who I really dig (I'm a huge fan of Wonder Woman)! I am so going to read volume two and three and four and five! Only criticism- the breast-size jokes. Enough already. It was funny the first time and even then it wasn't THAT funny.

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic introduces some interesting ideas about the power of fiction and the imagination in the real world. However, as with other Alan Moore stories, I kind of got the impression that Moore has some issues with women. Also, there are a few instances of terms to describe members of the LGBT community being used as insults.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it. Alan Moore wrote it, and it's very good. Moore, the philosopher/historian/intellectual of comics, reinvents an old character that comes up first in a Renaissance poem, and allusion to Midsummer Night's Dream and precursors to today's fantasy... The main character for twenty years in a serial comic strip in the early twentieth century... reinvented periodically in various formats and genres, Moore takes his turn at the myth about a woman, in the new century NYC, Sophie Bangs, (or maybe series of women are also Promethea over time, and they co-exist in some out of time continuum, in this alternate universe Immateria-- which is the world of Imagination, story, myth, set against the Right Brain world of commerce, argument, doom and war and destruction. There's some crazy swirling colorful romantic artwork that fits with the fanciful story, which has some preachy parts to it and some silly stuff like the Five Swell Guys... Moore is playful and feminist--and still lewd in a couple places-- Pretty awesome, on the whole... A wild, imaginative ride with a reflection overall on the need for story and imagination in today's mean and self-destructive world...

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the play between reality and imagination. Artwork was great, just found myself overly confused in the beginning. Probably wasnt the best novel to read early in the morning.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It might piss off both men to say it, but Alan Moore seems to be doing his best Grant Morrison impression here. The realms of the imagination, and all that.

Very few complaints, except the tone of Sophie's friend Stacia is woefully off, like David Case reading Lolita.

The art is amazing.

[Damon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Alan is capable of so much more. This is derivative writing at its worst and Alan is completely out of his depth here, not with the material, but with the characterizations.

[Donovan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I'm not into fantasy, so that doesn't help. But this is the first thing I haven't loved by Alan Moore. And I'll explain.

There's too much going on while lacking substance. Are you insane? you ask. Actually, no. If I can summarize the entire novel with a few words, it would be this: symbolism, boobs, legs, lesbians/veiled misogyny, flat characters, cheesy 2000s pop culture, hyperbole, hallucinations, demons, pseudo-mythology, meta like a motherfucker. This whole book is just a far reaching hyper indulgence in the "meta" and the breaking down of the fourth wall. There's a loose plot at the beginning, much like Alice in Wonderland. Alice is bored or whatever, rejects her reality, and wanders down the rabbit hole. After that pretty much anything goes and there's no point to anything. Near the end they explain that everything is symbolism, the action, objects, existence, and suddenly I'm back in high school English reading a fable and trying to figure out what everything means. Your sword is truth, my fist is intolerance. Get off your high horse, which is of course a symbol for intellectual supremacy.

I just found this to be a very dry, tedious, wandering narrative. The dialog was cheesy. The characters bored me. And Promethea, I kid you not, stole some lines from Xena Warrior Princess. The story went like this: girl discovers power, learns to use power, power overwhelms her, ...?..., ...?..., ...?..., the end. So yeah. One and done. Moore is not infallible.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

En el antiguo Egipto un hombre es asesinado por fanáticos religiosos acusado de mago, minutos antes le pide a su hija que escape. En su huida por el desierto se cruza con invocaciones hechas por el padre antes de morir, una suerte de semi dioses provenientes del mundo de la imaginación el cual es un plano tan real como físico y onírico, el mundo de la inmateria. Así esta criatura es envestida con el ente de Promethea, un ser del mundo de la imaginación que puede moverse por el mundo real, planteando que todo es imaginación en realidad, por contradictorio que suene. A lo largo del tiempo Promethea fue personificada ocupando los cuerpos de distintas mujeres. En este caso trata sobre una estudiante adolescente, Sophie Bangs. La historia trata sobre como lidia el personaje con su huésped, como le cambia el mundo y la visión y las contras de tener semejante poder, que huestes infernales estén tras sus pasos. En Promethea todos los personajes son femeninos, las pocas apariciones masculinas son demonios o seres desagradables. El arte es único, no hay nada parecido a la puesta en página de J H Williams III, nada. Casi no hay cuadrados, es la ruptura máxima del medio, la imaginación al poder. Es una gran lectura donde sobresale el dibujo, realmente es despampanante, uno se toma más tiempo para disfrutar el arte.

[Will L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Like Neil Gaiman's work if Gaiman wasn't so try-hard and annoying. Might be my favourite Moore yet, but it's been a while since I've read the other ones.

One other thing: I can't remember if the 'weeping gorilla' phenomenon first appears in this volume or the second, but the media character and the bizarre public emotional investment in him reminds me of 2016's Harambe meme - which reinforces my hunch that there is a form of distributed precognition in the collective unconscious that gets channelled through pop culture.

[Lukasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much is going on. Boring, self-indulgent, uninspiring.

[Merl Fluin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for the gorgeous artwork. Three stars for the story.

I've read a ton of Alan Moore, but for some reason I had never got around to this one until an occultist friend recommended it to me. I can see why he did so: large parts of it read like a textbook on the Western Hermetic system. And for me, that was the problem with the book.

Moore's approach to the Hermetic elements – which are the whole point of the story – is didactic and heavy-handed. Characters spend panel after panel reciting concepts to each other. And for a book devoted to the power of the imagination, it's all curiously literal. Sample dialogue:

Sophie: These two things the Goetia attacked me, and now my friend Stacia's gone, and...
Barbara: Whoah. Did you say Goetia?
Sophie: Yes. Their names were Andras and Marchosias. They said that Goetia meant "howling".
Barbara: Dear god. Someone must be real pissed at you, girl. How'd you banish 'em. Lemme guess... you used the pentagram, right?
Me: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. [Stabs self in head with pencil.]

Needless to say, how annoying you find this will depend on how familiar you already are with the concepts in question, and on your taste – not just in storytelling, but also in occultism. Personally I'm not much into grimoire magick, and I think that people who go around conjuring demons are idiots, so Mr Solomon and his Goetic antics were never going to float my boat.

And yet, and yet. The most annoying part of all is that it works. Promethea has started turning up in my dreams. Damn these comic-book grimoires.

[Ken-ichi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun stuff, but hardly revolutionary. My friend Andy recommended this to me knowing I loved Sandman, and it's similar in its emphasis on (please shoot me) meta mythology, trying to weave all human storytelling into some common mythological framework. Promethea is fairly different though. For one, it's a superhero book (albeit a very good one), with all the trimmings: kid gains unexpected power, must learn the trade, has a sidekick, etc. It's also not nearly as visually innovative as Sandman often was, adopting a pretty conventional superhero style for its late 90s / early 00s publication date. The supposedly more visually mindbending scenes in the Immateria are your basic binder-margin hodgepodge of fairies, toadstools, and chimeric assemblages of bodyparts. Compare this with Sam Kieth's work (in Sandman and elsewhere), which featured similar subjects but with fantastically demented linework, or with Mike Dringenberg's eery photocopy collages and hyper-real high contrast inking.

My favorite parts of this book (and the second) are the odd little details of the wold (a too-futuristic near-future New York), like the Weeping Gorilla and the Five Swell Guys.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language of Magick is symbols. Symbols convey ideas that bypass articulation or logical thought. So it was only a matter of time before an adept of the Craft utilized the graphic novel as a vehicle for magickal education. But this is no pedantic exercise. Rather this is a lively, provocative story on par with the most avant garde novels. As a by-product of this intensely enjoyable read, one may learn about Cabala, Tarot, Enochian angelis language and much more. The balance between text and symbolic information is perfect. Follow the heroine Sophie as she meets and then becomes Promethea, undergoing a series of initiatory adventures rooted in real Western Magickal Tradition. By turns this series is funny, scary, provocative and addictive. Read all 5 volumes, now in trade paperback. Very highly recommended.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two words: modern magical. Oh yeah Promethea is one fun ride! Thank you Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III. The first volume (obviously) introduces us to the world of Promethea where magic, sci-fi, and myth exist in the real world. Promethea is a treat for us and our ticket to Moore's view on religion.

[♛ Garima ♛]

DNF 68%

I was not an Alan Moore fan back then, not now as well, it seems...

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So as a part of my ongoing, unwanted, unwarranted, self-appointed backseat driver status in Oriana's Jugs & Capes all-girl comic book reading club, I have started to want to actually reread some of the books I'm demanding she try in place of what she's actually reading. ("Don't read Preacher! Read Transmetropolitan! Don't read Dark Knight Returns! Read Year One! And for Christ's sake don't read Fables!") Most of my own comic collection is currently on the other side of the country, but one of my recommendations that I never actually owned myself (and therefore can go out and purchase without rebuyer's immediate gratification-type guilt) is Promethea.

So this week I picked up and reread Book One. I can't say that there's anything revelatory in the second reading that I missed the first time around, other than a greater feeling of clarity in actually able to discern the different personalties at play in a story where five of the main characters have the same name.

But I'm really enjoying it, and excited to read the series again. It's nice that at the age of 31, I can still have that cozy "building a blanket fort in my brain" feeling that Watchmen gave me when I was 12. Who knew the acid trippy ridiculous weirdness of Promethea was what would bring it around again.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start of this epic journey.

Published from 1999 till 2005, Promethea runs 32 issues. The main story concerns Sophie Bangs, a college student and is set in some weird sci-fi NYC in 1999. Sophie is researching Promethea who mysteriously pops up here and there in literature throughout the centuries.

During her research she gets attacked my a mysterious entity known as a Smee and is rescued by Promethea. Turns out Sophie is a potential vessel for Promethea, who can be called into the real world and inhabit a person.

Most of the series concerns Sophie learning about magic and mysticism, eventually exploring the Inmateria. This plot gives Moore plenty of opportunity to share his personal philosophy, which I don't find particularly interesting. The plot picks up a bit in the final volume of the series where Sophie is back in the real world.

The artwork by JH Williams III is outstanding. But with his recent work on Sandman Overture, I'd recommend you start there because Gaiman's story is a bit easier to digest. Williams just gets better and better, his latest work Echolands (2022) is worth a read too.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Series review: Like Lost Girls, an outrageously self-indulgent late-period Moore comic. Starts off as an okayish superhero strip, features some interesting, clever artwork, especially towards the end, and climaxes with some cool, fourth-wall demolishing stuff; but ye gods, the middle section of the series is just issue after issue of Moore trying to sell us his ridiculous cultish pseudo-philosophy, via a series of information dumps which repeatedly made my eyes glaze over.

[Ana Díaz Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando cogí este cómic no pensé que me fuera a gustar tanto. La misma idea de Promethea, su origen y lo que representa, unido a los diálogos, la crítica social (contra el capitalismo, la homofobia...), las ilustraciones y las composiciones de página, hacen de esta lectura una delicia visual e intelectual. La mezcla de símbolos egipcios y griegos, la inspiración art noveau, la ciudad casi cyberpunk... Son muchísimos detalles muy bien ensamblados.

[Wreade1872 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok... i'm going to nudge it up to 4. It was 3 before the last issue, although i was tempted to give it 4 on effort as clearly a lot has gone into it.
But, it finally started to click with me that last issue. I was going to read the next one anyway, but mostly because i have library access ;) .

I don't process art well so comics are often a little difficult for me. Moore's work tends to be a bit easier as he uses a lot of words and this is no exception but still is was just ok most of the time. Never bad and i do like the world its set in.

Anyway as i said really started to click in the last issue quite interested to see where it goes from here.

[Your_Average_Magical_Girls_Fan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What you get when you mix a "writer" who believes himself more intelligent than he actually is, an outdated (in 1986 as well as the 2000, since Alan Moore never evolved) Gardner Fox convoluted exposition-heavy writing style and a horny teenager who discovers the link between internet connection and porn for the first time in his life. Also, notice some atrocious misoginyst slurs thrown in there for good measure, the absence of any kind of interesting plot and an art that is barely passable. Good riddance. Comic masterpiece my fat, lousy ass.
EDIT: after re-reading this absolute clusterfuck and having time to develop some thoughts about it, the thing that becomes clear is that this crap is just a poorly re-made, reskinned, pretentiously sexed-up according to Moore's own tastes (see the previous paragraph on that) version of the original Golden Age Wonder Woman by W.M.Marston, who happens to be my favourite comic book writer of all times. Problem is, Marston made his own work based on HIS OWN IDEAS AND RESEARCH, not everyone's else, while Moore didn't. Did this man ever had AN ORIGINAL IDEA OF HIS OWN IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE? except the idea that pornography is the greatest form of (f)art ever, I mean. I really don't think so...

[Michelle Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my f*cking god. first off, if you're not sold by the pairing of ALAN MOORE and J.H. WILLIAMS then there really is no hope for you. if i could dream up one "comics dream team" it would easily be these two. promethea combines everything great about moore's philosophical writing and williams' ridiculously inventive art style, telling the story of a woman who is part human and part story. sold? sold. read if you like fables, sandman, wonder woman, etc.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A promising start to what looks like is going to be an incredible ride through the realms of imagination, and I can't think of a pilot I'd want guiding me more than Alan Moore. I wasn't totally into Williams' art at first, but quickly realized that he brings the perfect mix of psychedelic and realism that this story needs.