Promethea
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Promethea is a comic book series created by Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III with Mick Gray, published by America's Best Comics/Wildstorm. Serialized in thirty-two issues on an irregular schedule, from 1998 to 2005, the series explores Moore's ideas about art and magic, combining elements of superhero action, metaphysical theorizing, and psychedelic hallucination, all focused on the adventures of Promethea, a "fictional fictional character" that possesses magical power over the "real world." Promethea is also notable for wide-ranging experimentation in visual style and storytelling technique on the part of Williams and Moore.
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Plot summary
Promethea has been organized into five books. Books 1 and 2 mainly deal with Sophie Bangs becoming Promethea, while Books 3 and 4 show Promethea/Sophie working her way through all the Sephiroth of the Kabbalah beyond death and the Immateria before returning to earth for a confrontation with Stacia. In Book 5, Promethea brought upon the Apocalypse, the end of the world - or the entire ABC universe, to be precise - not by destroying it physically, but by tenderly introducing its inhabitants to a new world of imagination, wonder, beauty, belief, and acceptance. Here Promethea truly delves deep into metafiction - the title character addresses the reader directly in her explanation of the Apocalypse, and points out that she is fiction, and fiction can be magic, and be believed.
References
Issues dealt with in this series include Tarot and Kabbalah, and the comic is laden with and studies mythological and archetypal symbolism. Real people who appear in Promethea include Aleister Crowley, John Dee, Austin Osman Spare, and John Kendrick Bangs (who in the comic is distantly related to Sophie Bangs). The semi-fictional character Jack Faust is also a character, who helps teach Sophie how to use magic.
Common themes
The series has been both criticized for acting as a mouthpiece for Moore's religious beliefs and praised for the beauty of its artwork and innovation regarding the medium itself. Regarding the first claim, the series is, by Moore's own admission, didactic; saying "there are 1000 comic books on the shelves that don't contain a philosophy lecture and one that does. Isn't there room for that one?" While the Kabbalah story arc, and the positive explanations of Moore's philosophy, very explicitly explain, talking-head style, the symbolism behind the details of every plane of existence, Moore also contains critiques of materialism which are much more subtle. The material world is, generally, portrayed as having become immersed in commercialism, materialism, fetishism of science, and trendy postmodernist-chic. Moore uses a recurring series of billboards, fictional celebrity references, and other advertisements and/or news similar to Watchmen.
As suggested by the title Promethea, which implies the feminine version or inversion of the mythological Prometheus, the title also participates in the mostly ignored sub-genre of feminism in superhero comics. In making his lead character an aspiring poet whose words conjure the malleable form of a literary goddess - as well as the non-linear narratives and references to literary theory and alternative philosophies - Moore's thematics are closely aligned with the counter-cultural theory and politics of Écriture féminine.
Weeping Gorilla Comix
Probably the single image most examplary of Moore's concept of modern disillusionment is "Weeping Gorilla Comix", a neverending series of one-panel comics featuring a weeping gorilla, with a thought bubble pronouncing some philosophical phrase, usually cynical and self-pitying in nature: "Why do good things happen to bad people?", "Who remaindered the book of Love?", "She gets the kids and the house. I get the car.", etc. It is also a snide reference to the anomalous tendency for comics to get increased sales from a picture of a gorilla on the cover. Occasionally Moore shows snippets of the Gorilla's foil, the Chucklin' Duck, who is happy-go-lucky and naively optimistic, with smug saying such as "Heh heh! I got out of internet trading just in time!". Both the Weeping Gorilla and Chucklin' Duck memes were used in the Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset series by Rick Veitch, and a Weeping Gorilla Comix panel makes a cameo in the story "King Solomon Pines" in Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #5 (scripted by Leah Moore and illustrated by Sergio Aragones).
Experimental media
Moore's characteristic deconstruction of the comics medium, combined with the visual experimentation of J.H. William III, give the book a visual style that is unique in the genre and have won it several awards. Williams' layouts are generally symbolic, featuring ornate designs that accentuate either the emotional experiences of the characters or the themes of the passage at hand. Many Promethea covers consisted of pastiches of famous images or styles, such as the cover to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. José Villarrubia also contributed sequences partially illustrated with photographs. Furthermore, in Promethea the fundamental element of comics storytelling - the panel - is often experimented with. Sideways issues, Möbius strip layouts, completely panelless issues, backwards or circular flow and other experiments occur on a regular basis. The final issue, "Universe" (#32), is a complex document which can be read in a number of different sequences, including as a double-sided poster when the pages are detached and placed together, and summarizes Moore's view on magic and fiction.
Characters
Promethea
Promethea is a young girl whose father is killed by a Christian mob in Alexandria in 411 AD. She is taken in hand by the twin gods Thoth and Hermes who tell her that if she goes with them into the Immateria - a plane of existence home to the imagination - she will no longer be just a little girl but a story living eternally. "Promethea" then is manifested in a series of avatars over the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the involvement of the lead character, Sophie Bangs.
People become incarnations of Promethea when they or someone close to them channels their identity into an artistic representation of Promethea. At any one time, only one human can carry the consciousness of Promethea. All of Promethea's avatars live on forever in Immateria, retaining their memories and contributing to the consciousness of the active Promethea.
Anna
The poet Charlton Sennet, in the 1770s, was able to imagine Promethea's likeness onto his housemaid Anna, transforming her into his dream lover. This Promethea bore him a child, but the baby evaporated on birth, since in a sense it was only a dream or imagination.
Margaret Taylor Case
The writer of a William Randolph Hearst-syndicated comic strip titled "Little Margie in Mystic Magicland", Margie wrote Promethea into her comic book as a helpful spirit, and ended up personifying Promethea to help soldiers on the battlefield from 1900-1920. The character of Margie Case is based on Winsor McCay and other cartoonists of the early 20th century.
Grace Branagh
A pulp fiction cover artist who illustrated fantasy novels under the pseudonym "Marto Neptura", Branagh was the most proficient fighter of all the Prometheas. She held the mantle from 1920-1939. She would eventually merge with Stacia.
William Woolcott
The only male to assume the role of Promethea, Bill Woolcott was a homosexual comic artist who became Promethea by illustrating her. He was the longest-lasting Promethea, from 1939-1969, but was shot in the head by Promethea's lover, Dennis Drucker, who was unable to deal with the revelation that his lover was actually a man. Drucker spent several decades in an insane asylum tortured by guilt for having killed Promethea, while Promethea spent similar time in the Immateria blaming herself for not having told him the truth.
Barbara Shelley
The wife of comic book writer Stephen Shelley, Barbara became Promethea when her husband began projecting her characteristics onto the Promethea character in his comics. After Stephen's death, Barbara maintained the mantle of Promethea, but had difficulty keeping her image alive, as it was fueled by Stephen's imagination.
Sophie Bangs
The main character of the series, Sophie becomes Promethea after tracing the character's history for a college paper. Her mother is an alcoholic and has trouble keeping long term relationships. Though her personality as Sophie is weak, she is extremely powerful as Promethea, and the two help each other mature.
Stacia Van der Veer
Sophie's best friend, Stacia is an extremely cynical and sarcastic college student. During an attack, Sophie was forced to turn civilians into Promethea, and Stacia was "merged" with Grace to help the fight. While Sophie went on a trip to Immateria with Barbara to find Stephen Shelley, Stacia/Grace served as the acting Promethea. Afterwards, the merged Stacia/Grace personality refused to relinquish the Promethea title, and battled Sophie for it. Sophie eventually won through a ruling in an Immateria court, and Stacia and Grace were separated; upon returning to the Earthly plane, Stacia was shot and put in a coma.
Published Collections
Starting with Book 2, the trade paperbacks for Promethea were first released in hardcover, a rare occurrence for collections of regularly issued comic books.
The Promethea issues have so far been collected in:
- Promethea Book 1, issues 1-6
- paperback:
- Promethea Book 2, issues 7-12
- hardcover:
- paperback:
- Promethea Book 3, issues 13-18
- hardcover:
- paperback:
- Promethea Book 4, issues 19-25
- hardcover:
- paperback:
- Promethea Book 5, issues 26-32
- hardcover:
- paperback:
- ISBN
External links
- Wildstorm Comics official site
- Promethea notes and annotations by fan Eroom Nala
- "Magic Comic Ride," Douglas Wolk, Salon.com, July 1, 2005. Review of the entire series.
