Promethea

This was without a doubt my favourite of the Promethea books. I was a little put off to start with. Everything was dingy and it seemed like they were in the real world not the Promethea world of science heros and weeping gorilla and it was all a bit confusing. Then Tom Strong showed up and I was confused all over again. (Tom Strong I tried to read but gave up after a few issues as I just found it terribly dull and was the reason for me realising as much as Moore is my favourite living writer I just don't care when he writes superheros).

But then Promethea came back and the world was about to end. There were cool tricks with reality and everyone got together and it was scary and time was strange and repeating and then the apocalypse happened and it was the most wonderful and beautiful apocalypse ever. It was the most uplifting thing I'd read in forever. In many ways it was the anti-Corelli, instead of going on at length to tell you how happy and wonderful believing in god would make you, here Alan just showed how perfect and beautiful his vision of how time and magic works is. It really made me want to believe in it. The last issue was just GOREGOUS. Everything was there and how it all fit together and it was so wonderful. Despite being the most colourful hippie shit there is. I just want to make giant posters and put them up in the house because they are so wonderful. I'm really glad I read this series. And am looking forward to re-reading it.

This was without a doubt the best of the Promethea books I've read. I was a little put off by the Tarot history of the last book. But this one more than made up for it. It had me in lots of tears at one point as it was so sweet and sad. But it was a lovely portrayal of the symbolism of magic and the things you have to go through and the way life is. There were also fun parts with a new promethea who was quite violent. I'm now looking forward to the next two books.

Promethea book 2 was a bit of an odd mixture. It is definitely a collection of comics more than a graphic novel, as each issue had it's one theme. The frist was definitely my favourite as the gay guy promethea talked about his life and the meeting of the physical world and reality. Then there was adventure in the hospital and Alan Moore's guide to sex and magic, which while quite good, I must admit felt a bit heavy handed. The last issue contained what to me is the biggest and most unforgivable mistake an author can make - giving the history of Europe as a history of the universe/planet at large. It was quite clever the way he linked the history to the Tarot, but the "oh suddenly in the 60s people start using the I Ching, Buddhism and Zen" (yes he did list them seperately) pissed me off a bit, no people had been using them for THOUSANDS of years! *sigh* I expected better of Mr. Moore. Overall it did have some interesting ideas about the links between imagination and magic (and makes me wonder how come Alan gets invited to loads of science festivals!) but I just couldn't get past the Western bias. Overall I did enjoy it though and it was nice to sit and read all in one go on a sunday morning.

This was recommended to me by a friend and was one I'd been meaning to start reading so I put it on my wishlist on Monday and my mom bought it for me on Tuesday! I really liked this series. It was kinda Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, but done for post-pubescent girls! Any graphic novel that starts with a fake literary history of a made up folklore character is going to be great in my mind! I liked the futuristic present day, I loved the sad Gorilla comics, the city was beautiful, I loved all the old Prometheas and the way the myth was built up. I even enjoyed Moore's rambling about the nature of reality (or perhaps I should say espeically rather than even). I loved that nearly all the characters were women. I will definitely be reading the rest of these!