Sophie Bangs is a college student researching a character that has appeared independently in a variety of forms throughout arts and literature since the eighteen hundreds. However, Promethea is no mere story character – she is actually a mythological being that becomes manifest when an author depicts Promethea in a variety of literature – poetry, comic strips, pictures, and so forth.

In the third volume of Promethea, having learnt something of her abilities, Sophie decides to start a journey through the Immateria, seeking the spirit of her departed friend Barbara. To prevent chaos from occurring while she is away, she suggests that her friend, Stacy, becomes caretaker in the Promethea role while she explores the Immateria.

The Promethea series is quite an interesting graphic novel series. Alan Moore is doing quite a few experimental things in the graphic novel medium in this series of books, and whether you like what Moore is attempting or not, it does maintain interest. Some of the experimentation works, and works quite well. Some of it does not work so well, or, what I suspect is more likely, I am not able to appreciate what Moore is trying to achieve. But, in both cases, does make for interesting reading. Although that sounds somewhat confusing, I’ll elaborate on this in a moment.

The plot of Promethea itself, is of a fictional character (Promethea, titular character) that becomes manifest in the real world, is interesting and engaging, and done well, but with that said, it is sometimes (well, more than sometimes) difficult to follow. Moore depicts quite a complex theology, and the resulting ideas that are associated with it, and while his main points are put across quite clearly, such as the basics of the theology, and how fiction can be real in a particular sense, the more complex aspects of the theology are quite hard to grasp. It’s not that Moore does a bad job of it, quite the opposite, but it’s quite a complex subject and the somewhat experimental style of story-telling here.

Moore also employs multiple styles of writing and story-telling methods, too. He uses multiple types of literature forms to tell the story of Promethea. There is the graphic novel form (obviously), poetry, and fictional narratives, for example. Moore also employs other literary devices, such as showing multiple story threads as text at once, and knocking against the fourth wall in several places in the comics grabs attention, too. It’s interesting, it’s unique, but it can be quite hard to follow at times.

The art work and colouring deserve discussion, too. The experimentation is not merely limited to the method Moore employs to tell his story, but also in the artwork and presentation. The panel layout, for example, rarely sticks to the traditional rectangular movement, the layout and the flow of panels often changing. However, this inventiveness is both its strongest point and its largest weakness. Occasionally, the colour schemes make the story somewhat difficult to follow. The variety in panel layouts can be confusing, because the flow of the panels is not always clear, and this has a tendancy to disrupt the flow of the story.

The artwork and colouring shown in these graphic novels is excellent, particularly in the later volumes. The colour schemes and art styles change quite often too, sometimes multiple times in a single comic strip. These changes signify different time periods, different areas of the non-physical worlds which Promethea visits in her travels, and so forth. A lot of effort has been put in here, but some of the colour schemes and art styles work better than others.

When Promethea starts her journey into the Immateria, at the beginning of the third volume of the series, Moore plunges headlong into complex theological territory here. Although I can understand the basic outline of the plot at this point, and the theology espoused, I never was able to grasp all of what Moore is outlining here. Not that Moore is a bad writer, by any means – I always have trouble following complex theology. That said, what I can understand, though, does make for quite interesting reading.

Overall, the Promethea graphic novel series is quite an interesting one, not only in regards to how it succeeds both as a story and graphic novel, but also in regards to how it does not. The rankings I give to the various volumes within the Promethea series are not a reflection of the quality of the books, rather, how well I am able to appreciate them, because I can admit that much of the theology Moore outlines is beyond me. ( )

The series continues to be beautiful graphically and intriguing narratively. A few big surprises, and enjoyable. The metaphysics of the deep places of the Universe are somewhat leavened by happenings back home in substantial New York. Sometimes overly didactic, but the pictures help. ( )

Promethea bad girl, ends world. Or does she? Her, and a backup, anyway, while she goes off on a mystical symbol-quest. This is pretty trippy stuff, and again, is not anywhere near the Hulk smash, Batman scare dodgy street crim school of superhero storytelling. So if you want straight action, rather than magic and mysticism loopiness, stay away.

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2006/11... ( )