I am an admirer of Alan Moore, from Watchmen, V, and From Hell, and also being very interested in Moore's own series about Magic, Story and Mythology, I was excited to pick up the first 4 collections. Now, having made it 3/5 of the way through the series, I know a few things about this story, that finishing it is not going to change. . .

Promethea is a Narrative about the nature of existence and narrative, told mainly through a Mystical Superheroine's journey through realm where Western Magic's symbols demons, and deities are manifest as physical, living things. Alan Moore makes a very strong case for his interpretation of mythology as an aspect of our reality as living information.

Promethea is a book I couldn't recommend more to someone who has an interest in reading about magic or practicing the real thing,
But if one has already studied it, or absorbed Moore's views via the dvd about is work "The Mindscape of Alan Moore" for example, there isn't much else here worth your time.

It's a little sad because Moore explicitly states at the very begining of the film, that no matter how fantastic the story you may be telling is, it must always have an emotional resonance. And while I can think of every reason why the story being told here matters, I can't bring myself to get invested at all in the characters for more than a few seconds. B.E. Ellis's Patrick Bateman is more sympathetic than the characters given here.

I think the main flaw of the work here is that Moore spent so much time trying to get his cosmology together, trying to imagine it as a journey through a story, but didn't take much time at all to develop his characters, almost all of the development is gained through realizations about the higher order of reality, none of it is really related in a human way. The dialogue between the characters on the magical journey is almost totally pat, maybe it couldn't be put any other way.

as a percievable whole, is a story about humans, that this author ultimately failed to put a human face on.

note: the themes and concepts in here are universal, but Moore's main field of study has been in western magick, not to the detriment of the east, just that that is what works for him.

For people interested in comics about Magic, and humanity, I'd reccomend Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles" it's much more down to earth, better paced, and has characters that more than ciphers the author uses to take us from one page to the next. ( )

Promethea is a stirringly wondrous story about the power of myth and the imagination, set in a drolly imagined futuristic 'present', and fashioned with great care and love. It's beautiful, funny, intelligent, and resonant. On top of that, the art actually lives up to the idea. Even the color adds to the wonder, mystery, and eldritch loveliness.

To avoid spoiling too much, the plot's about stories; the ones we create and the ones that have dwelt for long centuries in the cauldron of our mythologies; their power over us and our power over them. It's an empowering story for bookworms.

So far, if I had to name a fault in Promethea, it would be that the stories and metaphysics are rather occidentocentric, and not just in areas where it would reflect the characters' bias. It puts a strange regional cap on concepts and themes that otherwise seem to stretch on into the infinite and universal. ( )

Sophie Bangs is doing research on Promethea, an ancient goddess who seems to be appearing in the world at various times. Her research takes her deeper into the heart of Promethea than she ever imagined.

In this series Alan Moore is able to lay out a lot of his more esoteric philosophy, from Kabbala to tarot to Tantric sex. Volume one is the introduction, and reads more like an action hero comic book. ( )

Promethea Volume 1 by Alan Moore - graphic fiction. Sophie Bangs is a college student interested in the myths around Promethea. She gets more than she expected when she interviews a woman who was and is Promethea and finds the myths, gods, worlds taking over her world and body.

Beautiful layouts, weeping gorilla was great, not enough happens, repetitive foreword. ( )