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 fourth volume of Promethea, Sophie continues her exploration of the immateria, Stacy comes to terms with her new role and position in life, while the FBI starts an investigation of the Promethea case, believing that Promethea is intent on bringing about the Apocalypse.

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.

The continued journeys of Promethea into the Immateria in volume four continue in the same vein as the third book, and my problems fully comprehending the book are for the same reasons as the third book. It’s quite interesting… if you can follow it.

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. ( )

This graphic novel is not for everyone. By a long shot. It deals with mysticism, ritual magic, mythology, feminist beliefs (not sure how else to say that, though it's not quite right), kaballah, tarot cards, and more. I'm enjoying it, even though I'm not really into all that, because I have friends who are, and I get the jokes.

If you enjoy that kind of thing, it's kind of great. If you don't, stay far away from Promethea. Here's a good test: do you know who Aleister Crowley is? John Dee? the Major Arcana? the Tree of Life and how that interacts with the Kaballah? If so, check it out. If not, maybe not. This is not out of elitism, by the way- you probably just won't find it interesting and it probably won't make sense. ( )

In Book 4, too many Prometheas spoil the something or other.

Our first Promethea is off doing the Promethea mythology thing with all the Prometheas gone before, even if they are dead.

Fill in friend Promethea is doing the hero thing, to some degree or other, back in normalish Wildstorm type places.

When the 'original' returns, what's a girl who likes kicking arse as a superhuman to do?

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2007/02... ( )