Prophet #23 – Review

By: Brandon Graham & Simon Roy (story), Roy (art), Richard Ballermann (colors), Ed Brisson (letters)

The Story: John Prophet continues his mission across the future-Earth wasteland with an assassin in hot pursuit.

Review: This was another great issue, but confounding to review.  It is very hard to put into words what makes this such an enjoyable reading experience… which is odd, because I review a LOT of comics.  It’s really one of those cases where the best thing I can say is, “Try it. You’ll like it.”

But, since this IS a comic review site, I should probably make an attempt to put my love into words (even knowing it won’t do the work justice):

1. Worldbuilding – Beyond the fact that John Prophet has awoken in on some future-Earth that is a wasteland and is dominated by aliens and evolved insects, we really don’t know much.  Everything we see in the story is through the eyes of Prophet and he is only letting us tag along.  There is never a point in the comic where we cut away from Prophet to see what the insects are up to or anything else that would give the reader additional insight.  It is a simple, but powerful narrative technique.  Sometimes this pacing where mysteries aren’t revealed can be frustrating, but because Graham isn’t bouncing all over the place with the action, you’re content to let things unfold at their own pace.

2. Stoicism – Nothing deters Prophet.  He just keeps plugging away at his “mission”.  Only, his mission isn’t ever that clear.  Again, the reader isn’t really his companion on the journey; Prophet is just letting us follow him.  As he goes forward, things happen and we learn stuff, but Prophet isn’t going to do a lot of inner monologue to explain events.  At one point in this issue, he loses an arm, but there isn’t any melodrama where he screams and there aren’t panels of him spurting blood.  He is undeterred because he still has a mission.  Just this little thing is such a relief compared to some superhero comics where loss of arm can generate an entire spin-off miniseries.

3. Simple text. – I mentioned above how the narrative is simple and linear and the text matches that.  In some ways, it reminds me of proof-reading my kid’s essays from school.  On one hand, you chuckle because the sentences are short and simple.  But, there is a lot of power in short/simple sentence structure (certainly more power than in long, complex sentences with lots of commas).  Graham just keeps it moving with these blunt sentences: Bang, bang, bang…

Prophet #22 – Review

By: Brandon Graham & Simon Roy (story), Roy (art), Richard Ballermann (colors) & Ed Brisson (letters)

The Story: John Prophet continues to find his way in a future wasteland Earth.

Five Things: 

1. No prior knowledge required. – I missed the first issue of this Prophet relaunch (the unfortunately numbered Prophet #21) because I had zero interest in a dusted off 90’s Image title.  But, after hearing everyone hoot and holler about that issue, I checked it out and loved it.  This issue continues to show that you don’t need to know anything about the original Prophet series.  I haven’t even read the Wiki entry about the old series and have not a clue what it was even about. Yet, I love this series.  The set-up is so simple: John Prophet emerges onto the surface of a future Earth that is a barren wasteland.  He’s clearly been in an underground “hibernation” for some time and nothing is as he remembered it.  That’s all, if you can wrap your mind around that, you’ll be fine.

2. Mysteries abound. – Part of the fun of a book like this is figuring out what is going on.  What happened to the Earth?  How far into the future is this taking place?  What animals do these mutants descend from?  Very little is explained; much as John Prophet is on a mission, the reader is on a mission too.  And what little we learn comes from just paying attention as we look at the page and look for clues in the artwork.

3. Love the way Graham is writing this. – I typically don’t enjoy comics that use narration boxes as a prime storytelling device, but Graham makes it work here.  What I love about his narration boxes is that they are T here is no high-mindedness like you get in something like an older Batman comic, (“Gotham is a living beast.  A beast that has its own moods, but a beast that I command, blah, blah, blah….”).  Graham’s boxes all punctuate and add to the storytelling aspects of the art.  No metaphor…no simile, just descriptions of the actions.  Often times, direct is the way to go.