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.
4. Crazy creature designs. – Man, it looks like Simon Roy had a large time drawing all this stuff. This is probably the most creative comic from a character design standpoint since Orc Stain (where is the next issue, btw?). The only other characters besides John Prophet in this issue are theses mutated, sentient insects with multiple legs and eyes (and there are multiple types of bug-people too). Freaky stuff. And they’re all hanging around a caravan made up of these huge walking creatures that get food shoveled into their mouths and then the crap out a building material (cement?). It’s super funky.
5. Wonderful art in general. – I love artists who go for storytelling first… And that’s what Roy is doing here. This work reminds me a LOT of Jack Kirby. If Kirby were alive today, this is probably kinda what his work would look like. Every page is basically a grid and each panel does what it needs to tell the story which lots of hand-lettered sound effects tossed into to clarify the action. It’s really glorious stuff. Even the splash pages are Kirby-esque in that they are loaded with information.
Conclusion: Image has a hot one here! Unless you are slavishly devoted to “superheroes only” or cannot enjoy a comic without photorealistic art, I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this comic.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
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