Prophet volume 3: Empire review‏

With the third volume of Prophet published, it’s much easier to see the structure of the series. It’s uncanny just how sneaky the narrative has been since issue #21, the first issue of the reboot. Labelled as part of the Image Revival, Prophet was rebooted by Brandon Graham at the helm and aided by a host of collaborators. Throughout the series they’ve all rotated on art duties and Brandon Graham, Simon Roy and Giannis Milonogiannis are credited with the story. Graham takes care of most of the scripting and he’s also taken on the duty of layout artist (something the other artists also contributed to during the earlier issues but timing and deadlines made them assign a specific person). It adds some nice consistency to the art, pacing and storytelling. I’ve come to really enjoy the creative team on this book. Roy and Milonogiannis do the bulk of the artwork but they’re aided by a host of other artists, likely inkers as Roy and Milonogiannis are also credited as colourists. The different art styles mesh together well, all complimenting each other but also adding further variety to the strange worlds and aliens being created as issues drawn by Simon Roy look different from those by Giannis Milonogiannis. I’m convinced that if the whole things was the product of a single artist many of the creatures would look similar and thus make the whole comic look less creative and original.

It’s important not to understate the work of the artists on this series because it’s clearly one of the reasons the series is so great. In volumes 1 and 2 most of the story was told through narration boxes and images. There isn’t a lot of dialogue and it gives the story a certain distance, strengthening the idea that the events are taking place far in the future. It’s so strange that the reader is forced to participate in the story as the actions require interpretation by the reader; it requires we puzzle together the short, almost sound bites style narration and the dazzling depictions of future worlds in order to see the story fully realized. This is the best kind of comic. It uses the medium to do something it’s good at, which is engaging the reader in a participatory relationship with the comic. In a world where most comics are about superheroes that inhabit worlds very similar to our own, it's very refreshing to read a comic where everything is varying digress of odd. The worlds and aliens imagined by Graham and his collaborators (nearly everybody contributes to the story) are so unusual I can helped but be thrilled, curious, weirded out and pensive all at the same time.

The choice of having little dialogue and telling the story mostly through images and short narration boxes makes the story feel more emotional. The thinking part of my brain is being used, but my thoughts aren't being stimulated by dialogue. Instead the story connects with me in a more loosely defined way, though my emotions. Those emotions mixed with the images of what’s happening on the page make me think about what I’m reading. It’s emotional stimulus brought on by visual aids. The third volume of the rebooted Prophet has more dialogue than the previous collections. I think that part of it is due to the fact that the setup, all of the establishing issues, are done. The pieces are all set and the story is advancing at a quicker pace than it has before. It’s both refreshing and exciting! That’s not to say Prophet has become a dialogue heavy comic because it hasn’t. Characters still talk in small, punchy speech bubbles and there are nearly silent pages in every issue but Prophet: Empire is definitively the indication that the series has entered a new phase.

The first volume established the setting, the tone and a handful of characters. The second volume focused on Old Man Prophet and his mission to reform his team and search for new allies. As the title suggests, the third volume brings the focus back to the Empire and its growing army of Prophets.

In more than one way, this volume is about both stories coming together. The first Prophet we met in issue #21 is now known as New Father John, one of the Prophets’ leaders. They are not the only leaders though; the Brain Mothers and the Brain Father control the Empire with their telekinetic powers. All young Prophets are trained and brainwashed to obey their Brain Mothers, regardless of their instructions. Old Man Prophet wears protective gear to prevent his former masters to gain control of his mind. He has his own telekinetic ally, a being known only as Troll. There are some very exciting developments between Old Man Prophet, Troll and New Father John. Other things take place in volume 3 that are also very exciting, such as the addition of yet another threat to this new war.

This volume is about both storylines coming together and the creative team delivers that story in a way I hadn’t anticipated.  Prophet: Empire gives the reader a little bit of everything. It establishes even more new elements to the series, provides further information regarding the Empire along with Old Man Prophet and his allies.  The most exciting of all is that it pits New Father John and Old Man Prophet are on a collision course. It's going to be pretty sweet when they meet up.

I’ve read a few reviews of Prophet online and it appears to be a very divisive series. People who enjoyed it really enjoyed it but those who didn’t seem to loathe the “weird art” or think that the comic “doesn’t make any kind of sense”. One reviewer even dismisses the book after admitting he didn’t even read half of this collection. Did he read the first two volumes? I have no idea but it’s clear to me that he didn’t enjoy having to put any effort in his reading. He went so far as to dismiss the series as “nonsense”.  What I like about Prophet is that it challenges me. Readers who didn’t enjoy it critique it for the same reason I love it. Prophet doesn’t spoon feed the reader. What it does is provide the reader with a rich and complex story that can withstand, I would even say encourages, multiple readings. What you get out of Prophet is proportional to what you invest in it and I see nothing wrong with that. That’s especially true when the series continues to be a refreshing combination of originality, engaging storytelling and captivating artwork. 

Miscellaneous Reviews 06: Secret Invasion: Black Panther and The Complete Multiple Warheads

Secret Invasion: Black Panther:

American superhero comic publishers have the annoying habit of regularly releasing “event comics”. Event comics are company-wide crossover story that is often months, if not years, in the making and it generally results in a temporary shift in the status quo. A less favourable description would be that it’s a cash grab on behalf of the publisher. My only concern regarding event comics is whether or not they’re any good. I have no real interest in memorizing the minutiae of superhero continuity but for those that care about such things, event comics are a big deal. Again, for me it’s just about good stories and unfortunately, event comics are wildly unpredictable when it comes to quality. There is one pretty constant rule though, the tie-in comics are generally terrible. But with every rule, there are exceptions and Secret Invasion: Black Panther is such an exception.

Written by Jason Aaron and with art by Jefte Palo, these three issues from the regular Black Panther ongoing series are better than main Secret Invasion story! It’s a great example of a successful tie-in story for a few reasons. First of all, it’s clearly a Secret Invasion title because it deals with the Skrull invasion head on as opposed to trying to pretend it’s not a tie-in comic (which is just an awful approach). You don’t need to be overly familiar with the characters or the series to be able to enjoy it. All I know about Black Panther is that he’s king of Wakanda, a technologically advanced African nation which is rich in a rare metal: vibranium. If you know who the Skrulls are, then you know everything you need to know in order to enjoy this comic. Even if you don’t know any of that the story will fill you in as it goes along. It’s surprisingly friendly to new readers despite how it’s a tie-in to a comic book event that was years in the making.

The story is pretty simple. A legion of Skrulls is sent to invade Wakanda and steal as much vibranium as they can. They are led by Commander K’vvvr, a veteran warrior, who is on his last mission before retirement. It’s little touches like that one that make this a good comic. We also get a nice sense of how strong a leader Black Panther. He also gets a few moments that demonstrate just how great a strategist he is. Simple, yes, but also very effective. The art by Palo is heavily inked and dark. The skies are a sickly green colour suggesting that the Skrulls are infectious and poisoning Wakanda. It might sound a bit strange that I’m giving so much praise to this little story but it’s because it’s a quality story amongst dozens of other tie-in stories that were just terrible. If you liked Secret Invasion you owe it to yourself to track down this little gem. With Secret Invasion: Black Panther Aaron and Palo prove that you can create a very good tie-in story and that you don’t have to limit yourself to rehashing in fuller detail events that already took place in the main series.

The Complete Multiple Warheads:

Chad Nevett once wrote that Multiple Warheads is a hang-out comic. That’s one of the better descriptions I’ve found for this comic. Written and drawn by Brandon Graham, Multiple Warheads is the story of a young organ smuggler and her genius mechanic werewolf boyfriend who are travelling in search of a new home and a new purpose in life. It’s also the story of Nura, a bounty hunter and her latest mission. In reality, it’s not about any of that. The comic is really about the science fiction and fantasy influenced alternative Russia. It’s about the world and it’s strange inhabitants more than anything else. Brandon Graham doesn’t really care about the plot. We get a beginning to the story of the young couple and the bounty hunter but it never ends. It sort of just wanders around, allowing Graham to blow out collective minds with his wild imagination and skilful artistic flourishes. The reason I think “hang-out comic” is an apt description is that it starts with the intent to do something but really the characters and the writer just bum around the world of the comic and it never really goes anywhere but you encounter some very interesting things along the way.

Those interesting things are made up primarily from pun-heavy dialogue and in-jokes by Graham and European comic influences art. There is a beautiful simplicity to Graham’s art but it also manages to be very detailed. It’s somewhat unexplainable. Graham doesn’t resort to abstraction and blocky shapes like many other skilful artists who seem to require half as many lines as other artists to convey twice as much beauty on the page. The image above kind of explains some of it. There is a lot of detail on the page but there are also a lot of open spaces. Look at the large beast that carries the city on its back. The beast itself is very simple but the city that rests on its back is lavishly illustrated. Look at the wrecked train, the smaller beasts with their riders and the cracked mountainside, the detail is all in the world which the characters inhabit.

Multiple Warheads isn’t a great story but it’s a unique and fascinating comic. It’s not nearly as good as Graham’s King City or his reboot of Rob Liefeld’s Prophet, but the aimless wonderings of his characters and the travelogue approach to world building have an endearing quality. The art is also pleasing to the eye but offers plenty of additional goodies for readers who wish to linger a while longer on an image before turning the page. There is a sense of unbridled joy to Multiple Warheads that reminded me of teenage slackers who don’t have a care in the world but are capable of doing extraordinary things, if only they had a little motivation. I’m actually quite surprised that Graham become an accomplished comics creator because his Multiple Warheads stories strongly suggest he’s also a slacker. How he manages to keep this aspect alive in his comics is a mystery to me but I’m glad he’s found a way to make it work because his comics are like nothing else I’ve ever read.

Prophet vol. 2: Brothers review

The best thing about Prophet: Brothers is that a story begins to form. The first volume was series of shorter stories focusing on clones of John Prophet waking up from a long artificial sleep and undertaking small missions. At the time the missions were rather undefined. They were comprised of reaching a specific destination or protecting something, etc. There wasn’t a whole lot of story to connect the stories together other than the alien landscapes and all of the characters being clones of Prophet. The last issue of the first volume ended with the arrival of the Alpha Prophet, “The one man the Earth Empire Fears.” Wait a minute, all the other Prophets are working for the Earth Empire? What’s going on? It was a great way to end the first volume.

Unfortunately, writer Brandon Graham and a team of artists which include Giannis Milonogiannis, Simon Roy and Farel Dalrymple aren’t ready to tell us that story just yet. I want to take the time to point out that even though Graham is the writer all of the artists contribute to the story. The overarching story is starting to form in this volume. Long ago the Empire Brain Mothers were protected by the clone army of John Prophets. They’ve since gone to sleep, I think, because they wanted to outline the threat of Old Man Prophet. The plan was to go into forced hibernation and return to glory unopposed. The problem with that plan is that Old Man Prophet also went to sleep (or survive by other means). That’s the story as far as I can surmise after reading the first two volumes.  

The first volume was about Prophets waking up from their sleep and trying to find the nearest Empire Mother and protect her. The second volume is about Old Man Prophet reassembling the team he fought with against the Empire before the big sleep. In the past his team was made up Yilala, a female Scale (a bipedal reptilian species), Jaxson or another armoured robot and Diehard an android whose body becomes increasingly mecha

nical as time goes on. Old Man called the members of his team his brothers, brother he had earned (not brothers that were created from his cells in a laboratory). He was also aided by Hiyonhoiagn, a root-like alien with long life because of his vegetable anatomy.

Hiyonhoiagn is the first person of his team that Old Man Prophet is able to fully recruit. He began earlier with Diehard. The problem with him is that he took himself apart and left pieces of his mechanical body all over the cosmos. Rein-East is a young female Scale, acting as a replacement to Yilala, Old Man’s lover in the past. Jaxson, first seen in volume one, is back as well. Old Man Prophet is the person he was waiting for. We also get to explore the area in where he was waiting which is quite nice.

While all of this is going on, Prophets from the first volume who are still under the control of Empire Mothers are trying to bring an Empire Mother back to earth. One of them is the Prophet with a tail, Tail Prophet for a lack of a better name. His adventure has continued from his spotlight issue in the first volume. It’s quite nice to have him back.

Not all of this made sense as I was reading. I had to think about it after I finished the comic to really make sense of it. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed reading this one a monthly schedule. I imagine the pacing would feel very slow. I do like how my understanding of the first volume increases as the story progresses. I imagine the same will be true once I read the third volume. It’s impressive how the story builds on what came before while also shedding some light on the meaning of the events that took place.

The characters talk a little more. There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue in the first volume, the story was told primarily with the art and a few narration boxes. Even in this volume there isn’t a whole lot of dialogue when compared to other comics but there is more than before because characters are starting to interact. The stories in the first volume were mostly made up on individuals doing things on their own. In the second volume Old Man is assembling a team and as they’re being assembled they’re talking to each other and interacting. It gives a whole new dimension to their characters and it’s I’d like to see more of in the next volume. This volume seems to have completed the assembling of Old Man’s team and I’m hoping the next volume gets to kick he story into high gear. That’s really the only disappointment at this point; everything so far has been build up.

Prophet vol. 1: Remission review

When I first heard about this comic, I knew I would read it eventually. I read Brandon Graham’s previous comic, King City, and I really enjoyed it. There was a creative vibe to it that I really appreciated. My feelings towards Prophet increased during its monthly single issue publishing. It was receiving great reviews and, more importantly, some bloggers and reviewers online whose opinion is close to my own (or whose criticisms of comics and entertainment in general are excellent) also praised it. Prophet is published by Image comics and it’s a reboot of a Rob Liefield comic of the 90s. That doesn’t matter at all though; this comic is carving its own path and is an absolute delight.

With his previous comic, King City, Graham's writing was loose and casual. With Prophet he's a bit more structured but he retains a very relaxed, almost improvisational, tone to the story. Like some of the best science fiction, Graham and his team of artists give the reader the time to settle into this future world and familiarize ourselves with its alien inhabitants. The story is captivating but not because of storytelling momentum, although Graham does built some of that. No, I was mesmerized by all the strangeness present in the comic. I was enraptured by John's mission to the towers of Thauilu Vah as well as the strangeness of the civilizations Graham put in John’s path as he journeyed across the desert landscape of what was once planet Earth.

I really enjoyed Graham's King City. Not as much as others, I found him to be too playful of a storyteller, but it's still a very, very good comic. With Prophet, Graham has impressed me with his skill as a writer. In a similar way that Sean Murphy did with Punk Rock Jesus. Graham impressed me in a different way, though. Few words are to be found on these pages but Graham makes sure they've earned their place. Most of the world building of the future Earth in the first three issues is done by the art alone. John Prophet barely utters a word and most of the dialogue we read is alien languages translated trough a floating device that hangs around John. The majority of the story is told with the use of narrative caption boxes. Graham gives us the name of some creatures and future cultures and technology. It adds just enough structure and insight into what's developing in front of our eyes to allow the reader to follow. 

I like how the artists gave John Prophet the appearance of a caveman. He is a member of an old, possibly extinct, species on a future Earth (men, or at least some form of primate still exist and are used as cattle, quite ironic when you think about it). Bugs and highly evolved bug-like creatures now rule the earth and John is nothing but an echo of what used to be. He barely speaks. He doesn't have to. His actions speak for him.

This comic is pretty dense compared to King City. It's not dense in the way a comic by Alan Moore is dense. No, Prophet has room to breathe. This comic is dense in ideas. There is so much imagination at play that the just sheer delight to take your time and read the captions that guide you through pages upon pages of fascinating, creepy and well thought out art. Unfortunately, many casual reviewers online have described this comic as being light and underwhelming. This frustrates me because too many people who read comics don’t give the art more than a passing glance. It’s a visual medium and often times, the art is more important than anything else. I want to blame superhero comics for this since they’re primarily composed of colourful characters in heroic poses with unnecessary exclamatory speech bubbles surrounding them. It could also be something more symptomatic of our society not taking the time to enjoy things any more.  It’s more important to watch an entire season of a TV series in one weekend than it is to actually stop and think about what we’ve just experience. I’m losing focus here. This is supposed to be about how great a comic Prophet is, especially for readers who took the time to connect the dots of what Graham and his artists were showing us.

The art here is as much I a surprise as anything else which is fitting since the art more than contributes to its fair share of the world building and storytelling. The story is also dense even though it doesn't appear to be. In six issues Graham and company give us four complete stories that all contribute to the larger story that is to come. I mentioned how the book has an improvisational feel but you also get an impression that the creative teams has a good idea where it's going even though some of the details might not be completely pinned down. Prophet is drawn by Simon Roy (issues #21-23 and 26), Farel Dalrymple (issue #24), Brandon Graham (issue #25), and Giannis Milogiannis (issue #26). Their styles all work well together and it’s not jarring to have a different artist from issue to issue. The first three issues tell a continuous story while the last three tell single issue stories that all interconnect in some way or another. I really liked the art. It played a crucial role in making this a great comic.

Prophet breathes fresh air into science fiction comics. It is at times challenging, gross, emotionally rewarding and absolutely fascinating to read. I would love to break down these issues page by page but that's the wrong approach for a review of a book like Prophet. Especially considering it’s still ongoing. The best way to enjoy Prophet at this point in time is to grab a copy, be it from a book store, a comic shop or a public library, and take an evening to enjoy the strange vision of the future Graham and his team of artists are unveiling.