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.