Promethea: Books One & Two

I feel a little bit better about reading this comic because, unlike 300, it will take me days to read this. Promethea was part of the America's Best Comics line, which was all governed by Alan Moore, one of the mediums best creators. He is the man behind From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Watchmen, Swamp Thing, its spin-off Hellblazer (Constantine), and V for Vendetta (yes, most of the movies were crap). In the late 90s, Moore came out as a practicing magician; the comics world sighed, said, "wow that's great, can we have more comics please?" and a lot of people just let it slide; Alan Moore was never known for being completely sane.

Promethea is where he explains a lot of what he knows about magic. Promethea is a story that lives. When the story of Promethea is written about, someone becomes Promethea. I'm making this all sound like crap.

The interesting part is how Moore does nothing to chastise other belief systems. This is not, "go Wiccans, F*** the Christians!" It is largely about showing how all belief systems work much better together than they possibly could apart. In the last chapter of the second book, the Tarot is explained as a means of talking about the history of mankind, from the big bang on, each card representing a different chapter in the history of time and the universe (the zero card, for example, is The Fool and represents the lack of knowledge because of... well... the lack of everything). One of the most interesting parts he throws in is the interpretation of the genesis creation story representing an amoeba first finding out it could separate into more amoebas, hence why Eve came out of Adam's side.

I'm big on inclusion (stop laughing) and I'm bigger on new ideas. Promethea, even on a second read, does this. And if you don't like what it says, you can always just tell yourself it's a comic book. And it isn't like the characters we read about really exist. Right?