Prophet, Volume 1: Remission

Volume 1 starting at issue #21? WTF? Ok, I'm aware now that this is actually a reboot and, guess what, it's pretty damn good. Plus, I loved the art.

In a very distant future when humanity has reached the vastness of the cosmos, John Prophet awakes from cryosleep to fulfill one mission: restart the Earth empire.

I really feel like I need to stop now and start with the original ones. I hope that makes sense at all.

I'm not even sure I can give this stars because it defies a starred rating system. What I do know: it's post-apocalyptic but completely and absolutely removed from the world we know. The world is strange and disorienting and unfamiliar, and we spend the entirety of this volume knowing as much as John Prophet, who wakes up at the beginning of the novel and follows a voice or urge within himself on a journey through this desolate and shit-filled landscape (literally). Everything he sees for the first time, we see for the first time as well. At least once per chapter, I found myself audibly saying, “WHAT?” or “What the hell is THAT?” or “What the hell is going ON?” I'm still not sure I know 100% of what's happening here, but I'm okay with that.

What I love about this as well is the full realization of this wholly strange and new world. The world feels ancient and futuristic at the same time, and I sense that the author has completely imagined the history of and a future for this universe. In my version of the book, there are artist sketches at the back of some of the different creatures and structures that appear throughout the book, and some have parts that are labeled. I love to observe artistic process, and it looks like some of these completely unfamiliar structures and creatures are comprised of very familiar pieces. I appreciate that the artist took such familiar things (such as Pomeranians) and transformed them into unrecognizable creations of this other world.

Even if the post-apocalypse/graphic novels/sci-fi/completely bizarre isn't for you, at least give this one a shot. It's weird, but I kind of love it.

On the one hand, I appreciated and admired the really classic, pulpy sci-fi goodness: this was imaginative and weird in the style of some of that really strange shit that was dropping in 1970s pulp sf. I'm thinking, in particular, of that Sean Connery movie where he's in space that I watched when I was feverish and 12 years old (BIG MISTAKE - SO FREAKY). On the other hand, this gave me the heebie jeebies. After two weeks of decompressing from its weirdness, I can now say: in a good way!

Prophet's interlinking stories have the same feverish quality as that Sean Connery movie: full of brutal, primal gore and heaps of ever-stranger. I mean, within the first few pages it's implied that John Prophet - recently awakened from cryo-sleep on a far future, unrecognizable Earth - has just had sex with what I believe the artist's sketches call a “chicken vagina monster” (or something to that effect). My reaction, similar to yours, was: UGH WHAT. See what I mean? This stuff is intense.

Indeed, things got so weird I had to put this down and sort of space out for a minute, if only because it was late and I was starting to seriously freak. But, when I picked it up again, my “annoyed at having to read quasi-horror” feelings melted away: this stuff is actually pretty amazing. I didn't want to review it immediately, but instead let it sit for a week or so, and, yeah, my liking for it has fermented and brewed. I'll definitely be following up on this weird, wild sci-fi (and I'm surprised to be saying I find it more enjoyable and more compelling than Brandon Graham's Multiple Warheads.