Promethea 32

[dancj]

I just recently finally read the Promethea book 5 including the incredibly famous poster/comic combo finale - issue 32. I remember at the time people were amazed by it, but I'm completely underwhelmed.

In Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run - issue 61 where he went to a planet populated by sentient plants had a page where several panels showing pictures of other things all combined to make a shot of Swamp Thing's face. When I first heard about the combined comic/poster thing I'd hoped it would be a grand scale version of that. It would be incredibly difficult, but if anyone could do it then it would have to be Alan Moore (or Grant Morrison).

Instead the comics and posters seem completely unrelated.

As posters it forms two paintings, neither of which are anywhere near the standard we usually see from J H Williams and both of which have
line drawings plastered all over them which don't form part of the big pictures in any way.

As comics, we get line-drawn comics slapped over the top of small portions of the paintings, but completely ignoring those paintings, making them much harder to read. We don't get any sequential narrative whatsoever. The art in this issue (both big and small) is completely unrelated to the text which carries all of the actual content here - and that content appears to just be an appendix.

It just seemed to me that Alan Moore had this idea for something that could be really impressive and then went barely half-way there resulting in something that fails as both a comic and as posters.

[Shellhead]

I'm actually glad to hear this about Promethea #32. I loved the first 11 issues, enjoyed the entire trip through the Immateria, and even liked an issue or two after she returned. But the last several issues were exasperating, so decompressed and incoherent that I lost interest. I kept buying every issue, except #32 came and went before I was even aware of its existence. Aside from trying the three comic stores within a few miles of my place, I didn't bother looking for #32. So it's nice to know that I didn't miss anything good.

[niall mc cann]

Well, it's an appendix, sure, but it's an interesting one.

I liked it.

But then i wasn't expecting it to be anything in particular. I just enjoyed it for what it was.

[Olivier7]

Hi!
For my first post, I would like to ask something that has added to my delay in reading the last Tom Strong & Promethea hardcovers, as I seem to remember reading there was an overlap at the end: in which order should I read those two books, and maybe even their last chapters (one in Promethea, then one in Tom Strong, ...)? Or is it all tidily sorted in the books, with the crossover actually limited to one title?

[Tobias March]

I never read all of Tom Strong, but the impression I got from Promethea was that the Tom we saw there, not to mention the other ABC characters who appear, are not the same versions we've been reading. Or are, but at some indeterminate date in the future. Prometha describes the onset of the apocalypse and what that means, so it effectively features a capstone to the ABC universe.

You'll notice though that Top Ten continues on, so what bearing it had on the other titles I couldn't tell you.

[Shellhead]

I never read all of Tom Strong, but the impression I got from Promethea was that the Tom we saw there, not to mention the other ABC characters who appear, are not the same versions we've been reading. Or are, but at some indeterminate date in the future. Prometha describes the onset of the apocalypse and what that means, so it effectively features a capstone to the ABC universe.

You'll notice though that Top Ten continues on, so what bearing it had on the other titles I couldn't tell you.

Top Ten has been shown to take place in one specific reality in a multiverse of realities. That precinct has a working relationship with numerous other precincts in those alternate realities. So the ABC setting, including Promethea, may simply represent one of those alternate realities, at least from the standpoint of the Top Ten characters.

[stealthwise]

I never read all of Tom Strong, but the impression I got from Promethea was that the Tom we saw there, not to mention the other ABC characters who appear, are not the same versions we've been reading. Or are, but at some indeterminate date in the future. Prometha describes the onset of the apocalypse and what that means, so it effectively features a capstone to the ABC universe.

You'll notice though that Top Ten continues on, so what bearing it had on the other titles I couldn't tell you.

The continuation of Top Ten wasn't written by Moore, but even if it was, the ending of Promethea likely wouldn't affect it. Without giving away what happens, just trust me in that it's not an issue.