Regular readers of this blog will know it's no secret that I loved Prophet #21, the relaunch of a cheesy 90's Rob Liefeld masterminded by Brandon Graham. The first issue of this reboot (or whatever) was classy sci-fi that fully dragged it's readers in to this totally alien world viewed through the newly awakened-from-hypersleep John Prophet.
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| #21 was SO amazing i own all three variant covers. coughNERDcough... |
Issue 21 came out four weeks ago. Issue 22 came out this week. It has been an excruciating wait but I finally got my grubby little mitts on it and digested it for you and now i'm going to tell you why you SHOULD be reading Prophet.
Prophet #22 is so FUCKING COOL that there is absolutely no way that I can write about it and do it any sort of justice. It's a classy, classy comic. The previous issue introduced John Prophet as the 'man out of time' in a harsh and primal alien landscape. He quickly adapted to this new world and received his first mission, to reactive the ominously named G.O.D satellite to 'awaken the Earth empire'. Issue 22 finds Prophet making his way on foot to the location of the satellite to complete his mission. Its a long way and he has been walking for 12 days already when he finds one of his 'pods' which emerge from underground with equipment and supplies. With his rocket pack busted Prophet is forced to join an alien caravan to assure safe passage across the harsh desert.
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| breathtaking stuff.... |
As in the previous issue writer Brandon Graham totally immerses us in this hostile alien world. Early on in the comic, when Prophet is walking the desert, we see abandoned and ruined war-machines from some long forgotten conflict and bizarre reptilian/insectoid/horrid bird creatures flying around. When we join the alien caravan we see Graham's ability to create distinctive and unique alien species, even though we don't see very much of these alien travellers they feel fleshed out believable, they have a culture that is so totally different to ours (which Prophet finds out BIGTIME at the climax of the issue)
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| John Prophet: Official Badass |
I gushed about the little details in issue #21 and i'm going to gush about the little details in this issue too. Prophet's 'translator ball' that hovers around and translates the Qid-Pid's primal grunts into intelligible language is an amazing touch. The alien caravan Prophet is riding along with are huge, lumbering beasts that eat anything and process into some sort of fuel source is also really cool. Every little detail Graham folds into this story feels necessary and enriches the world he is building here.
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| my favourites there, the Uo monks! they look like mammoths... |
Simon Roy and Richard Ballerman are on fine, fine form here too (on pencils and colours respectively) Roy's interesting and detail packed panel layouts and beautifully intricate pencils are perfect for this hostile environment. I swear you can almost smell the foetid breath of the insectoid Qid-Pid and the shit Prophet is shovelling. The insect/reptilebird-things look super scary!
Ballerman's colouring is exemplary. It's as simple as that. Just look at the images I have posted, beautiful, washed out, sandy greys. Moist pinks alien mouths seem to ooze slobber and the neon and glowing cracks of lightning and bio-luminescent blue of Prophet's weird slug-thing light up the page. it's genius.
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| so so badass.... |
Seriously I thought #21 was the best comic I had read this year but this is even better and I have no doubt that this trend will continue for every issue. Graham seems to be getting stuck right in to this story of one very adaptable man in a harsh alien landscape and I encourage anyone reaidng this write-up to buy this comic.
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