Oliver Davis reviews Prophet #45…
“FINAL ISSUE OF PROPHET! The War in Space reaches its climax, but the story will continue…”
Captain Qwest begins speaking, and occassional words are in closed brackets. There’s no explanation for what this means; does the fox-like being whisper? Are those words communicated telepathically? It’s one of the many maddeningly brilliant traits that make Prophet such a special read, gearing your brain into hyperdrive, testing out possibilities and confliciting interpretations to eventually land on one that, could be, wholly yours.
If that sounds a tad ‘waxing lyrical,’ it’s because issue 45 of Prophet marks the beginning of the end of the book’s recent revivial. There will be a Prophet: Earth War six-issue miniseries in the months to follow, which was wonderfully teased in the closing double-page spread of #45, but the melancholy of ending one of the best series of the last five years – easily up there with Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye – is all-pervading.
This final issue of the standard numbering (back to #1 for the miniseries) follows Old John joining forces with a younger John to free captives enslaved in the Body City’s arena. Despite the narration often taking on writer Brandon Graham’s glorious lyricism, this installment is one of the more classically linear plots in his run. No cosmic, sentient energies; no world-size beings punching each other. Sure, there was the occassional man vomitting up a foetus-like flying creature, but you get used to unexplained paroxyms like that occuring in Prophet. The series’ commitment to confusion is to be admired. If only more properties were brave enough to behave as intelligently (and, in my case, more smarter) than their reader.
What’s surpising is how well Graham and artists Farel Dalyrmple, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy structure their prison-break sequence. For a series defined by the abstract, the bust-out is told pretty much straight. The only stylish flair is reserved for colourist Joseph Bergin III, who paints the fight scenes in fantastically unsubtle reds and blacks.
On finishing reviewing last month’s issue, I ordered the entire avaliable series in their collected trade paperbacks. The reason is more profound than wanting to own them, force them upon friends or balance out the number of DC and Marvel-based books on my reading shelf. I ordered them because, despite reading each issue twice, taking notes and reviewing them, I still have no ******* clue what’s going on. And that feeling of overwhelming uncertainty is deliciously exciting.
Buy this issue, then every single one before it.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter (@OliDavis).
Originally published July 31, 2014. Updated November 28, 2022.
