Oliver Davis reviews Prophet #37…
New father must finish the job that his lifebomb brother failed at (in Issue 31) and destroy the dismembered body city of Ixpoliniox.
Clones. Lots and lots of clones. That’s the wraparound cover for the latest issue of Image’s Prophet comic book. And for good reason.
This installment follows another one them, this time Brother John Atum. His mission is to salvage a robot from an abandoned war station in space. The site is in ruins, but its neural defences are still operational. The world-building in Prophet is admirably consistent. The recurrence of organic and biological forms of technology provide an unsettling dystopian future.
Brandon Graham, the series’ regular writer, is having a month off. The frequent, very fun-to-say-named artist Giannis Milonogiannis takes the reins on both story and drawing instead. Having an artist in the director’s chair is evident on every page. Dialogue is almost non-existent. Narration boxes are functional. Issue 37 is told visually.
Books like that often end up being very quick reads, but Milonogiannis somehow paces you through each panel’s progression. The expansive backgrounds and focus on minute details (the workings of a space suit, the stepping on an egg) recalls the opening, non-verbal opening sequence to Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
But the themes of identity and self-sacrifice are more akin to Duncan Jones’ Moon. A wonderful read.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter @OliDavis.
Originally published July 17, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
