Alan Moore's the PROMETHEA series
Chapter One: The Radiant, Heavenly City
A small voice pleads in the desert,
A dread shadow laughs in the city,
A desperate student writes the truth.
SUMMARY:
Alexandria, 411 A.D. (in three flashback scenes)
A hermetic scholar (magician), knowing he is about to be attacked by a Christian mob, sends his daughter to safety promising to meet her in the Western lands. He tries to prevent the attack with mind control but is stabbed to death with spears by five men wearing brown robes and giant cross necklaces. She wanders the desert, weeping in grief and despair, feeling betrayed by her father for leaving her alone. Thoth-Hermes finds her and tells her that she can live forever but she’ll have to give up her current life and exist in the realm called the Immateria as a living story.
New York 1999
Sophie Bangs and Stacia Vanderveer sit in a flying taxicab discussing their college term papers. The dark haired bookworm Sophie (Sophia is Greek for “wisdom”) chose Promethea as her thesis which now involves lots of research and interviews. The redheaded partier Stacia chose to quickly jot down a discourse on the media favorite Weeping Guerilla. Stacia is headed to TROTSKY’S on St. Mark’s Place for a The Limp concert (the last in the band’s U.S tour). She drops Sophie off at the apartment of Barbara Shelley, the widow of Steve Shelley, a graphic novelist for a PROMETHEA comic series.
Sophie explains to Barbara about her term paper and how different writers throughout history have written varying but slightly similar stories about a female named Promethea. Barbara tries to get her to drop the subject and gives her a cryptic warning about not looking for trouble before kicking her out. Sophie is disappointed that Ms. Shelley was unwilling to help her.
The Five Swell Guys (New York’s resident science-heroes), on a flying platform with the number 5 on the bottom, inquire whether or not Sophie has been menaced by strange, overwhelming forces, extraterrestrials, government conspiracies, or ancient demon cults because Kenny had a psychic flash about her. She said no too soon because moments later, while walking alone through her building complex, she is attacked by a Smee and knocked over the corridor railing several stories up. Looks like precog Kenny isn’t rusty from his recent divorce.
Promethea comes flying to Sophie’s rescue, gets mortally wounded fighting the Smee, and decides they should hide in an abandoned building. Sophie realizes that Promethea is the widow she interviewed. Barbara tells her the history of Promethea. The reason that the Smee attacked her is that Sophie is the next in the line of women that become Promethea. Barbara instructs her to write a poem or story about Promethea to channel her. While she writes the Smee barges in and attacks Barbara. Sophie becomes Promethea and easily kills the creature to Barbara’s amazement. Promethea-Sophie takes Barbara in her arms and flies up into the night sky quoting something that one of the Christian zealots in Alexandria said, “time…and the radiant, heavenly city”.
# of friendly jabs between Sophie & Stacia: 4
“You are totally gay!”
“you‘re fat”
“You slut!”
“You homo”
# of times Stacia mispronounced Promethea: 3
Prostitutia.
Prosthetica.
Prolapsia.
Favorite Quotes:
Barbara to Sophie: Listen kid, take my advice. You don’t wanna go looking for folklore. And you especially don’t want folklore to come looking for you.
Barbara to Sophie: It’ll probably rape, kill and disembowel us. Maybe even in that order. (made me think of Firefly/Serenity)
Sophie: Oh God, Jesus, Mom, Buddha.
Smee: I’m too late, then?
Promethea: Much too little…and much too late.