The first six issues of the series have been gathered in this collection which certainly looks more impressive on the bookshelf than stack of regular comics. Some of the earlier incarnations of Promethea could do with more practical outfits though - Wonder Woman would be ashamed to wear a couple of those toilet-paper costumes. Williams III and Mick Gray outdo themselves, especially in the renderings of the otherworld called the Immateria, where doves fly on magician's glove wings. The artwork is beautiful, especially the detailed and expressive faces and inventive panel layout. Every Image comic and half the Vertigo comics wish they were like this. Within this pretext it wraps Moore's entire philosophy, the idea of a separate plane made of concepts where thought is form, an exploration of the Kabbalah, ruminations on hope and the meaning of life and one-liners delivered by hiply unhip characters. Superficially it's the story of a girl named Sophie who becomes possessed by a fictional character, a living story and warrior-mystic named Promethea. He's the author of the superhero revision Watchmen, political thriller V For Vendetta, and Jack the Ripper saga From Hell, with a penchant for mysticism, humour, and cramming literary worthiness into apparently lowbrow genre work. Promethea is one of the more recent comics by Alan Moore, whose name alone ought to sell it. For the rest of you, this could get complicated. For the comic-savvy crowd I'd describe Promethea as being like Ghost World crossed with The Maxx on the usual drugs.

Promethea vol 1