Prophet Volume One (Image Comics)
Reprints Prophet #21-26
Written by Brandon Graham (with Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, and Giannis Milonogiannis
Art by Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Marian Churchland
Prophet Volume Two (Image Comics)
Reprints Prophet #27-31, 33
Written by Brandon Graham (with Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, and Giannis Milonogiannis
Art by Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis, Fil Barlow, Helen Maler, and Boo Cook
You might be a bit confused about the issues reprinted here. How is this volume one if it starts with issue 21? That’s a valid question. Prophet was the revival of a previously canceled series under Rob Liefield’s Image Comics imprint Extreme Comics. The initial Prophet series concluded in 1994 and was revived in 1995, with a second ongoing series canceled shortly after that. For over a decade, Liefield flailed around with his original IPs, as he is wont to do. In 2011, a radical revival was planned of several Liefeld properties, and Prophet ended up being the longest-running and best-executed, in my opinion. That was mainly due to the seemingly endless creativity of its writer, Brandon Graham.
The original John Prophet was a play on the Captain America origin story. He was a homeless man who volunteered for a super soldier program during WWII. A scientist from the future used tech from his era to transform John into a programmable human weapon. Eventually, he’s revived in the present day after spending decades in stasis. I haven’t read that original run of Prophet, nor is it necessary to do so for the revival. It can add to the experience as other characters from Liefield’s comics get referenced, but this new version can be enjoyed as a standalone.
The Prophet arc these volumes collect occurs approximately ten thousand years in the future. John Prophet wakes up and finds he’s in a different world where humanity has either gone extinct or evolved into new, unrecognizable forms. He must navigate this dangerous landscape relying on his genetic engineering, which makes him adaptable to almost every possible scenario. Eventually, Prophet learns he’s one of the hordes of clones spread across the universe that are all waking up right now. Millennia earlier, an Earth Empire had come to dominate known space, and the Prophets were their primary weapons against those they colonized.
Brandon Graham employed three main artists as his story shifts the spotlight between three Prophet clones – the initial Prophet who wakes up at the start of this series, Old Man Prophet, and a Prophet with a tail. Each of these characters is separated by light years of space. Not all of them are on the same side either, as some have escaped their programming and see the Earth Empire as a threat to life in the universe.
Graham did an excellent job of dispensing this information by starting small. For the first few issues, we follow John Prophet as he survives in a brutal landscape. In this way, he sets the table for the worlds we’ll explore. Humans are extinct, but life thrives in new shapes and forms. The old war remnants have been built over by new self-aware species. Technology and biology are pretty much indistinguishable at this point. One of the ways that is communicated is through the Dolmantle. This is a living cape that, at one point, even replaces John’s left arm when it gets hacked off.
The most substantial element here is Graham’s imagination. He clearly had years of ideas and sketches stored away and gets to roll them out here, showcasing theoretical evolutionary paths. The writer seems entirely at ease in this milieu, and the ideas flow freely from the book’s opening pages. By the end of volume one, our focus shifts to the awakening of Old Man Prophet, which sets up most of the story in volume two.
In the second book, we jump between the present and the glory days of the Old Man when he was part of a ragtag crew of aliens, clones, and robots who fought back against the Earth Empire. Graham excels in the same manner as Alan Moore when he wrote Green Lantern. What I mean by this is how well he humanizes non-human characters. Where the first book felt more like a worldbuilding anthology, this second book also solidifies into a more standard narrative. This is essentially a “getting the team back together” story arc, which also serves to help us get to know Old Man Prophet’s history as he meets old friends and remembers the good times.
Prophet is the perfect comic book if you are a fan of science fiction and speculative fiction. This is not a superhero title but a well-thought-out sci-fi epic. It is also slow-moving, but Graham is taking his time and knows where he is going. We’ll be reading and reviewing all six volumes this month, and it was my first re-read since the book was initially published.
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