Superheros Reconsidered

Promethia

Christianity makes it's forms at the very beginning of the comic, as a trope of them are killing off a father that is a Hermetic Scholar (or a magician) that looked like he was devil-worshipping to the Christians. It seemed to be during the time of when Christians were doing existentialism. The father was carrying a staff of Caduceus from Greek mythology/ Astrology. It says that if the staff is applied to a dying person, their death is gentle, and if applied to a dead person, they are brought back to life. The father was stabbed to death but was smiling, hens forth the purpose of it. The Smee was also killed under the same staff. Then two Gods appear before Promethea, which is Thoth, the God of writing and knowledge, and Hermes, a protector of literature and poets (and many other things). This connects to the girl writing her paper in the future when she becomes transformed to Promethea herself as she basically calls forth the spirit of her by writing about her. The last symbol I noticed was the egyptian symbol of Ankh, or "the breath of life" used on Promethea's armor.

The jump to the 1999 super-futuristic time with the two college girls talking about their social life and workload sounded very stereotypical to me. The whole vibe reminded me of a more futuristic version of Blade Runner, with the rich people literally floating above the lower class, and the slums looking super nasty and rusty. But the tone of the college girls who seemed to be middle class acted as if you'd be hearing the conversation today. The moment that made me get a real laugh since I joke with my friends about obsessive celebrities is after the girl meets the "Five Swell Guys" is the "Wait till I tell Stacia. She'll hemorrhage."

I'd find it interesting if this was produced into a 3rd person game. Alan Moore described that his comics are nearly impossible to be re-created on a movie scale, but what about a video game? The old story of the little girl leaving her father could be a little comic/storytelling segment to a preview to introduce the game before taking the controls. Then you could play as the college girl to explore and investigate your way into asking questions towards Barbara Shelly, getting kicked out of her apartment, and wondering around to find your way to a concert in the dumps of a city. You'd move your person around yourself to catch glimpses of something that you think is following you, but can't quite pin-point it yet. Then the Smee appears, with Shelly running to your aid and saving you. There'd be a quick run-down segment of the past and present to tell you your standing, aka how to use your controls. As you are writing about Promethea, you'd be more and more pushed in a time segment to complete it, until finally bursting into Promethea yourself. The action of killing the Smee is honing down your new abilities you've just accumulated. And then the game will take a slight break before the next chapter.