Review: Prophet #21

I’m sure that I’m not alone when I say that I’ve never reada single issue of Prophet before thisissue. I have no idea what happened in the previous twenty issues and I’m surewhen they come to print in trade paperback Image will sell quite a few topeople just like me.  Although I wonderif I’m lining Rob Liefeld’s pockets once again, I can’t help but enjoy andrecommend this book.

The story is weird to say the least. We open in the futureas a pod that resembles something out of the TMNT cartoon, digs its way upthrough the ground and out pops John Prophet who instantly pukes.He then activates his implants, which is good because he’s going to need tofight off a hungry creature with a Predator style mouth. His implants kick in and he boots the creature off of him and whips out a machete looking blade. Hemakes short work of the creature and begins gutting it for food. He exploresthe contents of its stomach and the scene resembles something out of Fallout,only instead of a reward of supplies it’s mostly fingers and a hand.

John takes off towards his mission and continues runninginto new and dangerous animals looking to eat him, but nothing is a match forhis implants and machete. He comes across a small town functioning as an Oonakameat farm. Basically monkeys are the new cattle as they’re slaughtered for meatand milked. John continues on his mission as he spots a crashing ship headingto Jell City. There he will find more information on his mission and keyinventory that he’s still missing.

Ever read a book that you didn’t quite understand where itwas going and overall it was just weird? That is this book to a "T". It was strange andyet not in bad way, it kept me interested from beginning to end and I couldn’twait to see what the next page held for me. I will say even the page that eludedto freaky alien sex wasn’t enough to scare me off. This is one of those storiesthat could only exist in comic book form and shows why the medium is sospecial. This could be a number one selling book, but it would never be adaptedinto a movie or any other medium due to the strangeness of the story.

I don’t know if writer Brandon Graham worked on the seriesbefore and frankly I don’t want to know. I would much rather continue thebelief that he simple picked up the reins and continued the story. Graham has awonderful narration that does the heavy lifting of the issue. The bits ofdialog that does exist is very good, but the narration gives information thatadds to the weirdness of the story. I didn’t know this character before thestory began, but afterwards I have a sense and look forward toreading and learning more about the world of Prophet.

The art really steals the show. The story is weird for sure,but without Simon Roy’s pencils and Richard Ballermann’s colors… I’m not surethis would be the same book. Roy creates an unbelievable world and then makesit believable. The designs of some of the creatures are almost repulsive, but stopshort of turning your eyes away. Ballermann’s colors give this strange book atone and feel that is unique to itself and do Roy’s pencil’s the justice theydeserve. Without this art team, this book’s quality would sink considerably.

I’m sure that there are a lot of comic readers today likemyself that never got into the Extreme line of books and only remember CaptainAmerican Fighting American. Though I hate Liefeld’s art if he really played ahand in creating this world then hey… good for us right? Good in the way thatsomeone else saw its potential and delivered a fantastic story which isprobably one of the best of the week. So give Liefeld some money because thisis actually worth it.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Brandon Graham

Artist: Simon Roy

Colors: Richard Ballermann

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $2.99

Release Date: 1/18/2012