Rating: 
Summary: Promethea 3:
Review: This book takes off in two directions. The second one (I'll come back to the first) introduces a new Promethea. That plays by the rules - there have been lots of them and will be lots more. This plane of reality just has one at a time, though. The new one embodies "punk", in attitude and style. Promethea is a semi-mythic ideal of womanhood - certainly too rich and complex a topic to embody in any one person. Various Prometheas carry various parts of that vision: motherly, raw and angry, innocent, and sensual, but always powerful and involved. Some parts of the complete image are unpleasant but needed for the image to be complete, and that's where Promethea/Stacy fits. She exorcises demons by being more demonic than them. The book's other direction explains why the first Promethea was off duty. She is on a trip through the mythic planes, led by a succession of spirit guides. She acts as a passive display of each realm she traverse, and that seems a real under-use of a very worthwhile character. It's a verbal and philosophical trip, but Promethea is a character of action. Worlds of fantasy, sensuality, and judgement could have been settings for active exploraiton of each idea, but Promethea just talked about them while passing through. I consider that an opportunity lost. Still, the series is readable, well-drawn, and full of ideas well beyond the usual comic. Despite some flaws, I intend to keep reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware, this is not your usual Moore comic
Review: This first issue of Promethea is not as bad as my rating suggests but the further installments are so irritating that I found myself going back and re-reading the first one until I hated it as well. Not only is this a little too close, thematically speaking, to the sandman series, but it is also far to heavy handed on the descriptions of the immateria. After the first paragraph on this "immateria" as Moore calls it, I had gotten the point. But it goes on and on for pages (and continues into the second, and third volmes), as if I were some dumb putz who couldn't figure it out. The series is almost insulting. However the art is absolutely stunning, especially in volume three, but that is not enough to save the series in my mind. Sure it's fun in parts, and mildly interesting as well, but all the heavy handed [stuff] about magic, and Crowely really got on my nerves after awhile. In retrospect I am very glad that Moore keeps his magic fetish out of League, and his other comics, or at least mostly out. If your into magic then this is a fantastic read, I'm sure, but if you think of magic on earth as some kind of bad joke, steer clear of this ..., it might ruin your appreciation of Moore's better comics.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This is all I expect in a comic: characters, plot, and action to pull me along, story and art that work together, and situations that don't tax the mind too much. This one is a bit more than a typical super-heroine with mystical powers and a brass bra. Her off-duty persona is bookish, a feature that I empathize with, in an urban world that satirizes what ours might become. When that college girl takes on the Promethea role, she doesn't know who she is, or what or where - she just knows that she's under a bizarre attack, defending herself in ways that she finds equally bizarre, even to herself. The artwork in this book is very competent, and supports the story well. I can't say that I find it memorable, though. The story's allegories are a bit heavy-handed, and mystical symbols are deeply piled everywhere you turn. They are so pervasive that I find they lose meaning, becoming background decoration rather than signs with real significance. The story comes down to mis-understood good vs. mis-perceived evil, mysterious advisors of uncertain loyalties, a mousy alter-ego, and a few other staples of the genre. Still, the pieces come together well. The book is good amusement, and worth coming back to. It won't be the centerpiece of any collection and won't shake the world of comic art or story. That's OK - it's still a pleasant and undemanding way to fill an evening.
Rating: 
Summary: Complex, intricately detailed, and richly beautiful
Review: This is the second collected volume of the series. It's probably best to start with volume one. :-> That said, this continues the story of the living legend Promethea, as currently embodied in an alternative, technologically-advanced 20th Century. The 1999/2000 New Year's Day celebrations take place in this volume, for those wishing to keep score. Each issue is becoming more jewellike and perfect, it seems to me (though I haven't gone on to the third compendium yet). One entire issue/chapter in this volume is given over to an exploration of humanity's history through the metaphor of a modified tarot deck, as told by the snakes on Promethea's caduceus, Mike and Mack (Micro and Macro - who speak in rhyming quatrains of iambic pentameter, flawlessly, each keeping his recognizable viewpoint towards either the big picture or the minutiae). Along the bottom of each page is both an anagram of Promethea's name that is pertinent to that page's content, and a serialized joke whose phrases again echo and reinforce the other three threads on each page. Another issue is given to an extended tantric sex scene (nothing is explicitly shown but boobies, though MUCH is implied), with a discussion of the theory and practice of magical symbolism and chakras ... which leads to a priceless last-page joke. It's not a traditional narrative comic book. It's not even as traditionally-narrative as the first volume. It's ... dreamlike, and dense, and strange, in a way that is entirely appropriate for a work purporting to be about the world of imagination, and how that world interacts with our own through its avatar. It's not everyone's cup of tea, no. But if you like Neil Gaiman, you might well enjoy this too.
Rating:
Summary: Conventional Moore
Review: Unlike Moore's ground-breaking work on Watchmen and From Hell, Promethea is more traditional fare. However, because it is by Moore, this is still above the majority of comics/graphic novels being produced today. In some ways, this is Moore at his post-modern best, as the very nature of this character (channeled through the years by the artists that imagine her best) allows him to discuss the power of the creative imagination, while still indulging in the kind of esoterica that has filled his other work.
Rating:
Summary: Just magic!
Review: When I reviewed the first volume in this series, I described the general idea in the following way: 'Promethea' is an attempt to render the female super hero in an archetypical form. This book has a strong mystical or spiritual theme, with the female lead cast in a pluralistic role: she is both Sophie Bangs, student, and Promethea, imagination personified. Our Promethea is not the first, there is a whole line of Prometheas stretching back to ancient Egypt, and we get to know some of the earlier ones in this book. This volume collects issues 7 through 12 of the series. If anything, it tops the previous volume. Alan Moore and JH Williams III are firing on all cylinders here - we get quite a detailed examination of spiritual themes, contrasted and compared to quantum physics; some superheroing; one of the most sensual comics you're likely to see, and a diverse cast of characters.
Rating:
Summary: Promethea Rules
Review: Wow, this is a wild ride. If you are a long time reader of comic books like myself, this book is a dream come true. Veteran comics writer Alan Moore is at the top of his game with Promethea, weaving romantic, modern and post modern styles into a classic "reluctant heroine" storyline and along the way paying homage to a multitude of fiction writers (and artists). An entertaining read with great artwork as well. For those of you that have always dreamed that you too could be a superhero...read this book, and believe it again. Forgive me for not going into more detail, as I don't want to accidentaly include spoilers.
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