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Promethea #27

 
 
FinderWolf
20:21 / 24.09.03
...is actually supposed to be out today, if I read my solicits correctly. And not just those months-ahead-of-the-fact solicits, but the real solicits for the coming week. Joy & calooh callay, the new Promethea is here! Unless they pulled a fast one on us and someone gave the wrong solicit info. I'll be speeding to my comic store in just 1/2 hour to procure a copy. Let the thread begin!!
 
 
Aertho
20:49 / 24.09.03
Sophie snapped. Heaven hath no fury. And who the hell is this Massachusettes Ray dude?
 
 
FinderWolf
13:47 / 25.09.03
I know - I wonder if this "Ray" guy is mentioned in earlier Tom Strong comics (I have them all and read them all, his name sounds sort of familiar but I'm not sure if we've seen him before) or maybe from the alternate Terror Inc. universe of that miniseries whose name I can't recall at the moment (the Moore/Peter Hogan/Yanick Paquette book)??

I loved this issue - it kinda frustrated me that it's such a slow build-up, but I'm sure Moore wants to make it nice and ominous and keep us guessing as to what the Apocalypse will really mean for the ABC universe...it might not the the mass destruction one normally thinks of when one thinks of the End of the World.

I loved "Sophie, I'm Tom Strong. I don't get things wrong."

Nice bit with mentioning Ari Fleischer, all the readers go, "huh, it must be the writing/publishing delay, he quit a long time ago" and then Moore has someone say "Didn't he quit a long time ago?" in the book.

The glass of water image is back and haunting New Yorkers...

Someone's gonna catch it when Mom comes home...
 
 
FinderWolf
15:09 / 25.09.03
And how about that COVER!!! (esp. for those of us old enough to remember the classic Superman/Spider-Man DC/Marvel crossover cover it's inspired by) Just beautiful.
 
 
Tamayyurt
16:15 / 25.09.03
Hey, can someone pealse link a pic of the cover. I can't go to the comic shop til Sat. and I'm dying to see it.
 
 
Mr Tricks
16:41 / 25.09.03
Yeah I recognised that cover almost instantly...

Joey/Sophie seemed to be aging before my eyes as the impact of what was going on sunk in..."I'm only 20 something"

"ray" does sound familiar and as he's mentioning the rest of the America's Best... I'm wondering if he was talking about SPLASH BRANAGAN...

The other book you're refering to is Terra Obscura which is a fairly enjoyable read btw.

Still this issue seemed a bit "lite" but at least there was much less of a wait for it!
 
 
the Fool
02:04 / 26.09.03
This issue made me fell a bit sad. Especially when Sophie/Promethea returns to her lover to say good bye. But I've been in a pretty melancoly mood lately, so it doesn't take much to set me off...
 
 
Aertho
02:48 / 26.09.03
This issue made me feel terribly sad as well. Like triumphantly sad... if there is such a thing. Not like meaningless sadness at all. Try reading this issue with Natalie Merchant's Ophelia playing every chance you get. Jesus.

This story is going agonizingly slow. I didn't like this issue for that reason alone. It felt like nothing happened really, and yet Sophie unleashed the rapture. Everyone's losing a sense of time and individuality. It's like Glitterdamrung only sweeter. Nevermind. It IS Glitterdamrung.

The John Merrit Ray dude is Johnny Future. OF COURSE that's the person Tom Strong is gonna look for. Does Earth survive Sophie's apocalypse? Only time travelers will tell. Coffeeburg is Splash Branagan, and Indigo means Cobweb and maybe Greyshirt.
 
 
_Boboss
07:15 / 26.09.03
it was all good, pudding with gravy, tax-free. moore always slow-burns his apocalypses, i thought that going from a superhero intro scrap-chat to the opening bars of the end in 22 pages is pretty far to move. the battle with the doll will be bigger than the apocalypse. good the way tom strong told the evil feds to piss off and no mistake.

the glasses of water, and 'a lot of people will hurt themselves', everyone needs to get their flow back don't they?

and did anyone think they saw stacia in the last panel?
 
 
Aertho
14:38 / 26.09.03
Which one was Stacia? The overtly shaken one with leopard print?

I recognized a lot of people from that last panel. The Royce guy, the other Temple dude with the spear, the punk chick with the eather coat, various others who are constants in backgrounds... Stacia's mother, her father, still wearing what they wer wearing back in 25, and the five swell guys.
 
 
DaveBCooper
14:44 / 26.09.03
Classy stuff (as usual), and though you could argue not a lot actually happens other than a compounding of the feeling of foreboding, it certainly wasn't a three-minute read in the way that an apparently padded comic would be...

Has 'she'll be coming round the mountain' got some kind of foreboding connotations ? Or rather, did it have before this story ? It's forever ruined for me now - sick white horse flesh, was it ? Clever.

And we know Tom ends up okay, don't we ? Isn't he the chap in the Tower at the end of time, or whatever it's called ? They seem to have similar taste in upper garments...
 
 
FinderWolf
15:30 / 26.09.03
Good call about Tom surviving it all in the Tower of Time, daveb - I had forgotten that short story.

Imp, I'm gonna try and put up or send you the cover image when I get back from lunch...
 
 
Aertho
17:17 / 26.09.03
Here's the lyrics to the song... but it's not a song here, it's a nursey rhyme that has compounding parts(ie at the end of a verse, the listeners participate by saying in unison a short phrase). The compounding of parts is significant to the nature of Binah, but I'm wondering if Moore has more significance he's pulling for mthe song... I mean, who are the six white horses? They've definitley gone out to see her and she's defintiely wearing red(in the book it's pink?) pajamas... Will Promethea have to sleep with Grandma? Babalon? Who is Babalon's mother? Or ... aaach! too much! it's raining light in my head.

She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be coming round the mountain,
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes

She'll be driving six white horses when she comes (Hee Haw)
She'll be driving six white horses when she comes (Hee Haw) 
She'll be driving six white horses, she'll be driving six white horses,
She'll be driving six white horses when she comes (Hee Haw)

Oh, we'll all go out to meet her when she comes (Hi, Babe)
Oh, we'll all go out to meet her when she comes (Hi, Babe)
Oh, we'll all go out to meet her, we'll all go out to meet her,
We'll all go out to meet her when she comes (Hee Haw, Hi, Babe)

She'll be wearing red pajamas when she comes (Whistle)
She'll be wearing red pajamas when she comes (Whistle)
She'll be wearing red pajamas, she'll be wearing red pajamas,
She'll be wearing red pajamas when she comes (Hee Haw, Hi Babe, Whistle)

She will have to sleep with Grandma when she comes (Snore)
She will have to sleep with Grandma when she comes (Snore)
She will have to sleep with Grandma, she will have to sleep with Grandma,
She will have to sleep with Grandma when she comes. (Hee Haw, Hi Babe, Whistle, Snore)
 
 
Aertho
17:19 / 26.09.03
There are several variations... I had forgotten about the old red rooster line.

She'll be driving six white horses
When she comes . . . .

Oh, we'll all come out to meet her
When she comes . . . .

We will kill the old red rooster
When she comes . . . .

We'll all have chicken n' dumplin's
When she comes . . . .

We'll all be shoutin' "Halleluja"
When she comes . . . .
 
 
Jack Fear
17:22 / 26.09.03
That version omits the splendidly sinister fourth and fifth verses:

"We'll kill the old red rooster when she comes (hack, hack)"

and

"We'll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes (yum, yum)".
 
 
Jack Fear
17:23 / 26.09.03
Jinx! You owe me a Coke!
 
 
ill tonic
19:11 / 26.09.03
The pacing will probably have better effect in a straight read through.

"Sick White Horse Flesh"

That was cycling through my head for the rest of the day.
 
 
Eroom Nala
23:18 / 28.09.03
Slightly updated version of my annotations to this issue are now online at
http://eroomnala.bravepages.com/27.html
or if there's download problems just go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sophiebangs/message/107
where the text of the first rough version of annotations is shown.
Also a review of this issue and the cover image can be found at
http://the-trades.com/column.php?columnid=2051
 
 
Eroom Nala
22:48 / 29.09.03
A slightly more updated version of annotations can now be found at
http://eroomnala.0catch.com/27.html
 
 
Tamayyurt
04:11 / 30.09.03
You know I was looking through those annotations and they mentioned the when Sophie becomes Promethea, the plain white, square boarders become the usual swirlly, intricate ones we're grown to love of this comic. I didn't even notice they were missing last issue, but the comic felt very blah, very unmagickal... but the second they came back I noticed the difference. I never thought about the stuff between the panels but now I know they're just as important for setting the mood.
 
  
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