Sometimes you just have to try something completely random.
Creative Staff:
Story: Andy Diggle
Art: Shawn Martinbrough
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Issue 1 of the prequel to Christophe Bec’s best-selling, mind-bending science-fiction BD series Promethee – Promethee 13:13 by Andy Diggle and Shawn Martinbrough with covers by Jock. Exclusively available from comiXology Originals.
Headed by veteran editor Will Dennis, Promethee 13:13 explores what happened before the multi-volume bandes dessinées Promethee.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With something like eighteen volumes out so far overseas from Christophe Bec, ComiXology worked with Delcourt to bring about this three-issue prequel series as an Original for the service. It’s certainly and accessible starting point and one that you can see seeding the reader into wanting to know more. Hell, when I finished reading this installment the first thing I did was go to look at Amazon for the main Promethee works to see what there is and if it’s really going to pique my interest. Andy Diggle has to set up some of the basics here and he does it well enough as there are some standard hooks that are definitely appealing. Shawn Martinborough’s artwork is rightly suited for the story with some good expressive characters and real world settings but it’s the vision sequence where he really gets to shine, particularly thanks to some strong color design work out of Dave Stewart.
Taking place a couple of days before the world changes, there are two tracks that are going on here. One involves an older woman named Darla that has been brought to a UFO conference to talk about her childhood abduction by a “man from the moon.” It’s one of the more well-known cases that has had a lot written and filmed about it so she’s quite the celebrity. The problem is that she’s taking clozapine to deal with what she views as psychotic episodes. That she goes out to this audience and denies it all and says that it was just childhood trauma makes for a dramatic moment, but as it turns out, the guy that brought her here swapped out her pills and she’s having a real vision. This group that he’s a part of knows the real deal and that she’s a part of it and this was a strangely elaborate ruse to get their hands on her so as to deal with the end of the world coming up.
The other track takes place two days later as it focuses on a NASA shuttle mission using the Atlantis that’s taking a special secret cargo into orbit to the space station. It’s a highly classified one that has also basically extended a remote bomb into the shuttle itself in case things go wrong, which frustrates the crew but also doesn’t get them to turn down the mission since the shuttles have been mothballed for so long. We get some good tension between them and command that helps the reader to get some of what’s going on here and the tension is well-raised toward the end as well. When they’re making orbit and the pilot sees what he thinks is their mirror image out there alongside them, it raises a lot of questions. That it disappears and he believes he imagined it is one thing, that we see a sliver of that other wing is a tantalizing bit about what may soon be happening.
In Summary:
That’s the main gist of this book, admittedly, in that it’s a tease for things to come. The difference is that we know there are a ton of volumes of what’s to come that’s been produced, so it’s not like these three issues would be the only thing made. It’s an interesting prequel piece that could draw in new readers and I like the general ideas it’s playing with. It does have a mild enough hook to work if you’re open to new material and looking for something expansive to sink your teeth into but it doesn’t have a strong hook here – beyond the glimpse of some fascinating vision material.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Delcourt / ComiXology Originals
Release Date: July 17th, 2019
MSRP: $2.99
