It’s 2019, in San Diego California. And Darla Clemenceau is about to take the stage of the UFORIA Symposium. You see, Darla was abducted by aliens, and has come to talk openly about that experience. Or not. Maybe she’s changed her mind. Or maybe her mind has changed!
Writer Andy Diggle (The Losers, Thief of Thieves, Hellblazer, Uncanny, etc) wields his storytelling abilities like a probe, a laser, a sceptre. It’s off-kilter, it’s abrupt, it’s dramatic. The UFO conspiracy, the nightmares of the coming of the aliens. Is it a memory or a precognition? When conspiracies combine in this prequel to Promethee, it takes us into deeply disturbing and entertainingly dark places. Where we might not be alone.
The artwork by Shawn Martinbrough (Thief of Thieves, Batman: Detective Comics, The Black Panther, Hellboy, etc) is solid, heavy-lined, and nicely composed. The figures are in the right place at the right time, with great expressions. The environments (colour by Dave Stewart) are illuminated in a smoothly convincing way, no matter how mind-bending: outer space, underwater, under fire. It’s all hellbent to work together, to enhance the menace, to mesmerize and hypnotize us into disbelief. It’s going somewhere good, this one.
Ablaze, Promethee 1313 #1, $3.99 for 29 pages of content.
Newsdesk