This graphic-novel compiles six issues of Prophet which comprise four separate stories. Issues #21-23 tell the first story while issues #24, #25, and #26 each tell a standalone story. All of these stories center around clones of John Prophet, who are awaking across the universe, with exception of issue #26 (labeled as chapter 5 in the book). If I were to rate each story individually, I would give the one-shots four stars each and issues #21-23 a well-deserved five stars. I'm giving the collection five stars instead of four because, quite frankly, I've never read anything like Prophet, and I absolutely loved it.The stories feature little dialogue and tons of narrative, which I at first found off-putting, but now thoroughly enjoy. The art is consistently fantastic, detailed, and sprawling. The bleak, mysterious narrative combined with the beautiful art creates a true science-fiction story. This book is what everyone claims Saga to be; creative,epic hardcore science fiction. Except, where Saga takes the 21st century and gives it a new look, Prophet dispels with everything we know and crafts an alien-filled, beast-ridden world that John Prophet fearlessly traverses. I recommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction and enjoys becoming immersed in a complex new universe. I’m trying to read more comics, but not being a fan of the whole superhero thing means I have to be fairly discerning when trying to collate a to-be-read list from various internet sources and “100 Greatest lists” etc. As it turns out, John Prophet is in fact a superhero, albeit a short-lived one – but you wouldn’t know it from this comic.Prophet: Remission is the stuff of dazzling space opera, as Prophet awakes from cryosleep tens of thousands of years in the future and roams across an unrecognisable Earth, colonised by bizarre alien species and scattered with the decaying ruins of long-forgotten civilisations. This is heady stuff, the best kind of fantasy and science fiction hybrid, the sort of thing you might read about at Clarkesworld. Prophet: Remission is low on exposition, and as John survives in a city made from the decaying, crashed body of a once-living spaceship, or joins an alien convoy to travel across a harsh desert, I often had little idea what was going on. But this is what makes comics so wonderful: the visual element means I’m more than willing to forgive the confusion, which I probably wouldn’t be in a novel or short story.This reboot of the original series – which is apparently little-known even among comic fans – is spearheaded by Brandon Graham, creator of the brilliant King City. Different chapters are illustrated by different artists (Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Giannis Milongiannis and Graham himself), which sounds confusing, but there’s a good plot-related reason for it which I won’t give away, and which makes it very appropriate. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed Roy’s branch the most, simply because at three chapters (half the book) it’s the longest. What always bothers me about comics and graphic novels is that they’re too short, although obviously it takes a long time to illustrate and colour all those fun images. I just wish I could discover something old that ran for decades and has now been collated in a great big bundle – I’m certainly open to suggestions from people with more experience than me.
What do You think about Rémission (2013)?
Was recommended to me by a good friend. It was a little out there, but was interesting to read.
—sherry
Strange, but great artwork and original story. Looking forward to getting round to volume two.
—StephanieB
