Clone Wars, Flesh-Tech, and Femboy Supersoldiers
Why ‘Prophet: Vol 1-5’ (2012-2016) Is Sci-Fi Pulp at Its Best
A review of the Comic Series ‘Prophet’, by Simon Roy et Al, 2012-2016.
Imagine Conan the Barbarian in space. Now imagine Conan discovers he is not merely a solo hero, but a clone from a race of supermen bred from the Nazi’s version of Captain America aeons ago. In this future the Earth crawls with aliens, the galaxy is a warzone, and the John Prophet clones have emerged from hibernation to reclaim an empire. Only this time, one of their own has been waiting for their awakening, assembling an alien fellowship to stop them.
If you’re thinking ‘wow, sounds based’ then you are right on the money. I honestly don’t read many comics and only started Prophet because I love Simon Roy’s art (particularly his paleo stuff). But the first volume, Remission, had me hooked.
The story is threadbare and told almost entirely through environmental clues and character actions. Many of the characters, such as the first Prophet clone we meet, are likewise only hazily aware of what is going on—following orders, mind control, or some sort of instinctual muscle memory.
The plot is boyish, violent and adventurous. But this doesn’t detract from fantastic world building. Earth now being bereft of humans (aside from prophets or devolved monkeymen) alien cultures have evolved in their stead , and the comics take great care to explore their customs and diet. This helps evoke a sense of ‘personhood’ to the aliens that the prophets so happily hack and slash apart—otherwise you’d probably just cheer them on, as the aliens look really freaky and are almost never humanoid. Though true to pulp, nothing is clear cut. Yes, the prophets seek to rebuild a galactic slave state, but many of the alien tribes we encounter practice child sacrifice, mind control, and planet wide bloodsports. But to keep it from getting too bleak, a lot of the plot has jokey lilt, such as our titular prophet having to fuck information out of a grotesque, horny alien. And let’s not forget the Femboy prophets bred to provide ‘release’ for the warrior caste.
This focus on food, sex, anatomy, wildlife, and environment also adds a unique flavour. For a sci-fi, it is an engrossingly organic series. Much of the technology is biomechanical. Spaceships excreted by steel-metabolising worms; computing done by grotesque ‘brain-mothers’; and toolkits made half of survivalists essentials and half of slimy blue automatons.
Though it’s hard to pin down a central theme or ‘message’ for a comic mainly concerned with spaceships and hacking aliens apart with machetes, the organicism goes some way towards it. It is ultimately about life itself: changing, evolving, merging and diverging. Control and stasis are antithetical to this, and become the closest we get to definite evil in the series. The greatest good by contrast is those who seek to maintain the ancient flow of evolution. Even as the brutish universe of Prophet seems to have so few certainties and moral scruples, the heroes inevitably end up fighting for the unobstructed flow of the great chain of being.
To be fair, some components of the plot (and art) are much weaker than others. There’s a lot of different writers who collaborated on the series, and some fall into extremely lame capeshit tropes. Some are interesting digressions in artistic style and story. But always, there is the shining light of Simon Roy to guide the way. The series is strong even if individual elements fall short.
And now to finish with a plea. I have read all the comics but don’t own a physical copy of Volume 5: Earth War (the best one)! I ordered a copy on Amazon and it was stolen off my porch, then it was discontinued by that seller. I’ve ordered others since and always been scammed, and scoured shops looking for a copy, but to no avail. So I call to you, my 20 or so dedicated readers, if you know where I can find a real, physical copy of Earth War, or know the hallowed Simon Roy, please let me know. It’s killing me to not have the final instalment.
-Ben Shread-Hewitt