Here is a scene from Egypt when a young Christian religion was aggressively rooting out other, older, religions.
The white-haired man has my admiration. He knew they were going to kill him but he calmly told his daughter to run and faced his killers. That said, isn't he a bit too old to have such a young daughter? I know what he's going to say: aphrodisiacs, my son.
But it's more than that. Look at the top panel above. He's continuing to do his work in spite of an imminent threat. Lesser men would allow themselves to be flustered and disrupted, unable to go on with their day-to-day. Not this guy. Also, notice the statues of the gods on the writing table?
This man, who is carrying the caduceus - an ancient symbol for medicine adopted by our own times - is killed, but not before he spooks the hell out of the Christians by repeating what they were going to say before they say it.
Promethea was published in 1999. But look at this image of 1999 New York within the pages of this comic:
Obviously, this is not our reality. This 1999 has flying cars and flying saucer police patrols.
The panels below shows two things.
One, some info about Promethea. Two, this futuristic vision missed out on Uber. I think this two would be using Uber instead of a taxi service. What did you say? No internet in 1999? Well that's another thing. I would think that the net would come before flying cars. All in all I'm being a jerk about it, I know. I have hindsight. From this moment forward no more criticism about this futuristic vision - just appreciation.
Ok, the specific occurrences of Promethea throughout history are as follows.
It's worthwhile to note all these "touchpoints" because the series going forward will visit them all.
And then we meet The Five Swell Guys.
Something is following Sophie.
Then . . .
Jesus, Mom and Buddha, that's a good trio.
Sophie is saved by . . .
The fight is on.
This Promethea(?) gets wounded.
But she throws the creature she calls a 'Smee' and it is run over.
Promethea confirmed.
Back in ancient Egypt, the daughter of the man killed by the Christians is found by the gods.
Hermes and - I don't know the Egyptian one.
And just like that we stumble upon the origin of Promethea.
This origin is brilliantly elegant. Also, now I know that the Egyptian god is Thoth.
Here is what happened after.
Promethea, dwelling in the world of story, can be channeled by creative types. More than that, she can be recreated in our world - being embodied by different people.
Going back to New York, looks like the Smee is still alive. Sophie gets a strange request from the present Promethea.
Within her writing is an unflattering opinion of Christianity.
Check this out "mortals are the sandals that I wear".
The new Promethea appears just in time to save the old one.
