July 6, 2000...September 2000
(24 pgs.)
TITLE:
the title seems to be a biblical reference.
In Matthew
21:12 Jesus is upset by all the moneylenders in the temple
"And Jesus
entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple,
and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who
sold pigeons."
and again in Matthew 27:40 Jesus is taunted
"You who
would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are
the Son of God, come down from the cross."
Similar passages occur in Mark
11:15 and Mark 15:29, also John 2:14-19 with the extra information in John 19:
that when he spoke about the temple
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
[21] But he spoke of the
temple of his body.
Anyway I'm not sure if there is a specific reference
to 'Bringing Down the Temple' anywhere in the bible. Maybe in the story of
Sampson and Delilah?
SYNOPSIS
Sophie/Promethea seeks revenge on the Temple for causing
the death of Barbara but her revenge is short lived when she finds that the
Temple is holding a birthday party for one of the members' children.. Jack Faust
offers to teach her magic in exchange for sex and at the end of the issue she
accepts.
QUOTES
"So tell me...Do you value your souls?" - Promethea(6), pg
3
"Nobody's getting away with this. I mean it. Nobody" - Sophie, pg. 5
"I
am grateful for your help. Change your lives" - Promethea(6), pg 7
"Speaking
yesterday the Mayor said, 'I am Legion. All shall kiss my smoldering hoof" -
TEXtureTM, pg. 8
"What do you mean she's gone?" - Sophie
"We
mean that mistress Barbara has chosen not to tarry with us now that her mortal
round is done. She wished us all farewell..." - Promethea(1)
"Darling, her
actual words were 'Damned if I'm spending eternity with a bunch of dried up
has-been bitches like you' But then, that's Barbara" - Promethea( ), pg
10
"Dear gods, how many lives, wasted in this idiocy?" - Promethea, pg
19
"You dare invoke the name of Christ? When you have murdered? When you have
made compact with hell? the Lord Christ is more kin to me than you could ever
comprehend. We are both sacred. We are both stories...and we were only ever
meant to let more light in. And you misunderstand. and you kill, a-and you kill,
and y-you..." - Promethea (losing it) pgs. 20-21
NOTES & ANNOTATIONS
This whole issue takes place mostly in New
York but also a little bit in Los Angeles. Firstly we are in Los Angeles:
Tonight (Tuesday) then we go back to New York: Monday and again to Los Angeles:
Tuesday. The rest of the story takes place in New York from Thursday to Sunday.
All the action occurs in just under a week.
Note the stained glass effect in
the background behind the panels which is sustained for most of the issue except
for visits to the Immateria, Jack Faust's shop and Henry Royce's
nightmare.
Page 1: Nice cinematic effect rushing into Solomon's Casino
nightclub from across the street seen from Promethea's Point of View. Reminds me
of some Brian de Palma films (Scarface, Carlito's Way)
Panel 1: On the
left we see the only Chucklin' Duck quote visible in the entire Promethea series
so far.
Note the Gelcars and the man with the Egyptian style helmet with an
eye in the triangle on the back of his shirt. On the right a customer in a hat
approaches a hooker with some money. Either he's very short, she's very tall,
she's standing on something or he's walking on his knees.
Panel 2:
People start to duck out of the way as Promethea approaches at fast
speed.
Panel 3: Just outside the club a plainclothes guard doesn't
even have time to take out his gun.
Panel 4: The glass door smashes,
the waitress spills her tray and the customers at the tables start to notice
something is wrong.
Pages 2-3, Top Panel: Promethea makes her
entrance
Pages 4-5: As there are already plenty of stained glass
windows within the panels outside the panels there is a sort of wooden texture
effect instead.
Page 7, Panel 2: Who's Henry Royce?
Sir Henry Royce is one of two co-inventors of
the Rolls-Royce. (Bet you can't guess the other ones name :-]) but as his dates
are 1863-1933
this Henry Royce is probably Sir Henry's son or other relative.
Pages
8-9: Minimal stained glass panel effects on smaller panels
Page 8
Panel 1: I am Legion comes from the New Testament Mark
5:10 where the evil spirits possesing a man tell Jesus "My name is
legion".
It is also the name of a Science Fiction novel
by Roger Zelazny as well as another novel by a different
author
Satan is renowned for having hooves instead of feet. The phrase All
shall kiss my smoldering hoof appears to originate with Alan
Moore.
Pages 8-9: Nice change in TEXTureTM visual from
Mayor Baskerville to the Elastegel creature covered by panel with Promethea
descending.
Page 9 middle panel: Kenneth's face isn't visible in the
shadows but we can tell it's him by the tie and glasses. Barbara's eyes are now
closed
Pages 10-11 Top Panel: Up in the sky behind the Prometheas we can see
the stars forming Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn. Nice broken Greek columns
with Little Margie sitting on one holding her teddy bear. Red roses from
previous page repeated in front of the masculine statue on the right.
Page
11, Panel 4: Les Miserable T-shirt 'Can You Hear Me Mother'. There is
a song with this name at a German
website and also an old 1935 film with this title.
Pages 12-13: a
Caduceus splits the two pages up horizontally. Staff with a jackal(?), bull,
lion and frog(?) split up the panels vertically.
Page 12 Panel 1: Nice
reflection of Sophie's face on the glass.
Panel 2: Note that Jack
Faust in wearing a 32 T-shirt for the 32 paths.
Panel 3: Gehenna is a
Greek word used in the New Testament and often rendered as Hell. It signifies an
abode of punishment beyond the grave. Information taken from this site.
Page 13 Panel
3: Another nice reflection of Sophie's face, this time on the crystal
ball
Page 12 Panel 5: Note the rings on Jack Faust's fingers and
compare them with the rings Alan Moore wears in Issue #14 page
21
Panel 6: A chicken hawk is used to refer to a man who has sex with
underage girls. It also has other
meanings.
Page 13, Panel 6: Another Painted Doll Over One Million
Killed T-shirt.
Page 14 Panel 3: Nice joke. She was a very
repetitious woman
Page 16 Panel 1: Great album title from Les
Miserable - Idiots Rush.
Nefilim - Fields of Nephilim is the name of a
spooky rock outfit.
Here is their website.
Thanks to the
Despoiler for the following:
The Nefilim appear in the old
testament. They are "giants" that anger the one true God (?) by intermarrying
with the daughters of man. It's one of the few polytheistic slips in the Bible.
In Sumerian, the Nefilim are literally "Those who from heaven to earth
descended". Some of us believe they were the original aliens that seeded mankind
on this planet.
Another Nefilim link.
Irv Pinsky
writes:
I read "NEFILM" as N.E.Film, or 'any' film, that is you can get
any film you want.
Burleigh Drive is in Ithica, New York
Page 18
Panel 1: Presumably Promethea has just stunned and not killed the security
guard who was blocking her way. The pattern of the panels on pages 18 and 19
repeat themselves in reverse order. The sun symbols look a bit more serious than
usual.
Page 20 Panel 1: I'll bet no one was expecting the celebrations
to turn out to be a birhtday party for some children.
Pages 22-23:
Many creatures from Fairy Tales visible here. Among them the Pied Piper, Pegasus,
Giant and Goose that lays the golden eggs from Jack and the
Beanstalk, Dr. Suess Cat
in the Hat, Goldilocks and
the 3 bears, Arthur and Merlin, Monkey with wings from The
Wizard of Oz, Alice, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Creatures from
Maurice
Sendak's Where
the Wild Things
Are, Cinderella
and her Prince, Rapunzel's
father (on the spinning wheel), Santa Claus, Felix the Cat
On the
smaller panel are Little Red Riding Hood, 2 of The 3 Little Pigs from Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf.... Sorry The Big Bad Wolf
Page 22 panels
2-3/Page 23 Panel 1: The Pied Piper will make good his threat in Issue #25.
The
bottom left and right panel are almost duplicates except that the right one is
losing focus and has no dialogue bubbles.
Page 24 Panel 2: Cards on
the table seen from Jack Faust's point of view.
They are from the Book of Thoth
tarot deck Reading from left to right they are:
7 of Wands
Ace of
Cups
3 of Pentacles
Panel 5: Jack Faust puts down The Lovers tarot
card. Seen from Sophie's point of view.
Page 24, Panel 6: A nice coy
reference to what the next issue will all be about 'the birds and the bees'.