Prophet # 26 by Brandon Graham

Art and Story by Brandon Graham

Published by Image Comics

And here we have yet another hallucinogen inspired dream by the writers of Prophet. Keep in mind that even though we’re at issue 26 that we’ve only seen six issues of this radically redesigned property from The Mind of Brandon Graham. We were first introduced to the reawakened clones of John Prophet on many worlds. Then we were introduced to the very violent and lethal original John Prophet last issue. This issue we’re introduced to his army of resistance fellow travelers or here’s your hideous future Iron Man. I think it can eat rocks or anything else in order to survive and grow. It looks like his steel suit is a living skin that can repair itself. And grow.

How far have Iron Men advanced since Iron Man? The man inside the suit can perish but the suit keeps on living. Here’s a pic for proof:

Here’s the most dazzling page of the issue:

I will try to explain it. That sleeping thing the size of planet is actually a sentient being attempting to become a planet. Our robotic hero, whose name is Jaxson, describes it thus: “Orbiting this star far from anywhere is Brainrock. One of the McCall’s children. Trying to follow his father by becoming a planet. Another sad story”. He uses the “Brainrock”  as a communications device to send a signal to the original John Prophet. He tells the original and very lethal prophet that “John…it’s starting again.” That thing around the living semi-planet called Brainrock is some kind of very complicated worm hole device built by a race older than the Earth empire.  It has been degraded however and its not known necessarily where you’ll land or at what time.

And there’s some beautiful writing on the last page: “From here I can see Katelalla’s star, where I was born. The Ion Towers. The Bridge Worlds. Nu d’Kay with its white oceans. Arcadia. Acura. Jin’s Bride. My whole life laid out in front of me. Between my fingers I see where John’ll show up eventually. I’ll be there to meet him.”

Yet another stunning issue. 4.85 stars out of 5. There’s also a backup story which I think features a John Prophet clone but its not entirely clear. (Wait. It is clear. The story is called “Coil: A clone story” by Emma Rios.) This could be the original. We learn, again, that if you’re a human in the future that you’ll eat anything and fuck anything. I think this John Prophet makes it  with a spidery insect thingie and then proceeds to eat her eggs, which I think he helped produce . I don’t know why the being allows either. The backup story is good as well but the future is creepy slimy and gross.

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