Promethea

            While reading Promethea by Allan Moore, I noticed several prominent symbols throughout the comic.  The first symbol I noticed was the scepter with the snakes, similar to the medical symbol.  The girl’s father at the beginning of the story summoned the staff while giving his daughter time to flee, sacrificing himself.  One of the gods that meets the girl in the desert holds this staff. Later, we see that Promethea (the girl) and all other reincarnations of her wield a glowing magical version of the scepter.  I assume that the scepter is representing that whoever is holding it is protecting someone else, such as the father protecting the girl, and writer that turns into Promethea protecting the former Promethea.  Another symbol that I noticed was the ankh, the Egyptian symbol for “life”.  One of the gods that meets the girl in the desert wields a staff with an ankh on the end, and later in the story, you can see it again on Promethea’s armor.

            I was able to connect with a bit of the story, remembering studying ancient Egypt in middle school; I recognized a lot of the symbols and gods. I recognized Hermes with his winged helmet as well. I can connect with the main character a bit with being in college and writing term papers. Other than that, there isn’t much more I can relate to in this comic.
            If I were to adapt Promethea into a movie, I would probably leave out the scene with “The Five Swell Guys”.  I think that the audience wouldn’t understand it and it doesn’t really fit in the serious theme of the story.  Another change I would make would be with the two gods meeting the girl in the desert.  In the comic, I’m not sure whether or not the gods are supposed to be conjoined.  In the first panel with them, their arms are confusing in that they are going through each other’s torso.  In a later panel, it looks like they are conjoined on at their shoulder down to their hip. This was really confusing me when trying to figure out who was holding what staff. I wonder why the artist made them conjoined, If the reason isn’t important, I would have them as two separate gods. These are just some of my thoughts while reading Promethea