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1[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Promethea.jpg]]
2
3->''"There are 1,000 comic books on the shelves that don't contain a philosophy lecture and one that does. Isn't there room for that one?"''
4-->-- '''Alan Moore'''
5
6''Promethea'' (1999-2005) was an award-winning comic book series by Creator/AlanMoore, published by Creator/AmericasBestComics. Sorry, we're probably going to have to be more specific, huh?
7
8The protagonist, a student named Sophie Bangs, while researching a college paper, discovers several references to a character named Promethea. These references are in a variety of literary works including epic poetry and comic books. Curious, Sophie investigates and eventually finds Barbara Shelley, the wife of the now-deceased author of the latest incarnation of the character. Her attempt to interview Ms.Shelley is unsuccessful.
9
10Her investigation has been noticed, and she is warned by Barbara Shelley. On her way home she's attacked by a LivingShadow, but is rescued by a curious figure - Barbara, dressed as the latest incarnation of the Promethea character.
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12After they escape, Barbara tells Sophie how her husband's imagination made it possible for her to become Promethea. She explains to Sophie that in ancient Egypt a magician tried to save his daughter from the religious persecution that would kill him by getting his gods to preserve her forever as a story. Barbara further explains that some authors including her husband enabled her to cross back into the material world through the power of imagination as the superhero Promethea. Barbara warns Sophie that they have only managed to slow the LivingShadow down. She suggests that Sophie try and use her creativity to summon Promethea or they are both doomed. Sophie retreats and writes about the character, imagining herself as Promethea, and succeeds in fully embodying her. She manages to fight back the creature as it returns, but her troubles have only just begun.
13
14Now Sophie has to figure out how to be Promethea and herself. She has to learn to identify and deal with Promethea's enemies, and for that she seeks guidance from the former incarnations of Promethea. This involves journeys into the Immateria, where individual imagination and a more universal plane of ideas meet.
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16The series has a heavy focus on the occult, and its related spiritual and psychological questions.
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18In 2018, the character was introduced to the main DC Universe in an issue of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaRebirth''.
19
20----
21!!''Promethea'' provides examples of:
22
23* ActionGirl: Most, but not all, incarnations of Promethea.
24* AllMythsAreTrue: All gods and mythical creatures exist in the Immateria.
25* AgentMulder: [[spoiler: Agent Brueghel, and most people on the planet, eventually]]
26%%* AgentScully: Ball and Hansard.
27* AntiHeroSubstitute: Stacia and Grace take over from Sophie as a SplitPersonalityTeam in the physical world during Sophie's quest into the Immateria. They have a somewhat more violent and hedonistic attitude to things, and end up fighting with Sophie when she gets back.
28* ApocalypseNot: [[spoiler: While the "end of the world" Promethea brought had caused a few fear-induced suicides, the destruction she causes is purely metaphorical. After she manages to merge the material and immaterial world, it brings humanity into a new enlightened age, thus civilization not only survives the "apocalypse", it ''thrives'' like it never has before.]]
29* ArtShift: When "Big Bill" give Sophie a tour around Immateria and tells about his/her past, everything shifts from comic book art to photorealistic (or what Sophie calls "hyper-real").
30* AsideGlance:
31** As Hermes explains to Sophie and Barbara that some gods who appear in stories may be real, he smiles at the reader.
32** [[spoiler: Creator/AleisterCrowley]] smiles and makes an "Oh well, I tried" gesture at the reader after Sophie rejects his lewd proposition.
33* AttractiveBentGender: [[spoiler: Roger and Bill]]
34* AuthorAppeal: Creator/AlanMoore used the series to write about one of his favorite subjects, the western magic tradition.
35* AuthorCatchphrase: An implausible number of characters use the term "incidentally", all the time.
36* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:Since the "apocalypse" that Promethea was meant to bring about was a metaphorical one, the comic ends with the sparkling utopia that happens after she brings "the end".]]
37* BadBoss: Mayor Sonny Baskerville, when [[spoiler: possessed by the Howling]].
38--> "THE ONLY PURPOSE OF YOUR MILDEW-LIKE EXISTENCE IS TO DO MY BIDDING!"
39* BadassBoast: Sophie gets in a beauty of one in the first issue, once she fully assumes the power of Promethea:
40-->''"I am Promethea, art's fiercest spark,\
41I am all inspiration, all desire,\
42Imagination's blaze in mankind's dark...\
43I am Promethea. I bring you FIRE!"''
44* BodyBackUpDrive: [[spoiler:This is the secret of the Painted Doll's JokerImmunity - he's actually a series of robots, with a new one activated whenever the previous one is destroyed. At the climax, all of the currently dormant ones get simultaneously activated, and kill each other until only one is left.]]
45* BreakingTheFourthWall:
46** The Painted Doll is fond of addressing the reader, particularly after a murder.
47** As TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt approaches, [[spoiler: the series writer and artist]] make cameo appearances, as does [[ItMakesSenseInContext the reader]], when [[spoiler: Promethea, in her final revelation to humankind,]] acknowledges the story she's a part of, while emphasizing it's not ''just'' a story.
48* CerebusSyndrome: The comic started as, and spent roughly one third to half its run as, an adventure story with philosophical elements. After that, it quickly turned into a non-stop AuthorTract.
49* CreatorThumbprint: InUniverse, when the character Promethea was written in pulp stories in the 1920s, the writers shared a PenName, "Marto Neptura". In order to defeat a representation of Neptura in the Immateria, Sophie lists five such writers who each had different trademarks. Two are said to have been quite good and one is only mentioned to have been prolific, but of the other two, one is said have included a lot of misogynistic bondage scenes and the other is said to have been [[AuthorAppeal obsessed with medieval weaponry]].
50* ClicheStorm: The entire point of the Weeping Gorilla, an in-universe comic book character whose only function is to spout such maudlin, commonplace sayings as "Why do pets have to die?" and "I hate my body."[[invoked]]
51* {{Crossover}}
52** An issue takes place almost entirely in Tom Strong's city.
53** As Promethea triggers TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, heroes from Moore's other [=ABC=] Comics titles team up in an attempt to avert it.
54** The final issue of ''ComicBook/TomStrong'' parallels the [[AfterTheEnd events]] in the penultimate ''Promethea'' issue.
55* DeadpanSnarker: Stacia, Barbara, Jack, Grace, Roger, agent Ball, the Doll, Boo-Boo, Sophie and Trish (sometimes)... actually, about half the cast.
56* EldritchLocation: The Immateria is essentially the afterlife, the collective unconscious, the omnipresence of god, the metaphysical form of the universe and the human soul all rolled into one, so of course it can be one hell of a head trip navigating it.
57* EmotionBomb: Because the Immateria are the memes and images of public consciousness without the filters that mankind is accustomed to, being within the physical vicinity of such symbols overwhelming the senses. For instance, the Weeping Gorilla is a cultural meme meant to make people experience sadness, so being within the vicinity of the Weeping Gorilla causes one to sob uncontrollably.
58* EnlightenmentSuperpowers: Following with the theme of Hermetic spiritualism, magic (and those who wield it) is implied to be a power that everyone is capable of doing with an open enough mind through the use of symbols and art, the various incarnations of Promethea coming into existence through such means.
59* EthnicScrappy: The ''Little Margie'' strips spoof this with Chinky, a ridiculously racist Chinese caricature. The Little Margie comic started in ''1901''; realistically, it probably could have been much worse.[[invoked]]
60** Although within ''Promethea'' itself Chinky only appears in Moore's prose prologue to the series, Steve Moore (no relation to Alan), in ''Tomorrow Stories'', included him in two SpinOff ''Little Margie'' tales in the form of ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo''-style NewspaperComics. The first tale plays the trope straight; the second [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by having Chinky [[spoiler: reveal himself in his true form as a non-stereotypical Chinese prince, Ching-Ki]].
61* FreeLoveFuture: Implied to be one of the various outcomes of Prometheus's "apocalypse" AfterTheEnd.
62* FriendlyEnemy: Jack Faust, initially introduced as an antagonist
63* GenderBender: While Promethea is always female, one of the incarnations was male, and transformed when needed - the fact that he was a gay man was a factor in some unfortunate circumstances. There's also one of the Five Swell Guys, who seems to have suffered a [[FirstLawOfGenderbending permanent one-way transformation to female]]
64* TheGhost: the Night Queen is referenced repeatedly, but never actually appears.
65* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Trish, at first.
66* HermeticMagic: it's by Alan Moore, what did you expect?
67* HigherSelf: Promethea herself is a higher self to the various people who embody her. The Angel Boo-Boo definitely is, [[spoiler: being the guardian angel and divine expression of the previous Promethea, Barbara Shelley]].
68* HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative: Sophie Bangs briefly meets [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kendrick_Bangs John Kendrick Bangs]], her ancestor, on the house-boat on the Styx which he wrote about, while searching for her dead predecessor.
69* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Creator/AleisterCrowley and his associates make various appearances throughout the comic's run.
70* IAmLegion: The Howling are a series of demons - who eventually all find an already troubled person to possess.
71* IntercourseWithYou: There was a whole issue dedicated to this, and it got an award for how it handled the subject.
72* JokerImmunity: The Painted Doll, being an {{Expy}} of the Joker from ''Batman'', is infamous for always coming back from certain doom. [[spoiler:This is {{Enforced}}; he is actually a robot who was built by Stan of the Five Swell Guys to kill Marv, the other "genius" on the team. Every time he is killed, he gets rebuilt and implanted with the memories of his predecessor.]]
73%%* KangarooCourt: Played with in "A Higher Court."
74%%* KnightTemplar: The Temple, collectively.
75* LaughablyEvil: The Painted Doll, much like the Joker, laughs a lot.
76* LegacyCharacter: There were several incarnations of the Promethea character, and the latest one seems to have had to deal with some common adversaries.
77* TheLegionsOfHell: When Sophia is established as the new Promethea, Solomon summons a host of demons to kill her.
78* LittleRedFightingHood: A figment of Sophia's imagination that pops up when she fights the fear of wolves.
79%%* LivingShadow: The smee.
80* MadonnaWhoreComplex: In Binah, Sophie and Barbara encounter an entity known as Babalon, a Thelemic goddess that embodies feminine sexuality, the passions they ignite in others (both positive and negative) and their destructive capabilities. After she proclaims who she is and [[spoiler:her relationship to Promethea's role as ApocalypseMaiden]], she then immediately transforms into Marie, the embodiment of all that is sacred, wholesome and compassionate in woman-kind.
81* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext Sophie Bangs]]]]
82* MentalWorld: Trips into the Immateria seem to qualify as this, the Immateria acting as the collective unconsciouse where all symbols, dreams, thoughts and metaphors reside.
83* [[MrExposition Mr (and Ms, and Mrs.) Exposition]]: About half the cast.
84* MonsterClown: The Painted Doll, a celebrity serial killer dressed as a clown.
85* NobleDemon: Asmodeus, so long as one treats him with respect.
86* NoSenseOfHumor: One of the female [=FBI=] agents, [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous named]] Creator/LucilleBall.
87* OddShapedPanel: Frequently used in the mystic realms.
88* OurDemonsAreDifferent: The various demons present are depicted in various forms, the Smee being a LivingShadow, Asmodeus shifting from a giant spider into a human form and the TheLegionsOfHell looking like the sort of things you would find among Jacques Collin de Plancy's illustrations of the ''Dictionnaire Infernal''.
89* ParentsAsPeople: [[spoiler: Trish and Juan]]
90* PassingTheTorch: Promethea is a title is passed on from one generation to the other, sharing the idea of the person Promethea made divine by Hermes-Thoth into the form of a legacy-based Science Hero.
91* PracticallyJoker: The Painted Doll inevitably reminds one of ComicBook/TheJoker. He even has a resemblance to Creator/MarkHamill.
92* RealPersonCameo: Repeatedly, especially [[spoiler: the near-ubiquitous Creator/AleisterCrowley]]. Toward the end, [[spoiler: [[BreakingTheFourthWall Moore and series artist [=J.H.=] Williams [=III=]]]]] also have a one-panel cameo each.
93* RedIsViolent: Geburah is one of the branches of the {{UsefulNotes/Kabbalah}}, representing the universal qualities of strength, judgement, the planet Mars, the element of fire and the domain of {{War God}}s and enactors of justice. The entire area is illustrated with harsh red and black illuminated with flames, and being within it for too long influences Sophie and Barbara into a more aggressive state of mind, eventually losing track of themselves and accidentally falling into the domain of Asmodeus.
94--> '''Sophie:''' Barbara, when I think of all the scum injustices ''hurting'' people, my wrath is ''mighty''.
95* RuleOfSymbolism: Because the Immateria is the realm of imagination, dreams and the subconsious, symbols and metaphors are made real there.
96* SexMagic: One issue consists entirely of a sex magic ritual between the hero Sophie Bangs and her TricksterMentor Jack Faust.
97* ShoutOut:
98** Every cover pays a homage to a certain artistic style, from Andy Warhol to Van Gogh's, including a simile of mid-20th century monster movies.
99** There are references to everything from Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian (Stacia) to Literature/TheBible (Solomon).
100* TheScrappy: Little Margie is an in-universe example. As the fictional creation of Margaret, she's stuck [[TagalongKid hanging around]] for eternity in the Immateria with her and the other deceased Promethea hosts, and her ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo''-like exclamations get on their nerves.[[invoked]]
101* TheSmartGuy: The Five Swell Guys actually have two of these, which later becomes a plot point.
102* SophisticatedAsHell: The Angel Boo-Boo.
103* SuperGenderBender: One of the former Prometheas was a male comic book artist called Bill Woolcott.
104* TarotMotifs: Tarot cards (most notably [[Art/ThothTarotDeck the Thoth Deck]]) are brought up many times. The previous Prometheas use the minor arcana to teach Sophie how to use her abilities, the snakes on her staff use the Major Arcana to explain the history of the universe and she encounters personifications of both during her quest through the World Tree.
105* TransparentCloset: [[spoiler:Stacia, Sophie's best friend]] is openly homophobic, to deflect from having to accept their own sexuality.
106* UnfortunateNames: Lucille Ball. Not kooky, not a redhead, and snarking apart, generally not inclined to see the humor in anything, including her name. Also [[spoiler: (lampshaded by the character) [[DoubleEntendre Trish Bangs]]]].
107* UnusualEuphemism: "Chemise-lifters" as a euphemism for lesbians.
108* TheVerse: Shares a verse with other America's Best Comics works by Creator/AlanMoore like Tom Strong, ComicBook/TopTen Splash Brannigan, Jack B. Quick, Cobweb and Greyshirt.
109* VillainWithGoodPublicity:
110** The Painted Doll is surprisingly popular, as some people even wear t-shorts depicting him. He's actually referred in the media as a "celebrity omnipath". In fact, his publicity is ''too'' good. [[spoiler: One of his incarnations gets mobbed to death by fans wanting to be killed by him.]]
111** Also the Mayor[[spoiler: post-possession]].
112--> "'Hail Satan!', quipped the increasingly popular Mayor."
113%%* VillainsNeverLie: The Goetia.
114* TheWatson: Sophie fills this role very heavily at first, and then goes [[MrExposition Ms Exposition]] as she learns more [[spoiler:to Stacia and Trish, and even to Barbara, of all people]].
115* WiseSerpent: The two snakes on Promethea's caduceus guard plenty of knowledge about the history of the universe and the Major Arcana. They teach Sophie about to guide her in her quest of being a Promethea incarnation.
116%%* YourMindMakesItReal: This seems to define how things are handled in the Immateria.

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