Comic review- Alan Moore’s Providence #2- The world, the mind, a cavern

Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Jacen Burrows
Publisher: Avatar Press
Released: 8th July 2015



Providence #2 can be a bit confusing on a first read, but after you go over it a couple of times it begins to make a lot of sense.

At the end of the main comic book strip there is a section of written text. This written text is the diary of the main protagonist, and in this section he describes what has happened in the main book, directly from his point of view and from his own personal understanding of the unfolding events. This technique of using the protagonist’s diary serves two purposes.

1- It clarifies plot points that might otherwise have been missed by the unattentive reader.

2- It allows Alan Moore to make excuses for the gullibility, and sheer stupidity of his main protagonist.

That protagonist is a journalist, an educated, scholarly man, so to see him blunder through the narrative, missing every single clue that noisily clatters around his feet (and there are lots of them) is a bit too much to take. It stresses incredulity to breaking point and you end up thinking, ‘This guy must be the biggest moron in the world if he cannot work out what is going on, because it’s as clear as day. It’s pretty obvious that the people he is investigating are witches/warlocks and what they are doing is engaging in child sacrifice, eating a weird diet and conjuring demons in order to prolong their lives and well, do whatever it is that witches and warlocks do.’

So why doesn’t this supposedly erudite guy see what is so flippin obvious to the reader? Is he really as foolish as he appears to be? Well, no, he's not, and it’s all explained in the diary section. There are two excuses for his apparent idiocy:

1- He’s blinded by lust/love, so is incapable of seeing what is right in front of his own face.

2- He doesn’t believe in what he sees with his own eyes anyway, due to his reading of dream interpretation theory by world famous bs artist Carl Jung.

If you buy that (and I will, because I want to enjoy the book) then you can let go, and have fun with it. The story is about the occult, life extension, secret societies, hidden books of magic, witches, demons, parallel dimensions, and everything else that goes woooo woooo in the night.

I love reading about secret spooky stuff, and this book is certainly delivering on that front. I read it four times today, and on the last read I found something new, something that I had somehow missed on the first read. I love it when that happens as it shows that the writer is putting a lot of work into the book, and that he expects his readers to put the same work in as well, just to keep up with him.

I really appreciate a writer (and artist) who pay special attention to the smaller details of their book, and that is what you are getting here. As ever with Mr. Moore his work really does stand alone as something a bit special, something that has taken a fair amount of time, effort, research and imagination to construct. Providence is a book that has been carefully laboured upon, and it’s very apparent that it’s meant to be savoured slowly, and enjoyed. For that reason alone it’s a must buy book, and once again my book of the week. Take your time with it, have fun, then read it again, and read it again. The more you read, the more you get, and that really is the sign of a very good book.


Rating: 10/10 (Deep caverns, lots going on)