all fired up

the God of All Comics has created his fair share of comicbook bastards - Cassandra Nova, Dr. Hurt - but the one i keep checking back on is Prometheus, who made his spectacular debut almost 11 years ago, cleaning the JLA's clocks. replacing a young hero named Retro, who won the "Be a Justice Leaguer for A Day" contest, Prometheus easily infiltrated the JLA moonbase (with the global media on hand, no less), took down the heroes one at a time (including Batman), and was on the verge of humiliating Superman himself if not for his balls' timely introduction to Catwoman's whip, who wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place.

he tried this gig a second time, as part of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang, but Bats "cheated" by reprogramming Prometheus' helmet to contain the fighting skills of Dr. Stephen Hawking, who could certainly at most beat up a fly if he wanted to.

the more recent sightings of Prometheus didn't seem to be as interesting and as badass as before ... and now we know why. the Prometheus running around these days isn't the original.

Prometheus downloads 1 Exabyte of porn - into 1 single disc.

following the stunt pulled by Batman, the only way they could prevent Prometheus from coming back and kicking their asses again was for J'onn J'onzz to mess with his mind, to trap him from within. i wonder how that is different from Zatanna mindwiping villains (Identity Crisis) and Bats/J'onn reacting the way they did. anyway, the death of the Martian Manhunter triggers a "prison break" of sorts - the real Prometheus, drooling in an isolated cell in Blackgate Penitentiary, regains his faculties and walks out of there faster than you can say "they finally cancelled Prison Break! woooohoooooo!!"

"and how do you like your cable/internet, Mr. Prometheus?"

the real deal checks his hideouts, finds out someone has been using his identity to spitshine his rep by - gaaahhhh! robbing banks! tracking his doppelganger is rather relatively easy, removing some competitors along the way. and when i say "removing" it involves severing of body parts.

"this wasn't the half-off sale i expected ..."

the fake Prometheus turns out to be his protege, who lacked the creativity and brilliance and sinister fun edge that the original had. as the fake goes up in flames, we are treated to hints of delicious violence as Prometheus promises revenge on the Justice League (sans J'onn) ... and that's scary news.

illustrated by relative newcomer Federico Dallocchio, who maximizes the use of panels, Faces of Evil: Prometheus, is a bang-up reintroduction to a character who should have been a major major player the first time around.