Prophet (comics)
| Prophet | |
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Cover art for Prophet #1 (1993). Art by Rob Liefeld.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Image Comics |
| First appearance | Youngblood #2 (July 1992) |
| Created by | Rob Liefeld |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | John Prophet |
| Abilities |
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Prophet is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Image Comics. Created by Rob Liefeld, he first appeared in Youngblood #2 (July 1992).
Prophet has starred in three ongoing series bearing his name; these monthlies debuted in 1993, 1995, and 2012, respectively. A fourth series, named Prophet: Earth War, is announced to begin in January, 2015.
John Prophet, a poor and homeless man living in the World War II era, volunteered to participate in the medical experiments of Dr. Horatio Wells, a time-traveling scientist from the future who used DNA-enhancing methods to transform Prophet into a supersoldier. He was engineered to serve the evil Phillip Omen and programmed with murderous instincts. Wells had a change of heart though and changed Prophet's programming from evil to a strong belief in God. Wells planned for Prophet to be placed into stasis for many years and then re-emerge in the future to help Wells's people fight the evil Disciples. Eventually found by Youngblood, Prophet awakens disoriented, in a world he does not recognize, and he mistakes Youngblood for the Disciples and attacks.
It was later discovered that Prophet was not always in stasis after World War II, and had been used as "a mindless weapon of war" in Vietnam. Stephen Platt, Prophet artist from 1994 to 1996, explained that the character "feel[s] responsible for the things that people forced him to do, even though he can't remember them. He's always thought of himself as a good person, and now he's discovering that the things he did were hideous by all standards of human decency. He's going to [...] take a spiritual journey to discover who he really is."
Despite his enhanced DNA and ability to communicate in all languages, Prophet was described as "very childlike" by Platt. "He doesn't know the social workings of the world that most of us take for granted: he can't hail a cab, and he eats ice cream too fast and gets a headache," Platt described to Wizard.
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