Bah, I knew a decent Alan Moore series wouldn’t last! The feted author disappointingly drops the ball in the second “Act” of Providence.
Robert Black is still tooling around New England researching his supernatural book and doing little else! That said, I did enjoy the nightmarish maze-like structure of the opening chapter set in Manchester which was very clever, eerie and interesting. The scene with the monster in the Boston basement was compelling in its bizarreness. Jacen Burrows’ art is still great and it really shines in the dream sequence with Black and Randall Carter.
The HP Lovecraft references remain in abundance (for example, the dream sequence and Randall Carter is a thinly veiled allusion to “The Statement of Randolph Carter” which Lovecraft wrote about one of his dreams) and the author himself even makes a cameo towards the end. I just wish there was more to this title besides Moore constantly making Lovecraft references!
There’s also a deeply unpleasant rape scene of a 13 year old girl. To be fair, it’s not as straightforward as it seems but it was still needlessly graphic – I get that Avatar Press like to be edgy and push the envelope of taste but this was one of those times when it was just plain gross.
Providence Act Two is basically more of the same stuff we saw in the first book which is unsatisfying as I’d hoped Moore would have developed his story further than he did, especially as there’s only one book left in the series! As it is, Act Two left me mostly bored with the feeling that Moore’s shock tactics are an attempt to mask the title’s lack of substance. It does elicit feelings of horror but not in the expected sense.
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