Comics
Fox Adapting Rob Liefeld’s ‘Prophet’?!
Back in the 90’s it sucked to collect comics. There were so many astounding artists, but even more awful storytellers. The comic biz was infiltrated by greed, and focused on holographic covers and charging extra for variants and celebrated every 25 issues like it was the ‘Death of Superman”.
In the middle of this was Image Comics, which was a new brand compromised of all of the elite talents, created by the likes of Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino.
One of the most popular series was Liefeld’s “X-Men”-esque “Youngblood,” which featured the first appearance of the character Prophet (issue #2).
The character would go on to have his own series, at one point drawn by the short-lived uber popular Stephen Platt (yes, he exemplified everything wrong with comics in the 90’s).
Now, nearly 25 years after his first appearance in 1992, Prophet is aiming to become a feature film.
And with Fox already adapting “Deadpool,” another of Liefeld’s creations, it’s no surprise that they’re also behind “Prophet.”
There’s no other news at this time other than the new take is being pitched as a mix between The Martian, Mad Max, and Avatar.
Via Wiki:
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’ 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.
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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