It's done and I'm not sure what to say.
The lofty literary achievement of Providence's chapters 1-10 is gone. Or at least undercut by its final and ultimate resolution. A resolution that ties inescapably, inextricably to Moore and Burrows' earlier outing; Neonomicon, and then goes fantastical to the extreme, subverting, recreating and building on the entire Lovecraft mythology with an ending that is deliriously impressive in its scope.
That fantastical ending by the way, for the audience at large, would be a pleasing thing, but I confess I'm just a little taken aback as, in those final issues, we're brought back to the seedy horror and outlandish sensationalism of the Neonomicon, even though I completely knew and expected that going into this work (and note above that I didn't call this post a comic book review). But, much like Robert in his 'Commonplace Book' comments, as readers we were hoping for our narrator to survive, similar sentiments apply. But I don't mean that here in the literal sense, I rather mean that I had hoped the work would be able to stay true to its beginnings, without having to abandon the literary approach that the series stuck to for so long.
There would have been an extremely easy way to do this and you can clearly distinguish the cut-off point, if he would have chosen to do it so, but Moore must've had his reasons.
I would have preferred if he had did another 4 or 6 issue arc for the final issues that are set in the present day and leave Robert's story separate as its own thing, because now, the final issue is just another comic book issue, rather than that other thing that earlier issues of Providence succeeded so well in being. It was something so completely against convention, and to turn something with so much labour and thought behind it for such an extended amount of time, into this completely lesser thing is just a little grating. But then that might be the point and If you've read it you'll already have come to that conclusion. Parallell of intent.
I might have been giving the wrong impression here. I don't hate it and it's still completely brilliant, of course.
I just miss the comfort of the sedate and familiar pace of reading Robert's 'Commonplace Book', and maybe I'm just bewildered and still struggling with trying to impose some sort of coherent view on all the story implied, plotwise. But then, I guess there's little reason to be found, there at the end, logic being far afield in the world of dreams.
What a work and what an achievement.
Meta-fictional in its execution and metaphysical in its story, Providence talked about all things Lovecraft, criticizing and commenting on every facet of the themes and styles present in his work, nothing gets dismissed, nothing is left unaddressed, all the bad and all the good, both present and what flows forth from it, while still managing to work towards building the greatest and most important Lovecraftian epic ever created.
I loved it.
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It's certainly better than the Fall of Cthulhu and also similar (but again, better) to the terrible, horrifying madness of Nameless.
Just thought I'd mention the other two major apocalyptic comic epics inspired by Lovecraft's fiction.
...
Nameless...
...
*shudders*"
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