This is not strictly speaking a short story, but rather a story within the story. Promethea is a kind of goddess who finds human bodies to inhabit. The first storyline of the series has the newest human host being shown the previous Prometheas. In this issue, we discover the 1940′s to 1960′s version, when a man was the host. The main story is drawn by Williams and Gray, while the story of this man is illustrated by Villarrubia, using manipulated photographs.
Moore has written a queer Wonder Woman: a gay guy becomes a fabulous woman and a handsome straight guy falls in love with him. This might sound corny, but it is very serious: at one time, the gay host says “Dennis was decent, handsome… and straight. That was the decider, if I’m honest.” That and the realistic albeit depressing ending show that Moore has thought deeply about the dangers of the self-hatred which some gay men felt during that period. Villarrubia’s illustrations are breathtaking. I can only hope this will lead to other collaborations between Moore and him.
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UPDATE: All the issues of this series have been collected, and this one is available in the second collection
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