Testament (comics)

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Testament

Cover to Testament #1.
Publisher Vertigo Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format Ongoing
Publication date December 2005 – present
Creative team
Writer(s) Douglas Rushkoff
Artist(s) Liam Sharp, Peter Gross
Colorist(s) Jamie Grant, James Devlin
Creator(s) Douglas Rushkoff and Liam Sharp

Testament is an American graphic novel. It is authored by Douglas Rushkoff with art and cover by Liam Sharp. Testament Vol. 1 was first published in December 2005, and subsequent volumes followed. There are several key themes to Testament. The story takes place simultaneously in the near future and the biblical past to illustrate the most prominent theme: that history repeats itself. This is done by juxtaposing the two time lines, the purpose of which seems to be to illustrate that religion is a continually evolving, living story that is being written by how we, and specifically the protagonists, live our daily lives. To date, other themes include increasing numbers of fascist governments, human rights, technology, and information economics in the form of a global currency. A brief synopsis of the story to date is as follows. In the near future grad student Jake Stern and his conscientious objector friends fight against the new RFID-based universal draft by attempting to access the collective unconscious through an experimental combination of the hallucinogenic preparation ayahuasca and shared sensory deprivation tank experiences. The near future story is mirrored through the history-repeats-itself idea as biblical narrative based on Torah, various Jewish and Christian apocrypha and elements of other mythologies. One major departure from Judeo-Christian tradition in Testament is the separation of The One True God into two entities who in the story are represented by the God Elijah, who represents the Abrahamic One True God, and a new entity of the authors invention which he calls The One True God. Much of the action in the story is driven by situations and characters being manipulated by the various gods as they battle for dominion over existence.

Contents

[edit] Characters

There are two stories being told, one in the Biblical historical past, the other in the near future.

[edit] Biblical characters

  • Abraham, patriarch of the Israelite religion
  • Astarte, Semitic goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war
  • Isaac, Abraham's son, whom he is called on to sacrifice
  • Melchizedek Biblical character who appeared to Abraham, here a deity representing the merciful Abrahamic God
  • Moloch, Phoenician god of the sacrifice of young children, here a deity representing the malevolent aspects of the Abrahamic God
  • Sarah, Abraham's wife

[edit] Near-future characters

  • Jake Stern, graduate student caught in the middle of the conflict over a near future National RFID Trace system
  • Alan Stern, Jake's father, a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Center For Functional Nanomaterials)
  • Amos, leader of Jake's rebel friends at the Temple
  • Greco, who makes propaganda for the Temple
  • Dinah, Jake's underage friend who makes potions for the Temple
  • Other unnamed Temple resident who acts as doorman and wears a "Juan Kerr" shirt
  • Miriam, Jake's ex-girlfriend and fellow grad student, dedicated to changing the system using above the board methods
  • Alan's colleague Dr. Green, who helped develop the RFID system, originally intended to trace soldiers in the field

[edit] Plot summaries

[edit] Story arcs

  • Abraham of Ur: Issues #1-5
  • West of Eden: Issues #6-7
  • Down to Egypt: Issues #8-10
  • Shit Happens: The Book of Job: Issue #11
  • Trip Reset: The Rape of Dinah: Issue #12
  • Babel: Issues #13-16

[edit] Collected editions

# Title ISBN Release date Collected material
1 Testament: Akedah ISBN 1-4012-10632 July 26, 2006 Testament #1–5.
2 Testament: West of Eden ISBN 1-4012-12018 January 17, 2007 Testament #6-10
3 Testament: Babel ISBN 1-4012-12018 November 7, 2007 Testament #11-16

[edit] See also

[edit] Biblical

[edit] Near future

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Please improve this article if you can. (February 2008)

Transparency Act, totem, taboo, cultural icons, reality filter, archetypes, Carl Jung, collective unconscious, genetic trace, psy-ops, Genesis P-Orridge, Grant Morrison / J. Devlin / J. Grant, sacrifice, code, logarithmic inversion, networks, propaganda, potion, resonant, virtual reality game, ayahuasca, external stimuli, sensory deprivation tank, mikvah, prophecy, uplinking, Juan Kerr

[edit] External links