Some last thoughts:
In the series Moore basically tries to transform the Mythos and the Dreamland stories into one coherent narrative while also incorporating the literary criticism and reception of Mythos fiction. Issue 11 tells the end of the featured Mythos stories and the rise of Mythos fiction and criticism, the "the Necronomicon is real" craze, features real people from August Derleth and Robert H. Barlow to L. S. de Camp and Borges. In the last issue you have S. T. Joshi suddenly in the cast.
Readers unfamiliar with Lovecraft will have a difficult time getting into this. While some of Moore's interpretations of the Mythos background are terrific, some knowledge of the background is needed to understand what this is about. You can't fault anybody for not "getting it"; in this regard it is even more complicated than a Kim Newman novel.
A "dream sequence" H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Black
For Moore this is nothing new, he did this already in things like
Prometha or
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But here it is more densely done. Every other panel has some allusion, reference or wink to the Mythos world or to reality. The annotations
blog which accompanied the publication is nearly overwhelming.
The clean and realistic artwork of Jacen Burrows often shows landscapes, streets and scenes from 1919, while also repeating set-pieces from the former Lovecraft themed series, say a view from a window or certain characters. This is done without any fanfare though, again one needs the annotations to recognize them all. A few will be recognized by those familiar with the original stories, but a lot not. Burrows never fails in his work, the last issue looks as sharp as the first, and the effort displayed on the page is astonishing.
That aside, this is supposed to be also a horror comic. Every issue at least tries to deliver some horror content. There is not much gore. Here Moore is more interested into the sexual violence only hinted at – or later interpreted by reviewers as Lovecraft sometimes seems really clueless of what he wrote - in Mythos fiction. So you get old and possessed by Yog-Sototh Wheatley – Whateley in the original story
The Dunwich Horror – molesting his daughter on the page and the body-switching of long dead sorcerer Ephraim Waite – from
The Thing on the Doorstep - who resides in the body of his daughter Asenath. Here he switches into protagonist Blakes body to rape the body of Asenath while Blake is imprisoned in Asenath's body for the time. Very well done is also the time-distortion story of the witch Mason and her familiar – from
Dreams in the Witch House - and how it messes with the protagonist Blake's head.
From a technical viewpoint Providence is a masterpiece of writing and artwork. How seemingly effortless the pieces come together and make sense in this new, decades spanning narrative is fascinating. The tons of details are overwhelming and inventive.
For advanced Lovecraft fans this can be a treasure trove where one panel can open the way to countless possibilities. Some of the character designs and all those alternate covers capture the Mythos perfectly. Burrows did outstanding work. But for the casual horror comic reader this may be limp on the horror and an exercise in self-indulgence and art for art's sake. Or downright impregnable.
The end is a mixed bag like often with Moore. It's the end of the world as we know it, but nobody cares (which is explained by the story and makes sense. Still.) It is a riff on the nativity of Jesus, complete with the Mythos version of the three wise men and other guests. There is no action, no fight, just a seemingly inevitable transformation of reality. As an ending it was polarizing, a lot of readers thought it dull and awkward, especially as
Providence became a sequel to
Neonomicon and its characters. That the protagonist Blake was removed in issue 11 which basically illustrated the next 100 years at a breakneck speed also didn't sit well.
Personally I didn't mind. As an end I thought it very logical and absolutely anti-Hollywood. Every other option would have ruined the idea, a fight against the squid would have been laughable. But there is no denying that it came across as a bit meh.