Finally pulled this out of storage and read it. I’ve been a Johnathan Hickman fan for a long while. Not that I’ve read everything he’s ever written, but I like his creator owned work. I like these weird little glimpses into this mind.

When he first hit the scene, everyone thought he was going to usher in a sea change in comics like the English did in the 80’s. At least, I did. Sadly, there remains no on like Hickman. His eye for graphic design remains his own. I really wish more creators in comics would just splash and infographic laying out who everyone is and how they fit together as an organization. The little details Hickman cares about are always going to be fascinating to me.

That said, with Pax Romana I was able to finally see the theme binding a lot of his work: Hickman is mainly interested with the raise and fall of empires. In Pax Romana this is literal. People from the future go back to the Roman era to overthrow the budding empire and impose their own. But this is also present in The Nightly News where the entire concept of organized news is toppled.

It’s one of those things, that once you see it, you can’t unsee it, but I don’t think it’s going to detract from my enjoyment of any of this work.