Decorum #6
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Mike Huddleston
Lettering: Rus Wooton
Design: Sasha Head
And now for something completely different.
Brian and I have been on a streak of serious comics, or at least reading comics seriously. I even got a book on how to read literature and am applying it to how I read comics. But sometimes something is just cool and awesome and well written. Heck, if you read every book like you’re a literature professor, I’m expecting you won’t like reading for long.
Why did I pick up Decorum #1? The jarring, cryptic cover for one, and that last name “Hickman” on the cover for the other. Jonathan Hickman is one of the most recognized names in comics right now for what he’s done in Marvel’s big-name titles. He gave the X-universe a much needed punch in the face with his House of X/Powers of X series and has shaped the mutant world since then. Unfortunately I have to say that some of the luster is off the pearl as of late. Perhaps it’s just been too much to keep on the reign – too many titles, too many events, too much to keep track of. The coherency and detail of HoX/PoX was getting lost as stories didn’t always seem to mesh with one another, and the universe didn’t feel quite as universal as it should.
Well Decorum isn’t that.
Decorum is probably Hickman’s most ambitious and grand-scale story yet, benefitting from the fact that this is a universe the creative team gets to create from the ground-up and supported by the artistic freedom afforded by Image Comics. There’s no history to hearken back to, no easter-eggs, no deep discussions about why that character is wearing that particular costume. It’s all fresh and new, and the creative team knows it and uses it to its advantage at every step.
This is an epic that at times shares a similar feel to that of Powers of X. Hickman uses his trademark data sheets and text-on-white-space to set up a space opera that conceals as much as it reveals. The opening of issue 1, where robotic space Conquistadores attack a group of Pterodactyl riding maybe-Incas, was like my right brain pulling up to my left brain in a stolen Impala, telling me “get in – I’ll explain later”.
From there on we are told two parallel stories. The first involves Neha Nori Sood, a street urchin and courier who is taken in by Imogen, a classy, aristocratic assassin. The second involves a sentient AI power called the Church of the Singularity that is trying to find a group called the Celestial Mothers to stop some sort of galactic messiah from being born. As we progress through the issues, we see Neha develop as an assassin under the eye of the assassins’ guild called the Sisterhood of Man while more and more of the larger story is revealed as well, finally coming together in issue 6.
I’m not saying much regarding plot because, like that stolen Impala, the less you know the more fun you’ll have. This isn’t deep, heavy stuff either. There’s a dark humor that develops throughout the story, and the creative team never lets you take things too seriously. A splash page of a cowboy facing off in a draw against a four-armed alien on a street populated by spacemen and dinosaurs, with a skyline of mushrooms and Blade Runner-size buildings in the background, should end any notion that this is going to be anything but fun and crazy.
It’s the classic “fish out of water” trope, where the naivete of Neha, who states some of her strengths as being pretty decent at math and not being bothered by spicy food, stands in stark contrast to her classmates, such as the polite ibis-like being who has killed exactly 6242 beings already. It’s mystery and violence (this is a story about an assassin after all) are tempered with points of outlandishness that feel right out of an anime at times. The unnamed headmistress of the Sisterhood of Man swears every panel and somehow manages to get around with a 10-foot sword/knife inexplicably strapped to her front rather than her back.
The artwork is, well, amazing. Huddleston’s art moves from trippy psychedelic to black and white line drawings with ease, often from frame to frame on the page. It always captures your eye and keeps it moving, and can be a feast for the senses at times. The shifts in styles keeps you off your guard, never letting you rest with a notion of what the story might be or what might be happening for too long.
The art also serves to set apart different acts of the story thematically. The psychedelic trippiness of the Celestial Mothers scenes stands in stark contrast to the detailed line art of the scenes where Imogen’s brother shares his dreams. The combination of wonder and mystery present in both story and art helps to provide the thing that I love so much about really good sci-fi movies, that sense of jaw dropping awe and wonder that spurs your own imagination and makes you feel like a kid looking through their first telescope.
If one wants to level criticism, it’s that Hickman can become a bit too pretentious or dense at times – not just here but in other titles he’s written. Second and third readings are well advised as the story progresses. There’s also the temptation to follow every rabbit trail that he lays down in order to try and discern patterns that may or may not be there.
Decorum though I think is a great title and well worth your time. If you’ve been interested in Hickman’s writing but the sheer density of his X-Men run has put you off, this is a great series to dive in to. It’s a great example of what got me and so many others interested in comics in the first place.
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