Decorum #1 is really two different issues: one of them fascinating, the other actually good. To tackle the fascinating first, it’s probably helpful to think about Jonathan Hickman’s broader opus.
When he first arrived on the scene with works like Nightly News and Pax Romana, he did comics like we’d never seen before. Marrying his graphic design experience with his love of science fiction allowed him to come up with a unique way of conveying world building.
At this point, the infamous infographics are fun, but a little old hat. A restless formalist, Hickman has done something much… stranger with the medium.
The first chapter of Decorum #1 takes up a full 20 pages, and they’re a visual tour de force. Strip Panel Naked articulated the mastery inherent in the artistic choices, so I’d rather direct you there than pale in comparison with my own analysis.
On a storytelling level, though, the issue leaves a lot to be desired. We’re not really following any characters. Instead, we’re seeing how colonization works in this universe.
We’re exposed to concepts that are a lot of fun, like the Solar Imperial Preserves, Church of The Singularity, The Union of Frontier Worlds, and so on. But the problem is that these ideas are recognizable to veteran readers of science fiction. They’re not engaging without the presence of character, and this wouldn’t be the first time that Hickman placed infographics in a comic that never actually paid off.
Decorum #1 picks up quite a bit in the second half, as we’re introduced to a courier named Neha who needs to drop off a mysterious package. Of course, these ideas are old had even to people with only the barest familiarity with science fiction. There’s action, there’s beauty, and the artwork is still stunning (if not the same level of groundbreaking that we saw in Chapter One), but it’s hard to feel like this comic is missing something.
It’s two halves of different wholes. Their coming-together feels awkward, and unfortunately makes this issue feel like less than the sum of its parts.
I’m excited to see where it goes from here, and I’ve thought more about this issue than anything else I’ve read recently.
I just hope the creative team figures out a way to better marry formal ingenuity with character, plot, and all those other things that a story’s supposed to be made of.
MEGAPULP 