Decorum #2 is out June 10, 2020. — **Decorum #2** is out June 10, 2020.

By Jacob Cordas — Jonathan Hickman, perhaps more than any other comic writer working today, plays a long game. Minor details in an early issue will pay off massive dividends years later. Character choices that seem off will often become character defining who knows how many issues later. This normally creates a unique problem when reviewing an early issue of any of his series…how do you say if something is good or bad when it necessitates knowing how it ends to judge? Is judgement possible or even valid this early in the game?

How do you critique something’s merits when it hides so much?

Well, Decorum #2 (and really the series as whole) might be the first project Hickman has ever been involved with that resolves a lot of those issues. It has every Hickman trope you could dream of: here there be infographics (expertly crafted with Sasha E. Head), heavy contrast of black and white, cyphers for languages that never existed that you still can’t translate, an unholy number of high concepts thrown together, but all of that doesn’t overwhelm the way it often can. (East of West, a great series, took me four times of starting and stopping before I was finally able to get into it for this exact reason.)

Here Hickman has focused himself. The clarity of character and world is so strong that for everything I don’t understand (and there are so many things I don’t) there is another note for me to grab a hold of. The characterization of everyone you follow in this issue is clear cut, even when their motivations are held close to their chest. The infographics, which he has been using since his debut with The Nightly News*, have a clarity here that comes from years of refinement matched with the precision work of Sasha E. Head. Even the stakes of the story, which seem to be of the highest degree of cosmic threat, is done in such a way as to keep the reader desperate to learn more and actively interested not just in what is happening but how this will impact the characters.

But all this wouldn’t function without the astounding work of Mike Huddleston, the artist behind every jaw dropping page in this. To try and describe what he is able to achieve in this issue (and series as a whole) without a degree in sequential art borders on being an act of futility. It seems like he took a look at the best artists working today and simply said, “I can do that.” And then he fucking did.

The range of techniques and styles he employs is outstanding. Normally, when faced with this amount of artistic range, there are clear style preferences and weaknesses. We have seen this in every form. You just can’t do it all. Nobody can.

But Mike Huddleston can. And we should all take note.

Finally the lettering, as always with a Hickman project, is outstanding. I don’t have nearly as much to say about the excellent work of Rus Wooten except that it’s exactly what it needs to be. Lettering has always been the film editing of comic books, when done perfectly almost imperceptible. And Rus Wooten achieves that with aplomb.

All of this just comes together to create a borderline perfect comic. One that I have read three times already and will be reading three more times. Regardless if I get to review the next issues, I will be following this series as closely as I can.

OVERALL: Decorum #2 is a comic made by a group of brilliant creative minds all at the top of their game. To not read this is to miss out on one of the best comics out right now. Abandon whatever you are doing while reading this so you can go out and buy it. 10/10

*This was actually the first independent comic I ever read, buying it on a whim when I was 15 after seeing it at the first con I ever attended. I was very surprised to find out that infographics were not a regular part of the indie comic world.

DECORUM #2
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Mike Huddleston
Letterer: Rus Wooten
Designer: Sasha E. Head
Publisher: Image
Price: $3.99
There are many assassins in the known universe. This is the story of the most well-mannered one.“Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward death.”
Release Date: June 10, 2020
Buy It Online: Click here!

Read more great comic book reviews here!

My name is Jacob Cordas (@jacweasel) and I am not qualified to write this.