By Larry Jorash — I’m going to get right to it here; Decorum is a superb comic experience. The narrative is compelling, the art is mesmerizing to its core, and the design work is flawless. And it’s getting a full hardcover collection, out from Image Comics on April 27.

In this story, Neha Nori Sood is a sort of cosmic loner, one with little purpose who is adopted by a professional assassin and taken under her wing. At the same time, a higher intelligence being and some witches are attempting to extract energy from a mysterious golden egg passed down from a world mind. If this story has a flaw, it just may be that it ended too soon, potentially leaving much potential from its imaginative premise unused during a too-short lifespan.

The immediate thing that came to mind when I read the first issue of Decorum was there are some distinct similarities to writer Jonathan Hickman’s 2019-smash hit House of X / Powers of X story, told of course using Marvel Comics’ familiar X-Men IP. World-minds, technarchs, ascensions to higher intelligences are all highly reminiscent of those X-Men comics. That is all to say that this story felt like Hickman and his ideas were sort of unleashed from the shackles of a constrained, corporate universe to construct Decorum through artist Mike Huddleston’s incredible work. Just pure, raw creative energy here in these pages.

Another element that is striking in this work is the design, which is done by Sasha Head (who as it would have it also did the logos and branding for this very website). Right from the first page, Decorum swallows readers with a web of bright colors, orbs of all sizes, and intricate spatial concepts. Head has written a bit about this work, noting that Hickman created a unique alphabet and from there she provided, “more words and codes within the alien language… (that) feature heavily within the layouts, designs, and infographics.” Describing the process of design in a separate interview, Hickman added that usually in design you are, “laying something unifying and homogenous over something else that’s based on a specific style. We couldn’t do that here, so what we’re trying to do is make a kind of container for many things. That sounds like nonsense, but it’s true.”

Mike Huddleston’s insane artwork and the gnarly transitions his style makes (often times mid-issue) are also an impressive achievement in this title. It also brilliantly compliments the overall aesthetics. “Generally, I'm trying to use color as part of the storytelling,” Huddleston added in the same interview. All of the design work aims at complimenting his vivid pallets.

As I noted above, the largest drawback is that our story ended too soon. Much of this eight-issue story goes toward the world building itself (besides the thick-boy issue 5 and its 80-page splendor), and I would love to see more of these characters and artistic designs in sequels or one-shots. Decorum does such an incredible job at building this universe that it would be a shame to leave it where it was, never to be revisited. But if this is where our tale rests for good, I suppose that desire for more is a very high compliment.

TRADE COLLECTION REVIEW: Decorum HC

Decorum HC
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Mike Huddleston
Design: Sasha E. Head
Letters: Rus Wooten
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $39.99
There are many assassins in the known universe. This is the story of the most well-mannered one.
Release Date: April 27, 2022

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Larry Jorash (He/Him) resides in Central Florida managing a comic book shop and coaching youth sports. In his spare time he enjoys ice hockey and reading. You will almost never find his hand vacant of coffee. Find him on twitter: (@theREALlarbear)