If comic book fans are hungry for more Jonathan Hickman in the wake of his massive relaunch of the X-Men, they just might get their wish. The writer will also be penning an epic science fiction comic from Image entitled Decorum, featuring art from Mike Huddleston.
While details are sparse about the new Decorum series itself, it will definitely make use of Hickman’s perchance for world-building and epic storytelling. The press release does explain the series will center around the most “well-mannered” assassin in the known universe. Given Hickman’s track record with creating vivid, alien worlds, that last part might, in fact, be literal.
Jonathan Hickman worked with Brian Michael Bendis and Tom Brevoort to create Secret Warriors for Marvel. He also wrote the 2010 SHIELD mini-series that expanded the history of the Marvel spy organization to include the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci, Nikola Tesla and Sir Isaac Newton in a conflict that stretches back to ancient Egypt. Hickman was best known for reinvigorating the Fantastic Four, thanks to a similarly cosmic focus. In 2019, he was tasked with revamping X-Men, starting with two mini-series, Powers of X and House of X.
Despite his popularity with Marvel, Hickman has some considerable roots with Image Comics. His first comic, The Nightly News, was published by Image in 2006. He followed up with two other projects - the alternate history World War II story The Manhattan Projects as well as the apocalyptic western East of West. All three of these projects have been nominated for Eisner Awards.
With Hickman’s brand rising higher than ever, a new Image series seems like a smart move. It also allows Hickman to keep one foot in the mainstream superhero genre and another in the independent science fiction scene. Still, given his X-Men re-work presently includes time travel, mutant cloning as well as a living island, it’s doubtful Hickman is going to lose his hard sci-fi edge any time soon. The concept of a particularly polite assassin exploring a wide-open universe sounds intriguing, and if handled corrected, could provide a fun new series of Hickman fans to explore.
The one possible issue is time constraints, with the X-Men relaunch currently seeing Hickman writing or overseeing several X-Men books. Hopefully, the addition of another project won’t strain the writer with time constraints, but at the very least, this book might offer fans of his cosmic adventures another avenue to dive into.
Decorum will arrive in comic book shops on March 11, 2020.
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