Jonathan Hickman’s Pax Romana mini-series has proved to be both challenging and rewarding. The debut issue was incredibly dense with a mix of heavy dialogue, and several nearly-all text pages. Issue #2 dials back the text saturation, but the book is still packed with ideas and one two-page text-spread.

Through these pages, Hickman is not just telling a story of time-travelling Papal soldiers sent to ancient Rome to change history. He also appears to be posing some interesting philosophical questions about the interference by outsiders in a society’s development. These questions have great contemporary relevance in relation to colonization, nation-building, and globalization, but are difficult to discuss on their merit, because they are also tied up with issues of poverty, race, politics, and hundreds of years of history. In Pax Romana however, Hickman has removed the complications by making the manipulated society the Roman Empire, 1800 years in the past, allowing the reader to focus on the morality of interventionism in a society’s development.

The only real weakness I have found in the writing of this series is that the pacing is almost too fast, at the expense of character development. Only Brigadier General Nicholas Chase and Emperor Constatine seem well developed, and it’s hard to get a real handle on any of the other characters. Some readers may also be disappointed that most of the military action happens off-panel, but I found that this helps to focus attention on the story.

I imagine that the art, the coloring in particular, might be a turn-off for some, as it is non-traditional with little background and a focus on the characters above all else. However, I found that by taking risks with the art, Hickman again puts the focus on the story, and creates a book that is visually engaging.