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Decorum #1-8
Decorum
The highly lauded, mouthwateringly illustrated miniseries Decorum from the bestselling, comics titan Jonathan Hickman (House of X, Powers of X, East of West) and acclaimed artist Mike Huddleston (Middlewest, House of X) now collected in its entirety in a stunning hardcover edition for the first time.
Decorum blends the high impact, event level storytelling of Hickman's recent re-envisioning of X-Men with the sprawling, addictive worldbuilding of the recently concluded East of West. In the world of Decorum, there are many assassins in the known universe. Decorum is the story of the most well-mannered one.
The perfect standalone story for fans of epics like Star Wars and assassin action tales like John Wick-but set in a lush science fiction world where the stakes are even higher.
Collects DECORUM #1-8.
Decorum blends the high impact, event level storytelling of Hickman's recent re-envisioning of X-Men with the sprawling, addictive worldbuilding of the recently concluded East of West. In the world of Decorum, there are many assassins in the known universe. Decorum is the story of the most well-mannered one.
The perfect standalone story for fans of epics like Star Wars and assassin action tales like John Wick-but set in a lush science fiction world where the stakes are even higher.
Collects DECORUM #1-8.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 26, 2022
27 people are currently reading
670 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Hickman
1,221 books2,028 followersJonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
February 15, 2022
This is an offensively obtuse story. Every issue has 18-20 pages of story and an extra 20 of useless incoherent shit that is an attempt at world building. Some of the same old tired celestial and cosmic themes that Hickman inserts in every series he works on appear too. If Hickman’s more successful series like East of West or Avengers are a perfectly cooked steak dinner, this is a half-frozen Microwaveable Mac and cheese, the store brand one.
The art is sometimes amazing, sometimes ass. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either, some pages are just amazing and others look like a sketch of what it’s suppose to be.
The whole design of this book gave me headaches.
The art is sometimes amazing, sometimes ass. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either, some pages are just amazing and others look like a sketch of what it’s suppose to be.
The whole design of this book gave me headaches.
December 27, 2022
No one writes comics like Jonathan Hickman; he’s one of the best creators in the business. He’s often innovative and not afraid to challenge the form. It’s refreshing, but sometimes also tiring. In Decorum, he delivers a fascinating world and a solid adventure but makes things intentionally confusing. We learn about the world through stunning art and pages of exposition delivered as excerpts inserted between chapters.
As a result, the story drags, especially at the beginning. Huddleston’s fantastic art kept me reading; in this case, patience paid off. By the end of the third chapter, I was engrossed. First, I loved the art and how Huddleston played with colors and style. The way he combines black and white parts with saturated panels gives Decorum a distinctive aesthetic. Second, the story got intriguing and provided all the goodies: epic sci-fi, likable characters, assassins in training, and roguish misadventures.
Decorum tells a dense story and it's best read in one sitting.
As a result, the story drags, especially at the beginning. Huddleston’s fantastic art kept me reading; in this case, patience paid off. By the end of the third chapter, I was engrossed. First, I loved the art and how Huddleston played with colors and style. The way he combines black and white parts with saturated panels gives Decorum a distinctive aesthetic. Second, the story got intriguing and provided all the goodies: epic sci-fi, likable characters, assassins in training, and roguish misadventures.
Decorum tells a dense story and it's best read in one sitting.
February 1, 2025
Very weird story told in a needlessly convoluted narrative. Sharp and interesting art though.
June 3, 2022
5 stars, 2 thumbs up, 10/10 book of the year candidate. Set in the future (of some universe) this is the most Hickmany Hickman to date (charts, graphs etc) and is about a scruffy courier taken under the wing of the galaxies deadliest assassin. I had to reread the first part after I finished to fully understand it but this is some sharp writing with brilliant art.
June 17, 2025
7/10.
Maybe the worst start of any comic book series I've ever seen, but it gets back on track (with some minor shortcomings) after one third of the story.
The art is what carried it. Without it, it would have been like an extremely derivative mishmash of genres.
Maybe the worst start of any comic book series I've ever seen, but it gets back on track (with some minor shortcomings) after one third of the story.
The art is what carried it. Without it, it would have been like an extremely derivative mishmash of genres.
July 13, 2024
Tam bir Hickman hikayesi. Karmaşık şemalar, yavaş yavaş düğümleri çözülen bir hikaye ve tabii ki uzay. Marvel'da parladıktan sonra Image çatısı altında tamamen kendi kurduğu dünyada geçecek bir hikaye yazmış ve bunda epey de başarılı olmuş.
Tüm Hickman hikayelerinde olduğu gibi başta neler olduğunu anlamak güç. Dünya kurulumuna önem veren fakat bunu biraz dolaylı yoldan aktarmanın derdinde olduğundan kitabın ilk kısımlarında olan biteni anlamak pek kolay olmuyor. Biraz sabrettikten sonra ise hikayenin tadını almaya başlıyorsunuz ve ben bu tadı epey beğendim.
Hikaye özünde kadın suikastçılarla dolu bir birliğe isteksizce katılan bir genç kızın hikayesi. Bu iş için pek elverişli olmayan bu kız hikayenin ilerleyen kısımlarında görevini yerine getiremeyince başına büyük bir bela açıyor. Hikayenin bu tarafı hiç duyulmamış bir şey olmasa da Hickman'ın ortaya koyduğu konseptler basit bir hikayenin ne kadar zenginleşebileceğini gösteriyor.
Bu kitabı ele alırken çizimlerine değinmemek çok büyük haksızlık olur. Gördüğüm en zengin ve etkileyici çalışmalardan biri. Bazen rengarenk bazen siyah beyaz çizimler eşliğinde inanılmaz bir görsel çalışma var. Hepsinin aynı kişinin elinden çıktığına inanmak güç.
Tüm Hickman hikayelerinde olduğu gibi başta neler olduğunu anlamak güç. Dünya kurulumuna önem veren fakat bunu biraz dolaylı yoldan aktarmanın derdinde olduğundan kitabın ilk kısımlarında olan biteni anlamak pek kolay olmuyor. Biraz sabrettikten sonra ise hikayenin tadını almaya başlıyorsunuz ve ben bu tadı epey beğendim.
Hikaye özünde kadın suikastçılarla dolu bir birliğe isteksizce katılan bir genç kızın hikayesi. Bu iş için pek elverişli olmayan bu kız hikayenin ilerleyen kısımlarında görevini yerine getiremeyince başına büyük bir bela açıyor. Hikayenin bu tarafı hiç duyulmamış bir şey olmasa da Hickman'ın ortaya koyduğu konseptler basit bir hikayenin ne kadar zenginleşebileceğini gösteriyor.
Bu kitabı ele alırken çizimlerine değinmemek çok büyük haksızlık olur. Gördüğüm en zengin ve etkileyici çalışmalardan biri. Bazen rengarenk bazen siyah beyaz çizimler eşliğinde inanılmaz bir görsel çalışma var. Hepsinin aynı kişinin elinden çıktığına inanmak güç.
May 12, 2022
This is visually one of the best looking comics I’ve ever read. The change in art styles and designs are amazing. You’d think there was more than one artist working on this. And it has all the usual graphic pages that you come to expect from a Hickman book.
But I honestly had no idea what was going on for the majority of it? Something about an egg? There was a training scene for something at one point? So I feel like I can’t go higher than 3 stars
It’s Hickman at his most Hickman. Definitely since his early work in Nightly News and Pax Romana. It’s worth reading for that alone but people who only know him from his superhero stuff might be in for a shock
But I honestly had no idea what was going on for the majority of it? Something about an egg? There was a training scene for something at one point? So I feel like I can’t go higher than 3 stars
It’s Hickman at his most Hickman. Definitely since his early work in Nightly News and Pax Romana. It’s worth reading for that alone but people who only know him from his superhero stuff might be in for a shock
May 17, 2022
Visually, a stunning book. The storytelling, on the other hand, is trying to squeeze 30 or so issues of world building and character development and plot in eight big issues, and it ends up feeling confusing and rushed. There were certainly parts of the story I enjoyed, particularly the sisterhood of assassins, but also parts that I didn't like or didn't quite get. And if you got tired of the white "information" pages in Hickman's X-Men, I have bad news for you. Not only are they more densely concentrated here, they're more dense period.
July 24, 2022
Loved it. I see many reviews here saying 'they didn't get it' or were 'lost' most of the time. That wasn't the case for me. I mean... it's Hickman, so I'm not saying they are wrong. He can be hella confusing sometimes...but Decorum, if you take your time and not rush through it is quite readable and understandable. Those Hickman infographics are there for a reason, and if you are skipping over them, you might be lost and confused?
And the art. Incredible and one of the best put-together comics I have read in a while. There are pages where you feel like you are looking at someone's sketchbook and other pages where it feels like a matte painting. It all made for an incredible reading experience.
Lastly, I loved the characters and the world-building. I would love to see a lengthy ongoing series of Decorum exploring so so much more.
For me, this is an easy 5/5 stars. :)
And the art. Incredible and one of the best put-together comics I have read in a while. There are pages where you feel like you are looking at someone's sketchbook and other pages where it feels like a matte painting. It all made for an incredible reading experience.
Lastly, I loved the characters and the world-building. I would love to see a lengthy ongoing series of Decorum exploring so so much more.
For me, this is an easy 5/5 stars. :)
August 12, 2024
(Zero spoiler review)
This started out promising, although the longer it went on, my interest fell off a cliff, to the point where I had to force myself to finish it, to the benefit of absolutely no one. Quite how in a book this long, you can get so little characterisation of its admittedly paltry list of characters is beyond me. Add to the the complete and total requirement to turn off your brain when it comes to the logic of nearly every narrative choice made throughout. My ire was up and my interest was way down. Then you get to the art, and that for some reason, Huddlestone and Hickman thought that filling the book with dozens and dozens of different art styles throughout was just what the doctor ordered to bind together an already wildly disparate story, and I was done. Some of the styles used look really good, and Huddlestone obviously has talent, even if it doesn't appear as though pencil ever touched a piece of paper. But I am completely and utterly baffled at the artistic choices and direction here. It does EVERYTHING that it shouldn't, and nowhere near enough of what it should. And throw Hickman's need to fill half of this book with pointless title pages and logo's that add NOTHING to the story. Yes, i read them/looked at them. Pointless. Decorum is at its strongest when it most closely resembles an actual comic book, but instead, Decorum comes across like an out of control graphic designers acid trip, with a fairly generic story thrown in to justify all the spaff. Approach with due caution. 2/5
OmniBen.
This started out promising, although the longer it went on, my interest fell off a cliff, to the point where I had to force myself to finish it, to the benefit of absolutely no one. Quite how in a book this long, you can get so little characterisation of its admittedly paltry list of characters is beyond me. Add to the the complete and total requirement to turn off your brain when it comes to the logic of nearly every narrative choice made throughout. My ire was up and my interest was way down. Then you get to the art, and that for some reason, Huddlestone and Hickman thought that filling the book with dozens and dozens of different art styles throughout was just what the doctor ordered to bind together an already wildly disparate story, and I was done. Some of the styles used look really good, and Huddlestone obviously has talent, even if it doesn't appear as though pencil ever touched a piece of paper. But I am completely and utterly baffled at the artistic choices and direction here. It does EVERYTHING that it shouldn't, and nowhere near enough of what it should. And throw Hickman's need to fill half of this book with pointless title pages and logo's that add NOTHING to the story. Yes, i read them/looked at them. Pointless. Decorum is at its strongest when it most closely resembles an actual comic book, but instead, Decorum comes across like an out of control graphic designers acid trip, with a fairly generic story thrown in to justify all the spaff. Approach with due caution. 2/5
OmniBen.
Read
May 19, 2022All I knew going in was that this was a series about the galaxy's most polite assassin, so I was hoping for Hickman's underappreciated comic side, a la New Mutants or the Summers family outing issues of X-Men. Well, no. We're a tenth of the way through these 400+ pages before she appears, and even once she has she's still only one strand in a tapestry with all the hallmarks of his usual big picture storytelling: abstract diagrams of factions with key details redacted, rampaging AI theocracies, portentous statements. Hell, there are even terribly significant eggs, which after Krakoa is starting to feel a bit Histor's Eye. What makes it work, though - aside from slightly dialling down Hickman's habitual overuse of italics in dialogue - is Huddleston's art. Looking at his credits, I've read stuff he's worked on, but little where he was the headline act. Here, though, he's a showstopper, not least for his versatility, going from cosmic backgrounds worthy of Christian Ward to sparse, monotone conversations as expressively rendered as Dave McKean in his minimal mode, not to mention plenty of Sean Murphy in the fights. As a story, this is at once too long for a single volume, and too short for the Saga meets 40K vibe it's chasing. But as a thing on which to gaze, it's a winner.
(Edelweiss ARC)
(Edelweiss ARC)
October 21, 2025
Jonathan Hickman. You either love his writing or hate it. There seems to rarely be the in-between people. Praise or abuse. That seems to be the line you will be crossing when you read this bulky adventure. I will freely admit there are parts where I feel totally dumb and wonder what I am reading. There are other parts that are fun and entertaining. This book was tough to rate because it's interesting but will leave at least 50% (maybe more) of the readers confused. There are even funny moments that had me chuckling. The word that has been used to describe a lot of the extra in this book is "world building". You get a lot of the extras and some love it...some loath it. Either way it's in this 400-page monster. The one thing I believe you will almost get universal praise on is the art. Mike Huddleston works hard....I mean HARD to change styles and present us with some excellent work! For those who are lost in the story...you will be loving the pages. For those loving the story...you will further appreciate the beauty which adorns these pages. Assassins galore and I believe this book is a very strong outing by two talented creators.
January 8, 2024
Loved this book!!! Totally lost at the beginning, but fast paced, so kept my interest. Classic Hickman storytelling. Incredible artwork, amazingly all created by the same artist, Mike Huddleston. I thoroughly recommend this book.
July 6, 2022
Impressive illustrations coupled with some very creative character designs. The complaints about how much info/backstory the graphic novel attempts to cram in a short amount of time are understandable.
April 5, 2022
Hickman siendo Hickman, escribiendo pretenciosísimamente una historia entretenida con arte increíble.
March 25, 2022
Не смог осилить больше трёх выпусков новой серии Хикмана, которой надавали кучу номинаций на Айснерах (лучшая серия, лучший сценарист, лучшие обложки и даже лучший леттеринг с опечатками). Космическая сага тут таких масштабов, что целые выпуски не происходит ровным счётом ничего, кроме мутно-поэтического мираописательства и дизайнерских упражнений в геометрическом модернизме.
Бескрайняя вселенная разбита на анклавы, которые находятся друг с другом в состоянии многотысячелетних войн. Вездесущий ИИ выжигает всё на своём пути, но и в его собственных рядах завелась странная секта, выращивающая мессию в натуральных яйцах. Второй сюжетный фокус наводится внезапно на клан наёмных убийц, состоящий из одних женщин. В качестве предводительницы у них стройная тётка с говором и манерами британской аристократки, которая принимает к себе новую кандидатку — погрязшего в долгах (искусственно насаждаемых обществом, естественно) уличного крысёныша, по совместительству обозлённого на весь мир гадкого подростка, но при этом она вроде как уже молодая мамаша. Go figure.
Прикладываю небольшое превью.
Бескрайняя вселенная разбита на анклавы, которые находятся друг с другом в состоянии многотысячелетних войн. Вездесущий ИИ выжигает всё на своём пути, но и в его собственных рядах завелась странная секта, выращивающая мессию в натуральных яйцах. Второй сюжетный фокус наводится внезапно на клан наёмных убийц, состоящий из одних женщин. В качестве предводительницы у них стройная тётка с говором и манерами британской аристократки, которая принимает к себе новую кандидатку — погрязшего в долгах (искусственно насаждаемых обществом, естественно) уличного крысёныша, по совместительству обозлённого на весь мир гадкого подростка, но при этом она вроде как уже молодая мамаша. Go figure.
Прикладываю небольшое превью.
July 12, 2022
"Opening with “The womanly art of assassination,” Decorum is a tale of an assassins’ guild, a church of artificial intelligence, and the mysterious being who will save or doom them all. Oh, and the fate of the universe—it’s in the hands of a girl who dislikes bad noodles and violence but is a pretty big fan of wearing shorts."
Full review on No Flying No Tights: https://noflyingnotights.com/blog/202...
Full review on No Flying No Tights: https://noflyingnotights.com/blog/202...
October 2, 2022
Stunningly beautiful. Huddleston is a marvel. There's a two-page spread at the end of chapter 19 that blew me away. That said, I'm surprised I made it to that point; the story and world building were close to incomprehensible for the first half of the book, and the separate stories take forever to come together to make sense. Then it ends in such a rush.
Might get through the next one, but it won't be high on my list.
Might get through the next one, but it won't be high on my list.
May 18, 2022
Not one of Hickman's best. I enjoyed it more for the great art. The story reminded me a little of The Incal.
September 12, 2022
Mostly Enjoyable, Though I Understood Very Little of It
You might be wondering why that's capitalized. It's because that's my Douglas-Adams-y title for my memoir.
You might be wondering why that's capitalized. It's because that's my Douglas-Adams-y title for my memoir.
June 13, 2023
For the first 100 complex world building pages, I wasn't sure whether this comic was too smart for its own good or just for me...
This multi-layered, multi-faceted, literary approach worked, without question, when Hickman applied it to House/Powers of X for me, so I wasn't sure what I was missing here.
Then the dispirate narrative threads coalesced and it hit me. A character to follow and root for. Enter Neha Nori Sood. Now we're talking.
Even after this point, I did struggle to be invested and interested whenever the story moved away to one of the various other plot developments, impatient to return to what was obviously the end game throughline again.
That said, by the time I reached the more conventional - and therefore more predictable - final act I was all in on where Hickman wanted to take me.
In fact, I think the whole thing would be a more seamless experience on a second read through once you know where it's headed and exactly how Hickman wraps up its first arc. I'm quite sure I'll be returning to this again.
What is beyond reproach is the majesty of Mike Huddleston's expressive artwork which alters and adapts and evolves style throughout in order to suit the chapter focus. His use of chiaroscuro and, when required, vibrant colours in consistently awe-inspiring.
Perhaps one of the most original comics I've read in quite some time, the best way I can summarise the experience is by comparing Decorum to previous masterworks that I would always recommend: Staples and Vaughn's epic space Odyssey Saga and Watters and Dani's ethereal crime opus Coffin Bound. Heady praise indeed.
I'll be back for the continuation Decorum and the Womanly Art of Empire. After I've re-read Decorum...
Make sure you listen to Indie Comics Spotlight's coverage courtesy of Comics in Motion podcast.
This multi-layered, multi-faceted, literary approach worked, without question, when Hickman applied it to House/Powers of X for me, so I wasn't sure what I was missing here.
Then the dispirate narrative threads coalesced and it hit me. A character to follow and root for. Enter Neha Nori Sood. Now we're talking.
Even after this point, I did struggle to be invested and interested whenever the story moved away to one of the various other plot developments, impatient to return to what was obviously the end game throughline again.
That said, by the time I reached the more conventional - and therefore more predictable - final act I was all in on where Hickman wanted to take me.
In fact, I think the whole thing would be a more seamless experience on a second read through once you know where it's headed and exactly how Hickman wraps up its first arc. I'm quite sure I'll be returning to this again.
What is beyond reproach is the majesty of Mike Huddleston's expressive artwork which alters and adapts and evolves style throughout in order to suit the chapter focus. His use of chiaroscuro and, when required, vibrant colours in consistently awe-inspiring.
Perhaps one of the most original comics I've read in quite some time, the best way I can summarise the experience is by comparing Decorum to previous masterworks that I would always recommend: Staples and Vaughn's epic space Odyssey Saga and Watters and Dani's ethereal crime opus Coffin Bound. Heady praise indeed.
I'll be back for the continuation Decorum and the Womanly Art of Empire. After I've re-read Decorum...
Make sure you listen to Indie Comics Spotlight's coverage courtesy of Comics in Motion podcast.
August 10, 2023
There was so much exposition. It felt like it took a while for the story to kick in. Or at least, it took me a while to get into the story. I think it could have been really interesting if it focused on the core characters, but instead there was a lot of mumbo jumbo about universal eggs and messiahs and stuff. I didn't care for that.
The artwork was unlike anything I've ever seen. It felt like the type of art was shifting every few pages. Sometimes it was a little hard to get your mind around. But it was certainly interesting. You could probably hang some of these pages up on the wall.
Read for my local library's graphic novel book club
The artwork was unlike anything I've ever seen. It felt like the type of art was shifting every few pages. Sometimes it was a little hard to get your mind around. But it was certainly interesting. You could probably hang some of these pages up on the wall.
Read for my local library's graphic novel book club
September 8, 2024
5/5. Am I addicted to world building in the form of charts, graphs, and poignant visuals? Yes. Does this story do that very well in a way that continuously furthers the plot and adds a tiny bit of puzzling? Yes. Is it an incredibly interwoven story of protection, sacrifice, robots, and space eggs? Yes.
May 30, 2022
Gems include Neha tardily deliverers a package, Imogen takes on an apprentice, orientation to the Sisterhood of Man, Ro Chi devastates a world, Neha’s 1st 3 contracts go awry, Ro Chi contracts the Sisterhood, Neha v. the Egg, & the lam
July 17, 2022
This would have gotten a higher rating if it wasn’t for all the charts!!! I don’t care what the recipe of the noodle bowl was that she was eating. The dialogue was sharp and funny, just wished there were no charts and less dramatic art changes throughout.
July 9, 2022
I flippin LOVED this!
The artwork is unbelievably Brilliant!
And the story is amazing, expertly paced, with likable characters....
I hope this team does another one!
The artwork is unbelievably Brilliant!
And the story is amazing, expertly paced, with likable characters....
I hope this team does another one!
May 17, 2025
Visualmente es una pasada. Como fan de la ciencia ficción he disfrutado cada página. Una gran historia.
August 15, 2025
Beautiful, and I think I kinda...mostly understood it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews