Following swiftly on the heels of last year’s Britannia miniseries, the creative team of Peter Milligan (writer) and Juan Jose Ryp (artist) have returned for the sequel, We Who Are About To Die.
The first series laid the groundwork of pioneering Roman ‘detectioner’ Antonius Axia, and as a result, this series is able to hit the ground running with a brand new mystery for the protagonist to tackle. The pacing overall is an improvement over the first series, and Milligan’s plot pulls the reader in very quickly. Whereas the first series set the mystery in a British outpost on the outskirts of the Empire, the story here explores a conspiracy in the very heart of Rome.
Ryp’s artwork is as beautiful as ever, with some particular highlights when he gets to cut loose with some brutal gladiatorial combat sequences. The Ancient Rome settings are very well researched, grounding the adventure in a convincing realism.
If anything the plotting does fizzle out a bit at the end, with the climax lacking some of the excitement of the middle act; but it looks like Milligan is plotting a long-game here, and he wants to spin out a few more adventures for Axa and his companions before the pillars start to collapse on his Roman Empire. All the same, Britannia continues to provide a compelling and original alternative for readers who are looking for a break from superheroes, and is particularly recommended to anyone who enjoys a juicy mystery.
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