mycomicshelf

Ever since I first watched Asterix, I’ve had a thing for the Romans. At least that where I think it comes from. Now I will read/watch/play everything with Romans in it. Ancient Rome was also my favorite period in history classes. So, it was only natural that I would eventually read Britannia.

As you can see, I have the deluxe edition, which collects all three story arcs. In the back there is the usual concept art and variant covers, and also a really cool thing – essays that show the historical background and give additional insight to the story.

How to get it

First issue was published on 21st September 2016 by Valiant. This deluxe came out a three years later, on 31st July 2019. Cover price is set at 49.99 USD. I got it for 194,99 PLN at my online comic book store three years ago.

Unfortunately, the deluxe edition seems to be out of print at the moment. The best way to read the story is to get the paperbacks from a comic book store, or try to hunt down the deluxe on eBay.

Story

And the story goes as follows. A Roman centurion, Antonius Axia, gets traumatized when saving a Vestal from an ancient monster (more specifically, after seeing said monster). Then, the Vestals reprogram and train him, so he becomes Rome’s first detective. Or, as they call him, ‘detectioner’. Nothing new, standard superhero origin story. Kind of reminds me of Batman, now that I think about it.

Art

Well, I’m not an artistic person, far from it. The only thing I can say about this art style, is that it slowly grew on me. At first, I thought it was too detailed, too many lines, too messy. But there’s something about it that makes it fit the story.

Like I said, it grew on me. Even to the point where I was kind of disappointed when it changed in the third story (“The Lost Eagles of Rome”). Both look good, just in different ways.

Another reason why I was interested in this comic, is because Antonius (drawn by Juan José Ryp) reminds me of Altair, my favorite character from the Assassin’s Creed series.

Technical aspects

The book itself is surprisingly comfortable to read, despite being an oversized hardcover. It stays relatively flat when open and there is only minimal gutter loss. I didn’t have to glue the spine back together after I got it, unlike most of my DC hardcovers.

Conclusion

It’s great. I love it.

Britannia has an interesting story, Romans, great art, Romans and essays written by experts. And Romans. What more can you want? Besides more Romans, I mean.

Well, maybe more reviews of this particular edition. When I’m buying an expensive book, I always want to see how it actually looks like (preferably on video). At the time, the only one I could find was this one. I guess learning German was useful after all. I hope today’s post will help fill that gap in reviews.