If you have read The Nightly News by Jonathan Hickman then know that this new mini-series is also something special. I can't write a review for the life of me so I copied this one from Aintitcool.com. The review is right on the spot. Download link below.

Review for issue #1 from Aintitcool.com:
PAX ROMANA #1
Writer/Artist: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewed by Humphrey Lee

In the recent months since Jonathan Hickman's debut in comic books with THE NIGHTLY NEWS he's been called many things: Innovative, visionary, exhilarating, etc. But quite frankly I'm here to call him one wordy motherfucker. But it's okay! Because, goddammit, this is the first time in I don't know how long where a comic has earned every last penny I spilled out on it, simply based on how long I spent digesting it. There's a lot to appreciate in a book that knows the value of a dollar...

Just like with THE NIGHTLY NEWS, Hickman's first issue in the four issue mini that is PAX ROMANA here lives up to all the adjectives I threw around to begin this review. Right off the bat you can't help but notice the art with its ruggedly smooth lines and unbelievably lush colors. Already if there's anything I've come to be excited about with the man's work, it's the art. Most times there's not a lot of panels, and yes, there's more word balloons in this issue here than possibly in all the other comics of your weekly stack combined, but it still remains untameably vivid, rife with symbolism and iconography. Hell, I've only seen a whole seven comics of this stuff (and a few stray pages from the POPGUN anthology TPB) and I'd pay top dollar just to have an art book detailing Hickman's creative process as he creates his visuals, and art books are something I rarely, if ever, purchase.

Okay, enough with getting all gooey over the line work, how's the story and what exactly is PAX ROMANA about? PR is actually a pretty intriguing mess of Religion, Politics and Military Ops all wrapped around a creamy Science Fiction center dealing with the concept of Time Travel. The main conceit of PAX ROMANA is a future seemingly dominated by the Holy Roman Empire and the tale of how this came to be, from a point in its past (our near future) where the first scientists to successfully bend time to their whim weren't from the employ of Governmental or Independent science groups dedicated to the concept, but that of the Vatican. From there the pages of PR denote in great detail (I did mention this book is wordy right?) a domino effect of events leading to the unthinkable: The Pope and Cardinal Council devising a plot to time displace a unit of handpicked soldiers and scientists into a period of history where their nudging hand in that society can most effectively lead to a world dominated by the Church.

... Fuck me, I guess Mr. Hickman isn't the only wordy bastard in the house...

But, all said, even with the half hour read time this issue took me, I wouldn't have changed a thing. This is stylistically the same approach Hickman took with his NIGHTLY NEWS and it worked there just like it works here. Yes, there's a lot of information being dumped here, but it never once makes for a boring read; in fact it actually makes for the opposite as all the info fleshes out the world the story takes place in so much that you can't help but be enveloped in it. Really, the only issue I had with THE NIGHTLY NEWS is that in the end it was actually a little predictable, and even though it knew what it was and tried to avoid comparisonal pitfalls, it really did run a bit like some of its influences, mainly the movie NETWORK. PAX here, though, is a story unlike I've really encountered with comics. Yes, of course I've seen a dozen times the use of Time Travel in comics to "reshape the world in some diabolical image!" or whatever but PAX ROMANA is working on a much more human and fundamental level than the norm. As stated in the back matter of this issue, this is a book about sociology, not necessarily to make a stand on Religion or what have you, and I see a lot of intriguing concepts and debate coming out of this on the matter of a society and extra-societal forces--cause and effect type stuff.

Already I can tell this book is probably smarter than I am, but dammit I'm still in for the duration. Hickman's thought processes when it comes to just what a comic book can be are something that the industry needs to take note of. It's just simply thinking at a different wavelength that the majority of books out there aren't. These stories might not be terribly new in origin, but they're working at least a step or two above conventional thinking when it comes to the subject matter and how it is presented to us. Hickman is simply stepping up and doing what always needs done at some point: pushing a medium along and progressing it to the next level. Here and now is the time to see what the future of comics is...

Buy this comic at Amazon.

http://rapidshare.com/files/166161306/Pax_Romana.rar(44mb)