Ermanamer is a young barbarian prince sent to Rome to be educated as a roman citizen after his tribe is defeated and pledge their allegiance to the Emperor's Legions. Alone in a strange city, he will be taken in by Valerius Falco, a hardened retired Centurion. It's there that he will meet Marcus, Falco's bastard son born from an arranged marriage with a barbarian princess. Their initial hatred for each other will soon fade as Falco's education to make them men will partially have reason of their short tempers. Together they will discover what it means to be a citizen, how to wage war and women...

Marini as long been recognize for his artistic talents but it is the first time he gives a shot at writing. The result is what you would expect from a newbie. Even if the story is well told, there is nothing original and it kind of fall shorts of the expectations established in the introduction where there is talks of the Roman's Legion conquering barbarian land. Even the first few pages are action heavy and show barbarians fighting each others. However, the rest of the story is a lot quieter and there is more sex scenes (on 8 pages) than real plot progression. The fact that these scenes are really explicit (this is the kind of stuff that could not be published by a mainstream American publisher) does not bother me but it's just that they take too much place in a format (56 pages) where you have to make to most of the space allowed. By comparison the Legion's boot camp last two pages...

Things are notoriously different on the art. Marini is a proven artist and he spent a lot of time doing research before starting this comic book. The result is a stunning success especially with all the historical backgrounds and weapons. There is an attention to details and you could believe that the artist really did live in the Roman Empire. But what makes the art really stand out are the colors. I do not know if Marini works in direct colors or if he adds them digitally afterwards but they really are giving this comic book a beautiful look. Not only are they well done but they are also well chosen and the backgrounds really shine because of that.

The best way to quickly describe this comic book would be to quote something I read on a french forum: "...Marini is an 'Imperator Rex' on the art but a simple 'civitas' on the story..." (my translation). Even if I enjoyed it, I would not qualify it than more than a good mainstream comic book.