The Eagles of Rome: the sixth volume is striking with its documentary precision and brilliantly articulated storyline

Seven years! It has been seven years since readers of the Eagles of Rome saga waited with painful impatience for the sixth part of the adventures of Marini's heroes. That is almost as long as the time elapsed between the humiliating defeat of the legions of General Varus in the forests of Germania (9 AD) and the disappearance of the Emperor Augustus, who opened a new era in Rome... and this new album which keeps all its narrative and visual promises.

Haunted by the military rout during which three eagles were captured by Arminius (son of a Cheruscan leader raised in Rome but returned to the side of the Barbarians), the elites of the Eternal City witness Tiberius' accession to power with a mixture of distrust and indifference. Even hostility, some not hesitating to already foment a plot against Caesar's successor. All these little people do not fail to go to the games to see the gladiators massacre each other - this distracts and excites, especially the women, whose breasts readily exposed indicate their agitation in the face of all these male confrontations. But amazement, the one who emerges victorious from all the fights behind his black mask and reveals himself to be lawless (to the point of finishing off his adversaries who asked for mercy) turns out to be Marcus. Survivor of the Battle of Teutoburg won by Arminius - his almost-brother who became an enemy, his almost-cousin who became Germanus again -, deprived of the love of his life Priscilla, he does not consider himself held back from life by any thread. Unless he learns that his son Titus, taken captive, is still alive...

With its panels that frequently resemble cinema shots (Spartacus or Gladiator), its incessant twists and turns, its spectacular battle scenes, its strikingly realistic lines, but also (and above all?) its documentary precision and its brilliantly articulated storyline, Enrico Marini still impresses as much. Envious, ambitious, courageous, vicious, daring, capricious, his heroes (and heroines!) are driven by the most classic human feelings. We are in Rome in 14 AD, but we could be anywhere in the world...in 2023.