It’s been said that, “all’s fair in love and war.” If so, does this libertinism encompass infidelity, lies, and betrayal? If so I want nothing to do with it. And neither do I want anything to do with this comic!
Without a single shred of morality, A Night in Rome stands diametrically opposed to the American Comics Code of yore. This previous set of commandments that withheld the licentious and immoral from comic books, is firmly inverted within this European production. Cheating, lying, betrayal and all sorts of wickedness are firmly germinated from the beginning, leading to a what should result in a lengthy road to Hell.
Instead, the perverted author takes an amoral, if not lackadaisical stance toward the flagrantly evil. Just like the saccharine temptations of Satan himself, sin is given a sugary veneer. Delightfully illustrated with a rich palette of tins and tones, wickedness has never looked so good.
Therefore, I wasn’t the least bit surprised when the negative externalities of such behavior was never explored nor seen beyond a thin array of tears and foul language. Seemingly part and parcel of a relationship, faithlessness is almost normalized in this fashion. Strangely enough, everything wraps up nicely at the end. No words of forgiveness nor promises to change have occurred – it’s depicted as merely another aspect of the cycle.
Debauchery and lust have never been so well illustrated before. Disappointingly, the narrative is as weak as the morality – suffused with numerous page lulls of vacuous dialogue and unnecessarily boring character development (not to mention an irritatingly uneven implementation of translations).
The road to Hell might be paved with good intentions but here, they’re laid down with the foulest of concrete from the beginning until the gates of the Netherworld. The title might be, One Night in Rome but, the consequences last for an eternity. HellFire and brimstone or the glory of the good – the choice is yours.
P.S. I read both issues.