This series is an eloquent metaphor for the ever changing fight between magic and technology, religion and science, conservative and progressive thinking. Warren Ellis has chosen to portray these antagonistic forces in human nature using a Conan-like barbarian and an era where the technology of pulleys and gears can transform a world by shattering it into pieces all in order to allow a new rise in civilization. By harnessing the power of steam and geothermal forces the advocates of technology wanted to transform the earth by breaking it. It is the constant desire for dominion of nature that Warren Ellis depicts in this series. This is not only an action adventure comic, this is a thinking person's comic.