Honoring the defeated Darius as a worthy adversary, Alexander expounds excitedly on his plans to conquer the rest of the world. The series ends of a bit of a cliffhanger, with Alexander defeating the Persians decisively. The fourth and fifth issues jump even further into the future, focusing on the reign of Xerxes's son Darius III and his wars against Alexander, who aims to conquer the Persians once he has Greece under his control. This issue turns to the aforementioned love story that clearly fascinated Miller and returned to this subject matter, in which the love of a Jewish woman softens Xerxes's heart against the kinds of genocide and war that he has spent his life perpetuating. While Xerxes begins as a prequel, the third issue shifts the focus yet again - expanding the story far past the events of 300 and into the second and ultimately victorious Persian invasion of Greece.
However, Miller proves to have a broader agenda than simply detailing the god king's rise. Otherwise, there's little connection between the written and cinematic 300 follow-ups. These initial issues also make references to the Battle of Artremisium, the Athenian naval campaign that happened concurrently with the Battle of Thermopylae, on which the cinematic sequel focuses. Whereas 300 concentrated on the Battle of Thermopylae from the point of view of King Leonidas of Sparta, Xerxes flips the point-of-view: The first two issues concern Xerxes's ongoing campaigns against the Greeks and, after the death of Xerxes's father Darius I, his ultimate elevation to the status of the god-king, the powerful and seemingly unstoppable ruler whom Leonidas defies in 300. The differences in scope and perspective between the two series are apparent immediately. "That's dazzling and romantic and everything someone with my job looks for in a story.”
As Miller told CBR in 2018, Xeres covered “more of an expanse … a much bigger cast,” yet with an intimate focus on the clash of cultures and the love story of within the title.
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