DMZ #54 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Riccardo Burchielli (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Matty Roth reaches the US checkpoint, only to get assigned a new job and, perhaps, a second chance.

What’s Good: This issue features the sort of grand, sweeping gesture that manages to successfully represent an author working towards a well thought out conclusion to a long-running series.  Even though we’ve got another 12 issues or so to go, it’s clear that Wood setting up the status quo that will roll DMZ to its ending, which looks to be one that is fully organic and natural.

Wood essentially has Roth do something of a full circle, but it’s one of those beautiful rotations where, while the position may be similar, the participants most certainly are not.  Matty ends up in a place that’s quite close to where he was at when the series began but the bumbling, frantic Matty has been replaced by the grizzled, self-loathing, existentially befuddled Matty that we have now.  The result is a clash that is sure to bear fruit as already, the full circle rotation that Wood executes is elegant and sweeping.  Matty trims his beard away to resemble his old self, but really, this is a perfect representation by Wood:  the only things that are regressing to the past are the superficial and the circumstantial.

Much of this is executed via a gripping conversation between Matty and his father.  This is certainly something I appreciated, given how sparse Wood’s work can be at times.  It’s good to see him really hit the keyboard and show us some tight, dense dialogue.  It’s a further insight into Matty’s psyche, but I also appreciated how Wood better realizes Matty’s father, and later, his mother.  While I can’t call them good guys, they are no longer clear-cut sleazebags.  Much like his son, Matty’s father is a man trapped in crushing circumstances and we get inklings that, still, both parents care for their son, in whatever strange way.

On art, Burchielli’s work is at its usual standards.  Dense, desolate cities are there, but give way to great facial expressions, bang-on despite their gritty, cartoonist’s touch.

DMZ #52 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Riccardo Burchielli (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Matty Roth begins his hazardous journey across the DMZ.

What’s Good: For a second month, Wood focuses on Matty’s current state of desperation, isolation, and self-pity.  This time around, however, he does it in a much more dynamic an effective manner.  The meat of this issue sees an extended chase sequence, when Matty meets the wrong end of a bizarre hunter and his pack of dogs.

The chase is beautiful in its metaphorical power.  It is the perfect representation of Matty’s current state and situation.  This becomes all the more clear due to the surreal elements of the scene.  The hunter is nameless and never once says a word.  Meanwhile, his dogs are intelligent and so relentless that it almost defies suspension of disbelief.  In other words, you know that there’s more going on here.  The whole thing feels nightmarish in its strangeness, while maintaining the desperation and tension of a good chase.

This is clearly as much a physical struggle as it is a mental, internal one.  It’s a perfect manifestation of Matty’s inner turmoil and how he views his current status.  I could not imagine a better way for Wood to get across the current themes, and mood, centered around his protagonist.  This is absolutely genius stuff that strays just a little from the series’ usual gritty realism, but not so far off course that it feels wrong or out of place.

With Matty plotting his journey across the DMZ with maps aplenty, as he’s chased by dogs and forced to dash across the broken landscape of NYC, this is a study of tension and desperation with a touch of horror.  It’s all the better thanks to Burchielli’s barren landscapes and scrawled maps.