DMZ #65 – Review

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

The Story:  Matt faces possibly the biggest decision of his life.

The Review:  If you’re a long-time reader of Brian Wood’s DMZ, this is the sort of issue that you read it for, the sort of issue that looks at hard, gritty reality, above and beyond all lofty idealism or abstract ideals.

With this issue ultimately hinging on a massive decision on Matty’s part, that being what to do with Parco’s evidence of the US’s charade, Wood is wise to anchor the book around Matty entirely.  He narrates throughout, and not only in the standard way we’re used to.  Wood opens with his usual newscast narration, but in a surprising twist on that, it turns out that the newscast is Matty’s.  That’s really, really cool stuff that showcases the new role that Matty finds himself in.  It also helps emphasize how heavily not just this issue, but the events within and the history that will result, revolve around him, that he’s the one shaping public perception and knowledge.

As I said though, strong, laser-like focus aside, this issue is all about that choice, and it’s expertly done.  Wood puts forth the fact that the pursuit and elevation of capital t “Truth, or similar abstract ideals, often conflict and don’t jive with what’s best.  Bold journalistic integrity clashes with pragmatism and the definition and nature of “the greater good” is challenged and reshaped by Wood.

Most interesting is Wood’s decision to use Zee as the vehicle to deliver this message.  Zee’s often been the beacon of integrity and, at times, idealism throughout this series, so for her to come down on exposing the truth in favour of ending the war as quickly as possible, and pointing out that the two aren’t one and the same, speaks volumes.  It’s a nice twist by Wood.

DMZ #62 – Review

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

The Story: We get back to the present day, as Matty Roth finds himself as the eyes and ears at the vanguard of the US invasion of the DMZ.

The Review: I cannot begin to express how relieved and overjoyed I am that Brian Wood has returned the focus to Matty Roth and the main, present-day narrative of DMZ.  Usually, I really like Wood’s in-between short arcs, but I found that the last couple of issues just didn’t grab me and reading this issue, I know why.

The past couple of months lacked a compelling protagonist and the solid character work that Wood excels at.  With Matty back at the helm, all of that’s changed and DMZ has gone back to being the emotionally gripping read that it usually is.  It’s grim, gritty, and desperate, but now that Matty’s back, it also feels intimate and personal in a way that we readers actually feel attached to.  Roth’s narration returns as well, always bluntly honest in message and emotion with hints of self-loathing and cynicism.

The tension this month, heading into this new arc, is certainly palpable and Wood’s doing his best to showcase the bizarre new/old position Matty finds himself in.  It gives the series a good taste of familiarity while also feeling fresh, if not darker.  There’s something uncompromisingly bleak about Wood’s series right now that makes for a unique read.

DMZ #57 – Review

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

The Story: Amina recovers an abandoned baby in the streets of the DMZ, forcing her to grapple with motherhood, her history, and an end to her solitude.

What’s Good: Through this issue, Wood makes it painfully clear how different standards of morality and ethics are in the DMZ.  At times, so different are these standards that it’s tempting to write them off entirely and believe that they’re either non-existent or drastically lesser than our accepted social rules and conscience.  Of course, while events may have us lean in that direction, Wood’s excellent work with main character Amina’s narration quickly chastises us for this consideration; it puts a human face to the situations of this issue and the moral and ethical choices that play out.  The narration complicates things a great deal and makes it clear that morality and ethics are in play, they are simply those of people who are fundamentally damaged and thus they are of a more malleable sort, both forgiving and resigned.  It’s complex and very heavy stuff.

The motherhood side of the issue is also reasonably dealt with, if only because the baby provides an anchor to the otherwise ever-changing Amina.  The situation helps to make the character at least somewhat relatable and sympathetic.  It also allows Wood to analyze and showcase her emotions and her humanity.  There’s both a tenderness and a desperation here that has always been the meat of DMZ.

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 #53 – Review

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

The Story: While the situation in the DMZ worsens, Matty tries to survive his encounter with some unhappy Delgado relations.

What’s Good: As you might expect, MIA has proven to be a real downer of an arc.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.

For instance, look no farther than the issue’s ending, which is a perfect fusion of a smaller, personal tragedy with a larger, more overarching catastrophe.  In a massive bombing, New York City loses a landmark in a catastrophe that also causes Matty to lose one of the landmarks of his time in the DMZ and his life in general.  NYC loses an icon and Matty loses a friend.  It’s a perfect blend of the public and the private.

That’s a theme that goes through much of this issue.  All of the DMZ is united in destruction.  As Matty dives for cover, so too does the faceless host of Radio Free DMZ on the other side of town.  This is a theme that Wood has continually returned to, and it’s always a good one.  It’s also well used by the unifying, desperate voice of the radio transmissions.

Perhaps more powerful than anything else, however, is Matty’s new-found role.  Well, perhaps “newly realized” is more apt.  Matty realizes that he is not a power player or an active participant; he’s a historian.  It’s an empowering moment of self-recognition and a great direction for Matty, and the comic in general.  Best of all is how Wood makes it clear that this is exactly what Matty’s role has been all along.  Though he didn’t realize it, he’d been fulfilling this function through it all, even between his loftier ambitions.

On art, this is some of Burchielli’s best work in a while.  He puts out a ton of emotion.  His explosions are awe inspiring in scale and unity.  Meanwhile, his illustrations of Matty are really well done, particularly when he juxtaposes Matty across the comic’s run, comparing his various physical profiles.  While Wood’s script emphasizes his perpetual role as record-keeper, it’s Burchielli’s art that really makes this realization hit home, drawing together and fusing the various Matty Roths of the past with that of the present.

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.

DMZ #45 – Review

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

The Story: Matty Roth takes on a more pro-active, and more violent, role in Parco Delgado’s government.

What’s Good: When we last saw him in issue 40, Matty Roth had really hit a crossroads in his life, and this issue succeeds in showing a new and very different Matty, one who’s full of confidence, power, and ruthlessness.  Wood achieves this evolution very organically; the Matty we see in this issue, while very different, is nonetheless clearly and distinctly the “Matty Roth” that we’ve grown to know over the course of the series.  Considering how much has changed since his bumbling intern status at the beginning of the series, that’s quite the achievement.

While still maintaining the voice and integrity of the “Matty Roth” character, Matty in this issue sounds a lot more like the major power players we’ve encountered over the series in his intelligence and political maneuvering.  Of course, that also foreshadows the serious shades of grey to come, as those very power players were generally the adversaries.

It’s also great to see Angel  (the sniper who hangs out in his perch all day) back in the mix and playing a more central role.  The guy’s a definite fan favourite and Wood seems well aware of this.

Burchielli puts out some of the best art I’ve seen him draw on DMZ.  While his urban designs and landscapes have always been impressive, and that’s once again the case here, I’ve often found his art to be a bit too “scratchy” or scraggly for my tastes, but everything feels surprisingly crisp and well-defined here.  It’s a very good-looking book with a lot of detail and the haunting, barren, yet super dense architectural work that we’ve come to expect.

What’s Not So Good: While I’m all in favour of this evolution of Matty and believe it’s well done overall, I’m not entirely sure that I buy his actions at the end of this month’s issue.  It’s not so much what he plays a part in or orders, nor is it necessarily in his behaviour.  What I don’t buy is Matty suddenly becoming the tactical field-leader of a unit of commandos.  Did I miss something?  When did Matty become well-trained enough to lead and command a team of soldiers, let alone in the field?  While there’s a definite cool factor in seeing “spec ops Matty,” it’s not believable.  While for most comics, I’d play it to the suspension of disbelief often necessary in the medium, Wood, research-intensive as he is, has never been one to need that card played on his behalf.  Seeing Matty lead a raid and blow people away with an assault rifle also still feels a little weird for the character and still too much of a stretch.  Matty has evolved, yes, but not to the point of being an ice-cold commando.

I also felt Parco to be a little more bland in his dialogue than he usually is.  The basketball court meeting was a nice touch, but the rest of his conversation with Matty just felt a little more lifeless than it could’ve been.  It was clearly more a matter of moving the pieces across the board than anything else.

Conclusion: A good issue that’s solid throughout, before a rather questionable final scene.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans