The Department of Truth vol. 1: The End of the World
…at least, that’s what I thought until I read this. The idea that all conspiracies are true isn’t a new one, Grant Morrison built “The Invisibles” out of it after all. Neither is the fact that a shared collective belief can change the world, as we saw that in “The Sandman.” What writer James Tynion IV and artist Martin Simmonds have done is find a way to fuse the two in a way that channels “Control” more than “The X-Files” as this is more about the people tasked with maintaining the status quo more than subverting it (so far). It also tackles the fluid nature of truth in our modern society in a way that’s as exciting as it is disturbing with a first volume that isn’t afraid to show you what kind of monsters are lurking the further down the rabbit hole you go.
The person actually taking a trip down said rabbit hole is Cole Turner. He works for the FBI as a teacher specializing in conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. It’s how he finds himself attending a Flat Earth Society gathering at the start of one weekend and then being interrogated by two agents working for an unknown government agency at the end of it. You see, Cole saw something when the Flat Earthers flew him to the edge of the map that weekend. Now these two agents, Lee the Director, and Ruby the Agent want him working for the Department of Truth.
What is the department responsible for? Making sure that our reality doesn’t disintegrate around us in a flurry of reptilians, chupacabras, satanic pedophiles, and crisis actors for starters. In the world of “The Department of Truth” reality can be shaped if you get enough people to believe in something. It’s the Department’s job to make sure that conspiracies stay just that and don’t start to play a significant role in our world. The thing is that there are those who think differently. That the majority should be able to shape reality the way they want, since that may have been how the Department was founded in the first place.
My issue with Tynion has always been that he’s too straightforward a writer for my liking. What I’ve read of his work through “Detective Comics” and more recently with his smash-hit “Something is Killing the Children,” has always shown a good understanding of the fundamentals of quality genre, but rarely showcases anything new or inventive. With “The Department of Truth,” the writer has flipped that straightforwardness from a liability into an asset.
This is a series that thrives on the idea that the weirdness on the fringes of society is finding its way into the center and Cole’s adventure in the first issue showcases that idea really well. Our point-of-view-protagonist is given a look behind the curtain and the end result is as unnerving to the reader as it is to the man itself. Had this just been all there was to the first issue, it would’ve been a strong opening. Except that Tynion delivers a genuine surprise on the last page with the Director’s full name. In one swift, exciting move he ties the series to one of the biggest conspiracies out there and immediately has you wondering how it played out here.
From this first issue we get a series of one-off stories to give us a better look at the members of the Department of Truth and how they go about their jobs. It’s a surprisingly small cast for a whole “Department” and most of them fit into familiar character types: The obese media savant, the, edgy hacker, a guy who actually wears tinfoil on his head. We don’t see a whole lot of them here but they manage to be comfortingly rather than irritatingly familiar in this volume. Ruby and Lee get much more facetime here, though the latter is more fleshed out than the former. She fits right into the role of seen-it-all veteran and we get to see that she’s very good at her job (95% of the time).
Lee is easily the most interesting character in the series so far, and not just because of his ties to that one big conspiracy. As the director, he knows how the Department, and more specifically truth is supposed to function in this series and he has no problem explaining it all to Cole (and by extension, the reader). This is bes seen in the fourth issue as the two of them listen in on some reporters who think they’ve figured things out and Lee tells Cole why conspiracies like “Pizzagate” and “Obama is a Secret Kenyan” are so dangerous. The reasons he gets are an effective blending of fact and fiction that further broaden the scope of the series and give the reader a good idea of where it’s going next.
That said, if the thought of seeing those conspiracies used for entertainment value disturbs you, then “The Department of Truth” might not be for you. Tynion clearly wants the series to be reflective of the real world and I can understand if people aren’t going to want to read about that right now. However, the writer is good at using them to get under your skin even if there are some lines it’s clear that he doesn’t want to cross.
Take the third issue, for example, as it’s all about crisis actors and an incident that’s clearly meant to be the Sandy Hook massacre and Alex Jones’ horrific exploitation of it. Ruby and Cole may be going to one victim’s house to follow up on a potential lead about the Department’s opposite number, but the story’s real drama comes from getting inside that woman’s head. Seeing how her perception is warped by grief and misplaced hope is definitely not easy, but it’s a harrowing example of these kinds of conspiracies can take root.
Oh, and when I mentioned “opposite number” in the above paragraph, I’m talking about the organization that opposes the Department. Because of course there’s one. Right now, though, they’re not all that interesting as they come off as more outright evil than ideologically opposed. They make some interesting points about the Department, which I’m sure will be followed up on later, but they’re the least interesting part about this series right now.
For a series that treats reality as subjective, it’s fitting that it’s being illustrated by someone who clearly takes after one of comics most impressionistic artists. Said impressionist is Bill Sienkiewicz and the artist of this series is Martin Simmonds, who clearly worships at the man’s throne. Not that this is a bad thing, seeing as how Sienkiewicz hasn’t done much sequential art lately, it’s actually kind of refreshing to see someone do their own take on his style. Which is how the series winds up with a very dark, scratchy look to it where the art feels like it’s coming from a far more sinister world. Granted, sometimes Simmonds’ art can come off as too impressionistic as there was a double-page spread in the first issue which was meant to reveal a key plot point, but left me with no idea of what I was looking at. Fortunately that was the only time I had that problem in this volume and art that was “too murky” only cropped up occasionally.
While I’m very likely off the “Something is Killing the Children” boat, I’ve got no problem stepping on the one for “The Department of Truth” after this first volume. I’ll admit that I had some low expectations for this series going in, what with Tynion’s previous track record, but “The End of the World” did a remarkable job of putting them to rest. This volume took a long time to arrive as it was part of an order that took over a month to be processed. Retrospectively, that’s not a bad thing as it saved me a month of anticipation over when vol. 2 is going to come out. Which is November, in case anyone is wondering.