What I’ve Been Reading: DMZ vol. 8: Hearts and Minds

The last time I talked about this series, I mentioned how it was setting the stage for war journalist turned political player Matty Roth’s downfall.  While Matty has proved adept at reporting and putting human faces on the crises of the DMZ, he has always been one step behind the political and military forces that shape the area.  Even the one he voted and now works for, Parco Delgado.  With that as a setup, the stage was set for him to have a downfall that would make the trials of Dash Bad Horse over in “Scalped” look like the day at the beach.  Long story short, that is what happens and the result is an engrossing, if depressing, read.

That’s not how this volume starts off, though.  In the opening arc, “No Future,” we get an inside look at the militia organization that has made its home in the ruins of the Empire State Building.  These guys spend their time shut off from the outside world, engaging in group therapy, and affirming and re-affirming their bonds as comrades before heading out into the city to try and restore order.  If that sounds like cultish behavior to you, then you’re not far off as we get to see the inner workings of their organization through the eyes of one of their soldiers, Tony, who lost his family when everyone got out on Evacuation Day.

While Tony finds some solace in this setup and in following the orders that come down from above, we see firsthand the toll that his survivor’s guilt takes on him and how he eventually commits to doing something you usually don’t hear about outside of the Middle East.  It’s a well-drawn setup that gains added depth in the talks Tony has with his superiors.  Though the people on his level may be good soldiers with lots of psychological issues, the people above them know how to manage that and find ways to use the political situation to their advantage.  Everything in this story feels entirely plausible and is all the more compelling as a result, and due to Ryan Kelly’s art.  Regular artist Riccardo Burchielli is no slouch, but as with Kelly’s other work with writer Brian Wood (“Local,” “Northlanders:  The Cross + The Hammer,” and “The New York Four”) he shows that he’s not just talented at drawing scenery and depicting action, but that he can make his characters’ emotional states visible on the page.

As for the title story, things pick up with Matty announcing to the world that Parco’s government is now a nuclear power.  This doesn’t sit well with what remains of the United States government and they immediately begin making plans to deal with it.  In the meantime, we get a look at what Matty has become now that he has worked his way into a position of power within Parco’s organization.  Previous volumes have shown that Matty has essentially gone and “drank the Kool-Aid” when it comes to his faith in the governor, and the results of that are shown here as he and the team of commandos assembled under his watch head out into the city to solve Parco’s problems using means both violent and non.

Things come to a head after Matty is attacked by U.S. troops and the location of Parco’s nuke is revealed.  In these moments, we see that Parco is almost as canny a political operator as he has made himself out to be and that Matty is a petty fool who had no right to the power he was given.  Much as I’d like to congratulate myself for seeing this coming, it’s still depressing since the outcome was so obvious (though the way it got there wasn’t).  Also, much as the political maneuvering on every side of the conflict is engaging to watch, this is still a very depressing situation to watch unfold.  I’m not about to suggest that Wood inject some of the over-the-top “How screwed is he now!” drama that Jason Aaron brings to “Scalped,” but a greater focus on the politics would make the events here more interesting.

That being said, I am still very interested in seeing where Wood goes with Matty from here.  Cut off from his friends and family, a pariah in the most dangerous place on Earth, the smart thing for him to do would be to get the hell out of town and not look back.  Yet Matty has never been one to do the smart thing, and it’ll be interesting to see him try to repair the bridges he’s burned in this volume.  Assuming he survives, as there are lots of people in DMZ’s supporting cast who would be fine replacements for him as a main character.