A Close Look at DMZ part 4: The Matty - Free States Meet Cute

Despite his living in a warzone, what we've seen of Matty Roth's life hasn't been that bad. He has been in danger, even mortal danger, but that doesn't differentiate him from most of the DMZ's residents. So far in Matty's short stay he's been able to do the work he stayed in the DMZ to do, and he's made friends, or at the very least companionable associates, along the way. But being a somewhat public figure in an ungoverned territory dominated by disparate factions and sandwiched between two hostile armies pretty much guarantees that even that limited amount of freedom and autonomy was in danger of being hijacked at some point. And that's exactly what happens in the series' second multi-part story arc, "Body of a Journalist".

Five issues isn't much time to set a tone, but DMZ actually managed to do that with its opening issues. I talked about how chalk full of world building and ancillary character development the opening story arc "On the Ground" was. When Matty chooses to stay in the DMZ at the end of issue three we have a little bit of an expectation of what he's in for and what he's set out to accomplish. "Ghosts" is an excellent follow-up where we get to see Matty actually trying to be the journalist he agreed to try to be. And while "Crosstown" doesn't really advance the journalism idea, it almost suggests that the series could just be Matty's ongoing adventures in the DMZ, exploring the warzone without significantly influencing it--kind of a travelogue. "Body of a Journalist" arrives at the perfect time to declare that no, Matty Roth is probably going to be a big deal in the DMZ.

The following will contain spoilers for DMZ 6-10.

Proof of Life and Death

"Body of a Journalist" opens having taken a noticeable time jump from the previous issue. In "Crosstown" there was still snow on the ground while here the series has moved into summer. And it turns out that summer in the DMZ is always marked by an increase in violence. Liberty tries to convince Matty to come in so they can replace him with a veteran reporter, but Matty refuses insisting he is safe and has built up useful contacts. But for all his bluster, the DMZ is getting to him. After witnessing a random suicide bombing Matty reflects on how the horror of the environment is wearing on him. And this emotional weariness is unfolding at the same time as he's dealing with a decidedly unfun infection that's presumably a result of the city's less than stellar sanitation. So needless to say, Matty isn't in a happy headspace as the story gets underway.

Matty receives a call from the Commander of the Free States army at the Lincoln Tunnel (these were the people Matty encountered at the end of the previous issue when his credentials were returned to him). The Commander would like to sit with Matty for an interview. Matty agrees and arrives at a pre-determined meeting spot only to be hustled into a car, his phone tossed out the window, his hands tied, and a bag over his head. The Commander isn't interested in an interview. He needs Matty as a go-between with the United States because they want to ransom Viktor Ferguson, the reporter Matty entered the DMZ with who was presumed dead but was instead captured by the Free States.

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The Free States forces leave Matty to make his own way back across to United States territory, not even bothering to untie his hands. When Matty does reach the US side of the Brooklyn Bridge he promptly passes out from illness and dehydration. A few days later, after Matty is in better shape, he's debriefed by the United States military, Liberty News, and his father (a Liberty News big shot). They've confirmed what he told them about Viktor Ferguson's capture. Deciding that Matty is in the best position to carry out the transaction, the military and Liberty agree to send Matty back into the DMZ over the Elder Roth's objections. Liberty sets him up with meds, a new phone, new computer equipment, a contract, and a liaison named Eve who happens to be from Matty's home town.

Back in the DMZ Matty meets up with his friend Wilson who checks out his equipment. They conclude that Matty should toss all his new equipment for fear of it being bugged. Matty even decides his antibiotics could be bugged so he flushes them. This leads him to suspect that Eve was chosen to be his handler specifically because he may be more inclined to trust her.

Matty meets back up with the FS Commander the next day to convey the Free States' demands to the United States. The Free States want three minutes' airtime on Liberty News, $120 million, and the United States to cede the entire western half of Manhattan. Eve makes it clear to Matty that this won't fly, but he keeps that to himself. Afterward Matty catches up with Wilson to share a few beers on a rooftop.  They get to talking about the Viktor Ferguson situation. Matty doesn't believe Viktor's worth what the Free States are demanding but thinks that the US probably sees him as some kind of symbol they can't afford to leave in the Free States' hands. Wilson counters, arguing that Viktor's days as a legitimate and respected journalist are over and it's now Matty who's a symbol for people who want the truth.

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That night, after Matty finishes hanging out with Wilson (and perusing his stash of newspapers from when the war began), he meets up with Zee for dinner. While they're eating a a news alert comes on announcing a new US offensive into the DMZ to rescue imprisoned journalist Viktor Ferguson and imperiled journalist Matty Roth. Worse than that, by the next day Liberty News has declared Viktor and Matty dead. The obvious remedy for this disinformation and the only way to prevent the coming invasion is for Matty to prove both he and Viktor are still alive. He crosses the island back to the Lincoln Tunnel only to discover that someone on the Free States side was working against them and set Viktor free. The FS Commander and Matty jump in a car and pursue the fugitive reporter, afraid that if they can't prove Viktor's alive on their own terms the US will keep his survival a secret and continue the invasion. The two get within sight of Viktor who's been delayed by a roadblock Zee put up in anticipation of his arrival. Viktor is proceeding on foot toward the border only to be shot by a soldier in a US military helicopter.

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In the aftermath of Viktor's death, as the United States bombs the DMZ in anticipation of its ground offensive, Matty and Zee are huddled in a subway station with other city residents. That's when Matty's found by Kelly Connolly of Independent World News out of Toronto. Matty caught Viktor's death on camera, and when Kelly suggests he work with her (what with Liberty clearly not concerned about him) Matty shows her the footage. But rather than broadcast the footage, Matty strikes a deal with the United States. He'll sit on the footage if they cancel the invasion, return to the conditions of the last cease fire, make public that he's alive and what truly happened to Viktor, and let Matty out of his contract with Liberty News. As insurance, Matty has spread the footage of Viktor out all over the DMZ with different people he knows. The United States agrees to all terms, and the military pulls back. Matty spends that day and night with Kelly who leaves the DMZ the next day, and he lives to report another day.

More World

"Body of a Journalist" sets out to do two things, and while it may be arguable which of the two is more important, it isn't arguable which is more effective.

The first thing it does, as a matter of world building and plot, is open up our understanding of the conflict. We get our first look at how the Free States operate, and in this case it's via ransom. This lines up more with what we think of as a modern terrorist organization which is consistent with what Matty tells us as he's reading papers describing the origins of the war. He talks about how it's an insurgency happening throughout the country and the Free States are using the kind of asymmetrical warfare that implies.

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This does fly in the face of the visual depiction of the Lincoln Tunnel, though, which shows clearly that it is a border for UN recognized Free States territory. The United Nations generally isn't in the habit of recognizing stateless insurgencies that don't hold territory as actually having territory.

The discrepancy involving the UN is not unique in this series' premise, unfortunately, and it's what makes this part of the story less effective.

Through Matty's examination of the newspapers we learn that there was some kind of uprising in Montana which led to the creation of a separatist government in Helena and the formation of an army that steadily marched east, untouched until it neared the eastern seaboard. The series justifies this by saying that all the country's military assets were abroad fighting various wars in multiple countries.

The idea that the United States would be spread too thin abroad as a result of foreign interventions was in the public consciousness when this was written. It got a boost the year before in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when the federal government proved rather inept in handling the disaster. Indeed, when U2 and Green Day released a video for their cover of "The Saints are Coming" in 2006 it included footage positing an alternate scenario where Iraq troops were redeployed to New Orleans. And given the aggressive anti-terror based foreign policy of the Bush administration (and congress's tendency to be a rubber stamp), it wasn't impossible to envision continued military engagement in more countries.

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The military's absence doesn't make an uprising going without government harassment terribly believable, though. There would still have been state law enforcement available to say nothing about the assorted federal agencies that are usually overeager when it comes to perceived domestic problems; the Waco siege of the Branch Davidian compound was proof of that. And that happened a decade before the citizenry of this country became almost eager to tolerate heightened domestic surveillance at the expense of civil liberties in the name of safety.

The overall problem here is that Wood provides too much information to keep us from asking even more questions, but too little to really make this a plausible backstory. Ultimately these questions and inconsistencies don't break the story or environment. DMZ isn't about the larger world it takes place in. It isn't really about the war, either. It's about the people trapped by it.

More Matty

Far more effective is the second big component of "Body of a Journalist": the huge leap forward in character development it gives to Matty. Before this story Matty was a largely passive character. He reacted a lot. And that's how he spends much of this arc as well. Part one opens with Matty reacting to the horrors he witnesses in the DMZ, prompted by the suicide bombing in the opening pages. After that he gets stuck doing first the Free States' bidding and then the United States' bidding. He's content to be the middle man for both of them, and it's only when he's used as justification for an unwarranted invasion that he's driven to take action.

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Matty's decision to blackmail the United States over Viktor's murder is a pretty big power play. It would have been big for a seasoned veteran, but for an untrained guy who accidentally became a reporter after applying for an internship, it's huge. In an issue and a half Matty vaults into someone with the potential to impact events in the DMZ from this point forward. He also paints a pretty big target on his back.

This kind of sudden leap forward could easily come across as unearned, though. Handled badly it could have read as the writer's hand maneuvering Matty into a pre-set outcome he didn't deserve. But Wood takes Matty through a few reflective, emotional beats along the way that really make it work. First is the beginning of the story with Matty reflecting on "the death and blood and burned bodies." We finally get to see the strong face that he's worn since waking up in Zee's place in the first issue crack. Matty's not superhuman. Which, honestly, the series almost made him out to be up until now. He hasn't buckled much at all under pressure that he was never prepared to experience. Later in the story, as he's dealing with the news that the military is going to avenge his untimely death, Matty slips away for a moment alone before taking action. For really the first time in the series he considers what his actions could mean for the friends that he's made, so he puts aside his paranoia and, in his eyes, puts his life at risk to make sure what he's about to do won't blow back on anyone else.

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The last key personal moment for Matty, the one that really makes his arc in "Body of a Journalist" work for me, comes after he's pulled off the blackmail when he's with Kelly. During the day, while they're together Kelly, he thinks to himself how he finally feels that he fits in and belongs in the DMZ. That night, when he's in bed with Kelly and Zee randomly gets brought up, Matty says that he thinks Zee still sees him as an outsider. The following morning, as Kelly leaves, Matty realizes that he misses his old home. In the space of a day Matty runs through three different takes on just who and what he is in relation to the place he's tried to make his new home. So while the story does show us the potential Matty has, it quickly follows that up with the image of a man who isn't sure of his place in his small corner of the world.

Being Pretty by Not Being Pretty

One final key component to the success of Matty's journey here is Burchielli's art and Cox's colors. He puts Matty through the visual ringer. Those early pages in part one where Matty is on the floor of his flat retching are almost painful to look at. And while Matty's appearance gets progressively better as the story goes on, he never really looks great. He is quite the contrast to Kelly who's so well put together she might as well be out at the mall or in a park or really anywhere that's no a warzone.

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In fact, every character we spend any meaningful time with is quite distinctive. The officers' faces in part two really convey a hard road, no small part of which is certainly a result of this civil war. Throughout the series Burchielli will show a great deal of fidelity to the environment of Manhattan translated into this world. But at every turn it is what he does with these characters that will stand out. We can read into their appearance what their relationship to this conflict is and how hard it's been on them. It may seem counterintuitive to expect main characters in a primarily visual medium to frequently look rough, disheveled, and beat up. But that's pretty much true every time we see Matty or Zee or Wilson or...well, take your pick.

Violence for the Sake of Violence?

The one place where "Body of a Journalist" really stumbles is its over-the-top inciting and motivational moments. The first is the suicide bombing in the opening pages. The attack is made against a truck distributing clean water (at the somewhat exorbitant price of $50 for a fill-up). While it makes sense for desperate people to take exception with price gouging a necessity like water, it's unclear what the benefit to suicide bombing the distribution truck is. Obviously the bomber gets nothing out of it. And he's deprived DMZ residents of the water they need. Why not just seize the truck and kill the people on it?

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Of course, in a time where terrorism is at the forefront of the public consciousness and suicide bombing is a believable threat given the events of 9/11 and attempted attacks in years after, this kind of attack would resonate with the more base feelings of fear and anxiety that may already be at work in its readers. But the bombing is never tied back to the larger plot. Nor is it linked to any known faction in the DMZ that might at least establish a motive however misdirected. It simply happens, and while the event motivates Matty's soliloquy on the horrors in the DMZ, it feels like a cheap attention grabber. This attack even serves to undermine an actual suicide bomber plot point in the next story arc by making such attacks seem commonplace and almost trivial.

Worse than the random and pointless suicide bombing, though, is the actual plot point of Viktor Ferguson's deliberate murder. That Wood wrote this into the story isn't really a surprise. "On the Ground" already presented a scathing critique, fair or otherwise, of the United States military leadership--their eagerness for violence, their disregard for civilians, their poor recruiting and training standards. "Body of a Journalist" is more of the same just stepped up in intensity. And you can be certain that Wood will return to this theme so often that it borders on a trope. In this case it has mixed results.

As far as Viktor's murder relates to this specific story, the incident makes complete sense. It's extreme enough that it pushes Matty to become more proactive, by far, than he's been to this point, and it gives him a believable amount of leverage to blackmail the United States into ending a military campaign. But once you've played the "murder a prominent civilian as a false flag operation to justify a military invasion" card, where do you go from there? Now that we know the United States is willing to go this far, arguably warfare that's as asymmetric as what the Free States are accused of, our default expectation going forward is that if the United States has the opportunity to be corrupt, dishonest, and violent they will be. It renders the generation of tension in relation to the United States nearly impossible: "Will the United States dare to <insert villainous activity here>? Of course they will. They've already done worse."

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Despite these two criticisms, which in my opinion are not minor, "Body of a Journalist" works very well because it more than accomplishes what it sets out to do: the aforementioned expansion of our understanding of the conflict and the believable leap in Matty's complexity. While "On the Ground" is a necessary story to kick off the series, "Body of a Journalist", with its inclusion of Matty's supporting cast and the direct actions taken by both sides of the overarching conflict, feels like DMZ's actual beginning.

Next time: We're introduced to  Zee again, for the first time.

Bomb Strikes With No Lasting Damage

This post: 2

Series Total: 4

Matty's On-Again, Off-Again Liberty Love Affair

Back together with Liberty: ✔ (1 time in total)

Broken up with Liberty: ✔ (1 time in total)

Credits

Brian Wood: writer

Riccardo Burchielli: art

Jeromy Cox: colors

Jared K. Fletcher: letters

For an index of all Close Look at DMZ entries, jump back to the landing page here, and for an issue-by-issue commentary check out Twitter @theroncouch #BWDMZ.

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