A Close Look at DMZ part 8: A Cast of Several

I've claimed several times in previous posts that DMZ is a series about characters in war rather than a series about the war itself. But we've really only had a handful of characters to look at: Matty and Zee primarily with Wilson and Kelly on the periphery and Amina and Soames making contributions before never being seen again. So everyone reading could be forgiven for disbelieving my claim.

Series creator and writer Brian Wood followed up "Friendly Fire", the heaviest story to this point, with the breath of fresh air that is these six character examination issues. Don't let that turn of phrase fool you, though. While these issues do step away from Matty, Zee, and their never ending quest to find meaning and justice in a war zone, they have no less depth. Art, poverty, greed, emotional detachment, culture, spiritual transformation--they're all here, playing out in a war zone. And removed from Matty (mostly), these stories can be told without having to advance a larger narrative of how the DMZ is being changed by the presence of the ersatz journalist main character.

The following contains spoilers for DMZ 23-28.

"Decade Later"

Issue 12 pulled the curtain back from the DMZ and revealed the city's rich, developing culture. Among the characters introduced was Decade Later a middle aged tagger who grew up in New York City and couldn't be chased out by war. The issue opens with Decade braving sniper fire to get across the street and break into a hardware store, his goal to acquire all the spray paint he can. From there the story cuts between the present, the start of the war, and before the war. Based on what we're shown of the past Decade has been a tagger forever, but he's never been interested in just leaving behind "some boring tag" or claiming territory. He wants to share knowledge. He wants people to find his work ten years from now and take meaning from it (that turns out to be the origin of his tag). The remaining scenes from the past show Decade working on an unspecified project having to do with New York subway cars.

In the present Decade Later attends a War Party (basically a catharsis for surviving the latest round of bombing) and meets a fan who he ultimately takes home. While they sit up in bed after sex, Decade describes a project he's been working on for years: tagging the top of subway cars so when they're lined up in their assigned spots in the yard in Queens it will reveal a message in the same way sliding tiles in a puzzle form a picture. The next day, while the guys who "protect" the neighborhood are shaking him down, Decade and the gun toting crew are picked up in a military raid, thrown on a helicopter, and flown out of the DMZ to an unspecified location. On the way out DL is finally able to see his work with the subway cars from the sky: the word "MINE". Knowing he's probably going away for life, he finds satisfaction knowing he's fulfilled his purpose.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 23

Riccardo Burchielli's depiction of Decade Later is almost lighthearted for his work in DMZ. It's nice to see a character that isn't really involved in any kind of DMZ violence or activism. Decade's just out making art, going to a party, and autographing a woman's breast. There's more fun in this single issue than possibly the whole series combined so far ("Random Fire" included). Decade himself has a somewhat unexpected appearance. The time jumps let Burchielli give us multiple looks for the tagger which helps build the character in the limited space he's got; he does a good job of showing Decade's age in his face. And despite the extreme circumstances and the unfortunate situation Decade finds himself in at the end, there's something very ordinary in seeing a non-descript middle aged tagger hard at work on his craft--a reminder that life, somehow, always goes on.

"Decade Later" tells us everything we need to know about the titular character in the opening pages with almost no dialogue as Decade risks his life to steal that spray paint so he can keep tagging. His art is more important than his life. It's most of all he's known. And his desire to leave something behind, something that people will think about now and in years to come, invites us to think about the reason for art. Does it have to have some great reason to exist, a message to convey? Or is simple entertainment enough? For Decade it has to be the former. So does it matter if what the artist creates is ever seen? Decade himself hadn't seen the fruits of his project--his long purpose--until he was carried off in the helicopter, and it's likely few others will ever see it. Many people who create--whether art, music, writing, etc.--will say that they do it because they can't not.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 23

Decade's art, which the war has not kept him from creating and likely never would have if he'd remained in the DMZ, also plays into the idea of the city's residents building their own culture in the years since they were orphaned by their government. So far the extent of leisure we've seen in the DMZ has been a few restaurants. But there's a lot still happening here. The idea of a war party that developed in direct response to the environment and the circumstances. The phrase "you only live once" has long since become a cliché, but why wouldn't people experiencing repeated bombings and military incursions turn to an ethos that embraces the moment?

"Amina"

This issue catches us up with Amina, the would be suicide bomber last seen picking through garbage at the end "Public Works", and fills in a lot of backstory while telling a relatively simple story. The meat of the issue is in the flashbacks. We see Amina from childhood to the present as she faces racism in the wake of 9/11 and then life in the city after the war began. She never seemed to be good enough for whoever she fell in with, most especially not being pure enough for the terrorists and too naïve for Matty. She does remark that racism fell away as a problem, replaced by classicism as everyone in the city dug through it for supplies (the series has offered no new supporting evidence on this point since my critique of "Public Works" so I am not going to address it further in this entry). The Matty memory is especially important. After having had sex with her (remember, Amina was given to Matty as a reward), Matty proceeds to lecture her about making her own destiny and not living by other people's rules only to then toss her aside after having, from Amina's point of view, ruined her life.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 24

In the present we find that Amina has fallen into squalor (even by the DMZ's standards); she doesn't even have shoes. Amina shares a room, not an apartment, with a woman named Tina and her baby. Acquiring basics like food requires working for a local faction. The plot is rather basic. Amina is sent on a courier job to exchange a large amount of money for an unspecified item. Amina gives some of the money to Tina so she can leave this part of the city and then takes the money to where she was instructed only to find out that her intended contact is dead. The issue ends with the man she does find recruiting her for some new, unidentified group.

Amina's story in the present, such as it is, is carried by the art. Yes, there's the very limited plot. But Burchielli sells Amina's life by making her look as different as possible from her first appearance. In the early issues of "Public Works" Amina was a strikingly beautiful woman with a strength about her. Even in the single panel where she's crying as she's fitted with the suicide vest she's not despairing in any way. Here, though, we're reunited with an Amina who's haggard and slumped in on herself, a woman wearing tattered clothes and rags in place of shoes who has obviously fallen to despair. We can imagine her strength bleeding out of her bit by bit since Matty upset the path of her life, and Burchielli never course corrects in the issue. Amina never really recovers that same bearing she used to have, even as she helps her friend.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 24

"Public Works" upset the common perception of a suicide bomber by managing to make Amina somewhat sympathetic (accomplished in no small part through Matty's poor treatment of her). That success in her earlier appearance really makes this issue possible; it doesn't have to do much work to explain Amina's situation or convince us that we should care. It's the first time we've seen this amount of desperation in the DMZ. The series has certainly not shied away from ugly, harsh realities, but for the most part that's been the exception when held up against the kind of lives Matty, Zee, and Wilson lead. In some ways this contradicts the rosier picture painted by Zee in "On the Ground" about how life in the DMZ is, but part of Amina's narrative in this issue does discuss that class stratification still exists in the DMZ. Looking at the city from Amina's point of view in this issue, she really has been screwed over by what must seem like the upper classes.

There is something a little on the nose about Amina, the conventionally worst behaved character we know, seeming to be punished and thrown to the wolves, but it's not something that feels like a moral stance on the part of the series. I describe Amina as the "conventionally worst behaved" character because Matty comes off far, far worse after this issue. In case there was any possible doubt during "Public Works", Matty did have sex with a woman the terrorist cell gave him as a reward. Of the two people in that situation, at least Amina's actions were consistent with her convictions.

"Wilson"

DMZ 25, Danijel Zezelj

Wilson's issue begins with a scene in the present that emphasizes his total control of Chinatown before jumping back to before the war and following him through time until it catches up to the present. Before the war Wilson was mid-level in the Triad, past his prime and unlikely to advance much more. Out of anger over being looked over, Wilson took advantage of the chaos before the war to wipe out his immediate superiors and move up by default. This puts Wilson in a position to consolidate power in Chinatown as the war begins. He isolates Chinatown from the rest of the city and ignores the war raging around him. Even on Day 204 he refuses to take interest. Over time he accumulates more and more money--more than he knows what to do with. So he buys extravagant things. Like a tank. Wilson catches sight of Matty shortly after the young man's arrival and out of boredom as much as anything, takes an interest in him. And while Wilson lets the two armies slug it out, he keeps positioning himself to eventually control the city.

DMZ 25, Danijel Zezelj

Danijel Zezelj handles the art for issue. Wood has said that when he approached Wilson's origin he felt he needed to reign in the more kooky aspects he had written into the character at the start, and he felt that Zezelj's style really brought that to life. Without a doubt he's correct. Zezelj's liberal use of inks turns Wilson into a character that fits into the story Wood set out to tell. For the first time Wilson conveys a sense of power and menace. I don't think this story could have been told using Burchielli's original character design. It absolutely couldn't have been told with Kristian Donaldson's softer style that we saw brought to bear during "Friendly Fire" when we first see who Wilson really is. Additionally, once Zezelj's pencils and inks are complemented by Cox using a darker, heavier color palette, the environment feels connected to Wilson. Chinatown is his world; it's in his blood.

This issue completely transforms how we look at Wilson. Wood's original vision for the character was not of a leader of a criminal organization which became his Chinatown empire. His first appearance in "Body of a Journalist" was just as an old guy neighbor who checked out Matty's tech and seemed a little paranoid. A couple issues later we first encounter Wilson's "grandsons" when they take Matty back to Wilson's Stuytown apartment. The issue 12 "guidebook" shifts his character somewhat and we get the first look at what Wood turned him into during "Friendly Fire". This focus on him, then, is a nice way to smooth out his identity. It does a reasonably good job connecting Wilson's original interactions with Matty to what Wood evolved the character into, and adds potential intrigue to their relationship.

"Kelly"

This is the only one of these six issues that Matty is involved in. It features Kelly Connolly of Independent Television News, the journalist who collaborated with Matty in "Body of Journalist" and "Public Works" and who Matty has had an undefined sexual and possibly romantic relationship with. Kelly's story is set in the recent past and is framed by Matty identifying her dead body in the beginning and going to her funeral at the end. Matty does appear in a few panels, but his primary contribution is to narrate the issue, essentially telling the reader what he knows and believes about Kelly.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 26

Kelly's story primarily follows her on assignment in the DMZ. Her safety is assured by a unit of Free States troops who accompany her. She's determined, reckless, and somewhat detached when she's on the street. There is a short scene with Matty when she proposes an official collaboration. Matty is uncertain if she's doing that because she's emotionally invested in him (at this point he's completely fallen for her) or if she's just using their relationship for professional gain. Late in the issue Kelly comes across a toddler sitting in tattered clothes on a pile of debris all alone. She takes a picture and walks away, leaving her escort to tend to the child. Matty remarks that she got an award for the picture, though she eventually felt bad for what she did. Her biggest, really only obvious emotion in the issue, comes after she sees that one of the men protecting her has lost both legs because of her recklessness.

Visually this is the least distinctive of the six issues which may be a consequence of it being so heavily tied to Matty's ongoing narrative. Burchielli doesn't get to explore a new character or a change to an existing character's circumstance. What we see of Kelly is what we've seen before, and because she doesn't really develop over the course of the issue, except perhaps on the last page that she's seen alive, that emotional detachment doesn't invite anything visually captivating. None of this is to say that the art is bad. Burchielli brings his usual high quality to the issue, and it does fit into the world he's created for the series. But it's just not as compelling an experience as we find with the other characters.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 26

As a character story "Kelly" is the weakest of these six solo issues because it isn't really about Kelly but about what Matty thought of Kelly. This shortcoming is baked in at the beginning with the frame device of Matty responding to Kelly's death. The reader's interest in Kelly is pretty much capped at wherever it is when the issue begins (based on her four prior appearances). Unfortunately Kelly wasn't a very fleshed out character coming into this issue. She was little more than a plot device most of the time: the way to resolve both "Body of a Journalist" and "Public Works". So what we're left with is Matty telling us about a character we barely know who we'll never see again, and unfortunately that's complicated by Matty's admitted confusion of some of her motives and feelings.

What the issue succeeded at, though, is being a consideration of the (perhaps necessary?) emotional detachment that comes as a result of being surrounded by traumatized people living through traumatic events. Matty ends the issue not even knowing exactly what he meant to Kelly, and this makes sense. What little we do know about Kelly is that she's been at this a lot longer than Matty, and she's a lot better at it. This culminates in the moment between Kelly and the child which Matty defends as Kelly just doing her job in that moment (and he assures us she would have been guilty over it for the rest of her life). It's interesting that the implied moment of her death came after the strongest emotional, human response we've seen from her all issue (and possibly in all of her appearances combined).

"Random Fire"

Nathan Fox, DMZ 27

In what is the greatest example of DMZ culture yet, this issue follows DJ Random Fire to an underground club (literally--it's in a basement) where he's supposed to headline the night. It turns out, though, that he's been bumped for DJ Grendel who's from Tokyo and is the most in demand club DJ in the world. Random Fire ends up at the bar where he meets a woman, Ingrid, who used to work for Trustwell. She thinks that DJ Grendel is being used as a diversion for some Trustwell goons to moonlight in the DMZ and shoot up the club (she bases this suspicion on the number of white guys in the club which is another failure in the idea that the DMZ is somehow post-racial). Random Fire meets Grendel when he walks in the club. Grendel pleads with Random Fire to let him do his show and asks Random Fire to introduce him. Random Fire takes the opportunity to warn everyone about Trustwell and urge them to leave the club. Meanwhile Ingrid is elsewhere in the basement exchanging fire with the Trustwell team. The confrontation ends when Ingrid shoots a man who detonates a grenade, blowing up the basement moments after Random Fire escapes.

Nathan Fox returns for art duties this issue, and he makes it a lot of fun. That same sense of chaos he used to great effect in the PFC Stevens flashbacks in "Friendly Fire" returns here, and it makes the club interiors feel rich and alive. Fox heavily lines his characters and environments which creates a sense of depth and layers. The result is expressive characters which is especially true in the case of Ingrid who in the writing feels somewhat two dimensional but who really comes alive in the art.

Nathan Fox, DMZ 27

It's unfair to measure a story that was told against the story that I wish had been told, but "Random Fire" makes it really hard to avoid doing. The story starts off in a place reminiscent of "Decade Later" with an exploration of how the DMZ is still vibrant with its own culture--in this case music. Through DJ Random Fire the issue appears set to explore the dynamic of a less privileged people struggling to live through a war being exploited by those on the outside hoping to use them as a backdrop for their own fame and fortune. Would the response to this kind of exploitation be unanimous among DMZ or residents, or would there be a split in how DJ Grendel's actions are perceived--especially since he's performing for them. Instead that thread is sidelined for a generic "Trustwell is evil" plot that will become all too common in the series, and it's made even worse here where there isn't enough time to make us care about the Trustwell shenanigans against this random club of people (perhaps if the Trustwell violence had been targeted against the title character as an integral part of DJ Grendel's appearance?). Ultimately this issue feels like a missed opportunity--the failure to finish the story that it began.

"Soames"

The Ghosts were introduced in issue 4. Matty suspected at the time that they were soldiers who deserted at the start of the war, and this issue confirms exactly that. Soames joined up with the Free States out of a desire to do right by his country (as he saw it), but by the time he reached the New Jersey side of the state border he'd become disillusioned with the movement finding the people in it to be nothing but rednecks full of hate. He swims across the Hudson, which he notes is full of bodies, the first chance he gets. Soames ends up sick off the water, passes out for days, and stays sick for another four. His intention is to defect which requires him to walk across the island. The army combat has stopped, but the city is still unsafe--it takes Soames two days just to go four blocks.

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 28

Despite doing his best to avoid gangs and snipers Soames eventually takes a bullet to the head. It's pretty mild, a little more than a graze. He goes down. As the gang that shot him steals what little Soames has on him and drags him into an abandoned building, he hallucinates himself in full hunting gear lying in a field on bones. Waking up some time later, Soames continues his journey, and he starts to feel a sense of freedom in the city. He doesn't see a reason to belong with the United States anymore than he did the Free States. Finally he gets to within several yards of the border at which point he starts hallucinating again. He's surrounded by deer running through the streets, and he makes his decision to stay in the city. As he turns away from the border he walks toward grassy hills and a snowcapped mountain that only he can see.

"Soames" greatly benefits from Burchielli's work by revisiting a character he's already drawn and, like Amina, showing him in another situation. The buttoned up, somewhat regimented, very hard ass looking guy from "Ghosts" is really nowhere to be seen here. Even before the hallucinations set in, Soames is kind of a mess and, not surprisingly given what he goes through crossing the island, he falls apart more and more as he goes. The weariness he expresses through narration is plainly visible on his face. That also serves as an effective contrast to the wonder he exudes on the closing pages. Burchielli make us believe this transformation that Soames has gone through (and the hallucinations that bring Soames to this transformation get a little extra punch from Cox brining those bright colors of nature to what's usually the more muted tones of the urban setting).

Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ 28

Turning Soames into a man whose extreme conservativism was inspired by visions is not a direction I expected for the character. The Soames at the start of this issue fits entirely with the character we've already met, and it would have worked just as well to stick with the initial defection storyline and build upon it a conventional environmentalism or some kind of regret at seeing Central Park slipping toward loneliness and disrepair as the war comes to the city. But having him go from would-be defector to someone who, on his journey toward the United States border, grows disillusioned by both sides and finally discovers a new life thanks to hallucinations resulting from an injury sustained in the DMZ--it's an unexpected story of spiritual rebirth that makes his hardline character more complicated and even adds an undercurrent of fanaticism.

Credits

Brian Wood: writer

Riccardo Burchielli: art, issues 23-24, issue 26, and issue 28

Danijel Zezelj: art, issue 25

Nathan Fox: art, issue 27

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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