Broken Frontier

Most people, when they think of New York City, think of Broadway, Times Square or the Statue of Liberty. But there is a different part of the city where shop owners pull down metal shades over their front windows; grime covers graffiti on the walls and the environs look just a little like a war zone.

Perhaps this is what inspired Brian Wood to use Manhattan as the setting for his DMZ series. Or perhaps it was the island’s treatment in the movie Escape from New York where it became a gigantic prison, home to the worst criminals on Earth. Either way, the biggest city in the world is the setting for a tale of a grim near-future for the United States.

DMZ is the tale of the second American Civil War.  Wood describes the series as such in an interview with Publishers Weekly: “Midwestern militia groups revolt against their local governments in protest of rampant U.S. adventurism overseas and, in the absence of the National Guard, are able to gain far more ground than they thought possible. Small insurgent groups pop up in towns and cities across the country, and a sizable force, the Free States Army, pushes toward Manhattan. The city proves too big for them to take, and also for the U.S. Army to defend. The war stalls there, a stalemate, neither side being able to shift things.”

The overall theme of the series is a “what would happen if…” kind of story. This type of story works best while grounded in reality, but with a plausible shift from what we know that takes the story in a new direction. DMZ appears to play into the country’s divisive stand on the War in Iraq and asks what would happen if citizens had enough with the government over this issue and decided to rise up against it.

Of course, the overall subject does ask for a lot of suspension of disbelief. Would militia groups, typically right-wing by nature, in the Midwest, the “Red State” heartland, truly be the first to rise up against the government? And if they did, would they find enough willing allies in the rest of the country to become an army?

Wood diffuses these questions by focusing on Manhattan. The island has become a Demilitarized Zone (hence the title of the series) not due to any treaty or peace accord, but rather because the city is too large for the government to protect and too big for the rebels to take over.

He also uses a young and naïve photojournalism intern by the name of Matty Roth to act as the audience’s representative in this strange new world. We learn about this reality as Matty does, giving the readers an identifiable entryway into the story.

What if you have not been reading the series from the get go, but wish to jump in now? That’s where tomorrow’s issue #12 comes in. It will be a stand-alone issue, written and drawn by Wood, who takes over the art chores from regular series artist Ricardo Burchielli, and will serve as a travel guide to newly war-torn Manhattan. We will get to see how different the city is from the way it is now, therefore gaining more insight into the new reality Wood created.

Also out this week:

• Ultimate Power #1: When Mark Millar introduced the Zombie universe into the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four, fans at first thought Marvel had caved and decided to cross the Ultimate universe over with the mainstream Marvel Universe. Some fans were excited, others were upset, and the idea did garner a lot of reaction.

So, now we have Ultimate Power, which should satisfy both groups of fans. It is a crossover, but with the Squadron Supreme, which are an established team not connected with Marvel proper. What makes this team-up more interesting is that this current Squadron Supreme is like an Ultimate version of the previous Squadron Supreme that was the focus of a 12-issue 1985 series. This makes the pairing we’re about to see seem even more natural.

• The Pirates of Coney Island #1: Maybe I am getting cranky in my old age, but does the solicitation for this series bother you? It calls the title a “riotous, teenage romp through young love, car jacking and gang violence.”  Is “romp” the best word to use in this situation? I could see young love being the basis for a romp, but car jacking and gang violence? Not so much.

The solicitation further reveals that the main character gets his eye sliced out and another meets his maker at the end of a shotgun, more evidence this book will not be a romp. When I hear “romp” I expect something playful and fun. I can’t wrap my head around how maiming and murder could be either. Unless there is some irony here that I am missing (and there very well could be), Image was way off-base calling this comic a romp. Yeah, I know. I’m weird.

• Tales of the Unexpected #1: Much like last month’s Mystery in Space, DC brushes off a classic title for a new 8-issue anthology series. This time around, the book features a lead story featuring the brand new Spectre by David Lapham and Eric Battle and a back up starring a load of z-list DC magic characters by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang.

The first Tales of the Unexpected series ran for 104 issue from 1956 to 1968 before becoming The Unexpected and running for another 118 issues, ending with 1982’s #222. It might have run for a longer stretch of time than Mystery in Space, but it didn’t introduce any major characters during its run. It was, however, one of the premier horror magazines of its day.

• New X-Men #31: This issue marks the end of the first year on the title for writing team Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle, a year filled with a lot of turmoil and a major change in direction for the series. Created by writers Nunzio Defilippis and Christina Weir in the New Mutants, the New X-Men started off as a Harry Potter-like look at the Xavier Academy, with mutant powers replacing magic, but with many of the soap opera elements retained.

One of the critiques of the series was the lack of action in the book. This was taken care of immediately by Yost and Kyle, who introduced their creation, the Wolverine clone X-23, onto the team and wrote more action-packed stories for the comic. They also began killing off members of the original cast at an alarming rate, a tradition which will continue in this issue.

• Darkman vs. Army of Darkness #1: Before he took the reigns of the Spider-Man movie franchise, Sam Raimi created two other properties that were a natural fit for the comic world. His boundary-breaking Evil Dead film franchise culminated in the 1992’s Army of Darkness, which added a sword and sorcery element to the horror. Two years earlier, he was responsible for creating Darkman, perhaps the best comic book movie not to start as an actual comic book. The movie was notable for starring future Oscar nominee Liam Neeson and future Oscar winner Frances McDormand.

Now, Army of Darkness’ Ash is meeting Darkman in a team-up that can only happen in comics.  Written by comic legends Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern and drawn by comic veteran James Fry, this title seems like it can’t lose.    

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William Gatevackes is a professional writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer. He remembers seeing Darkman in theaters when it first came out, and to this day is stunned why it didn’t do better. Sure, it spawned two direct-to-video sequels, but still. Bill also writes periodic comic reviews for PopMatters and writes title descriptions for Human Computing’s Comicbase collection management software.