DMZ #57
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Art by CLIFF CHIANG
Cover by JOHN PAUL LEON
Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99
This review contains spoilers, click here to read
Brian Wood demonstrates once again why he's one of the modern masters of the single issue story, this time focussing on would-be suicide bomber Amina from a couple of years ago. There have been times when this series has wobbled and lost it's way but whenever Wood gives us something a little more self-contained he always brings the magic.
The story has Amina finding an abandoned baby during the current bombing campaign, and the effect of that discovery on her. I don't recall ever really noticing children in the DMZ throughout this five year run, and it was intersting to see this subject get brought up. As evidenced in so many modern, real life war zones, there's no magic wand to teleport the kids away from harm yet they can seem forgotten in the wider focus of the war games adults seem to love to play. In caring for the child Amina seems to discover a kind of redemption, further proven by her actions when the child's mother comes looking for her. The mother did indeed abandon her baby deliberately and the first instinct for both reader and Amina is to judge her absolutely. Wood asks you to think again, to consider just what it must mean to spend every waking second trying to protect your defenceless baby against the indiscriminate dangers of a war. It's a beautifully written and challenging narrative, and will really make you think.
The art is the icing on the cake. A lot of the advance listings I saw for this book kept showing Nathan Fox on art duties, until DC seemed to finally correct them last week and announced that it was definitely a book drawn by the excellent Cliff Chiang. (Nothing wrong with Fox, but come on! Cliff Chiang!) His pencil line seems less smooth here, clean inks giving way to something a little grittier and more appropriate to the subject matter. It really worked for me as it's still clearly Chiang. I'm not quite sure what it is about his work I love, because it has a deceptive simplicity. I guess it's the fact that there's not a line wasted, something that is a true testament to the man's talent. If you don't normally read the book, this art is more than enough reason to pick this issue up alone.
I'll make mention of the cover work too, by John Paul Leon. Leon's one of my favourite artists at work today, and he doesn't do enough sequential work (although at least he hasn't abandoned it altogether). These DMZ pieces are brilliant examples of his design skills. The art styles he's been employing are somewhat different to his usual stuff, and these pieces are perfect for this book.
DMZ's something of a forgotten gem from Vertigo and it's headed towards it's end. It's never, ever been anything less than interesting and unique and at times like this it still has the ability to throw us a real gem.
Art: 5 - Excellent
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