What Happened to Matty

I admit it, I read comic books. I have for years. It is a source of infinite embarrassment for my wife and equivalent enjoyment for me. See I’m full of surprises. Not only do I read comic books, but I’m married as well.

There are plenty of comic books out there are good for little more than light reading. Featherweight reading. Maybe even just for killing time. Some, however, are so much more. DMZ, for instance, is an amazing book. Writer Brian Wood mined the feelings and attitudes of post 9-11 New Yorkers to create a world where America is embroiled in her second civil war. Manhattan is caught between the united States and the Free States, and Matty Roth is the only embedded journalist. In the four years DMZ has been published Wood has shown impressive character development. Matty Roth has gone from the punk with a bad attitude whose daddy secured his internship, to a mature journalist who cares about showing the wider world the truth about what is really going on in the DMZ. Wood draws from the then, and still, current condition of the world and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for material and brings it home. The setting makes the story more accessible and Wood’s storytelling makes war a tangible thing to those who no personal experience with it.

I have been a huge fan of Wood and DMZ, until now. In the recent series, “Hearts and Minds”, which I will admit I have not read all five issues of, Matty’s development and the comic itself take a darker turn. It wasn’t exactly cheer before. Matty has shed his responsibilities as a journalist and has gotten involved with the politics. He is no longer concerned with telling the true story and has taken to aiding Parco, self-installed political leader of the DMZ, in his quest to establish the DMZ’s sovereignty. As a half-assed journalist myself, this hurts, but only because I am so invested in the character. I really wanted him to do some good as a journalist, but that’s just opinion. The development is realistic, just heart breaking. I don’t know what this move will mean for the over all story, I really need to finish that series, but it does show considerably development in Matty’s character.

I will continue to drink the Kool-Aid on this one. I like Matty’s character far to much to give up on him now. Besides, Wood has a habit of delivering in all of his endeavors (check his DEMO stories, a new series launches this week), so I will hang in for the long haul. If you haven’t done DMZ before, now would be a good time to start.