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DMZ, Vol. 11: Free States Rising (2012)

by Brian Wood(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1401233899 (ISBN13: 9781401233891)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

DC Comics

series

DMZ

review 1: The penultimate volume of the excellent DMZ-series "Free States Rising" offers a major climax for the saga. The series has depicted a decade in the life of free reporter Matty Roth who has been reporting from Manhattan which has turned into a demitilarized zone in a future American civil war. In this volume the end of that war is in sight one way or the other; violent times threaten to tear up the DMZ unless the political checkmate it has become will be resolved in a not-so-obvious way.Matty needs to make heavy moral choices and face up to his own involvement in some of the atrocities the war has entailed, involvement that has often been tragically ill-informed but voluntary, as it so often is in war.This is dramatic material and it perfectly resonates with the series as a... more whole. There have been such wonderful political ambivalences and grey, analytical stories in DMZ and "Free States Rising" continues on the same path of accomplishment and nearly finishes it. It's clear that this was pretty much it for the big picture. In a smart move Wood has reserved the last volume for a fade-out. All the grand drama- at least on the very big scale- seems to be handled here and handled well.
review 2: I used to be a big fan of comics and graphic novels over thirty years ago, but haven't read any until recently, after purchasing a Kindle Fire and trying a few DC Comics in Kindle format. I received this book as part of a Good Reads giveaway. This not your typical comic book by any means. There are no super heroes here. Instead, this book posits a near-future civil war in the United States, waged between the military establishment and the "Free States of America" movement. Most of the action takes place in a nearly abandoned New York City and the efforts of reporter Matty Roth to bring about an end to the war. There is a short "prequel" story at the beginning of the book detailing the early days of the "Free States" movement. This is the 11th volume of 12 in this series, so I'm coming into this story very late; making it a bit hard to comprehend what was going on. However, there is much to like here. The art is excellent, with a nice edginess and realism. The inclusion of news reports detailing the history of the war helped me make sense of things, and the excellent story moves at a speedy pace. Characters are all shades of grey here, which makes things more compelling, and it nice to read a graphic novel with mature themes and intelligent ideas. Jumping into this series so late is a bad idea, however, so I would like to go back and read some earlier volumes to catch up. less

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