Rate this book

DMZ, Vol. 9: M.I.A. (2011)

by Brian Wood(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1401229964 (ISBN13: 9781401229962)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Vertigo

series

DMZ

review 1: Volume 9, MIA, picks up with a series of short pieces about various people in the DMZ (Wilson, Zee, Kelly, Business Investors, Soames, the leader of the FSA, etc.). There's some very good stuff there, which does a great job of further expanding our knowledge of these people and the situation around, and catching up with people we've maybe not seen for a bit.The main storyline, MIA, picks up after the explosive finale of Vol 8...Matty is now living in self-imposed exile in the outskirts of Manhattan. Between his responsibility for the execution of 12 civilians, and his involvement with Delgado Nation securing, and then detonating a nuclear weapon outside of NYC, Matty is at the lowest point we've ever seen him.He wants to get away from everything and everyone, and he's abo... moreut as wracked with guilt and self-pity as a person can get. Between the Liberty News 24/7 radio broadcasts and the Radio Free DMZ, we get a narrative of what is happening on the ground as well. It feels like Matty is ready to swallow a bullet or 2 at this point, but comes across something that gives him just enough motivation to pull himself together, brave his way all the way back across town, through nuclear fallout and warzones, airstrikes from the USA, and people hunting for him.He is caught by people looking for Parco Delgado (who has vanished from the DMZ altogether) but they're not the people you thought they would have been...Matty is prepared for the worst, and actually seems to feel that he deserves nothing but that, yet at the 11th hour, an unexpected offer comes his way from a very unexpected source.This is back to the high level we've come to expect from the series, as Wood presents us with a man left with nothing but guilt for the crimes/terrorism he's helped perpetrate. A man who doesn't feel he deserves salvation, who wants to pay for his guilt, yet somehow finds a sliver of possibility for a small measure of salvation. This is also one of the best volumes in the series for paralleling the Iraq/Afghan wars, and how the USA's strikes against terrorist in the enemy camp mean that 'those who are innocent have nothing to fear' while they bomb the shit out of those innocent people's lands and homes in some supposed attempt to get at Delgado Nation supporters/fighters. Now those 'Bush Doctrine' pre-emptive strikes are aimed at Americans, and the irony is full on for those who can see it for what it is. It's a scathing indictment of US war on terror, and how humanity is a very easy thing for a man to lose after 4 years in a non-stop war zone. The salvation Matty is able to find isn't an easy one, but he does find the means with which to seek that through continuing what he was first sent to do. In many ways the last panels of this volume constitute a rebirth for Matty, and a chance to start all over as a wiser, more hardened Matty where it all began in issue #1.Fantastic work here, just a writer at the peak of his prowess. Terrific stuff.
review 2: While I feel like the methods Wood used to get Matty Roth to where he is in this volume were a little cheap and unfounded, I have to say I really like what he's doing with the aftermath. Having essentially ruined his own life, credibility, integrity, oh, every aspect of his personality that made him likable, now Matty Roth is dealing with it. What we get in this volume is an honest, fairly heartbreaking deconstruction of the central character Wood has spent so much time developing, and I very much enjoyed the arc this one took.I will say, I'm a little disappointed with how the Parco storyline has progressed. Parco was a very important, polarizing, yet realistic warlord-esque leader of Manhattan, and then when stuff started getting rough he just disappeared. Not just from Manhattan, but from the stories of DMZ itself. He's referred to and everyone wants to know what happened to him, but it feels pretty nuts that Wood seems to have just dropped any investigation into what went wrong with Parco. We had a very clear and interesting development of that character, and then all of a sudden he's just not around. It felt like this was going to matter somehow, to either show something about Parco's ideals or how he further affects the US or Free States, or even Matty, but no. He just kind of fades away. It feels like a missed opportunity that I hope gets cleared up or explored in the final volumes of this series.Other than those few letdowns here as we approach endgame (which are present in this book due to a few circumstances I won't spoil), I have really liked the direction Wood has pushed this series. What started as a ground-level exploration of journalism and life in a warzone has turned into a huge character story, focusing on how that warzone has torn apart a single man just trying to do right by it. Plot contrivances aside, this is a great series. less

Download links for: DMZ, Vol. 9: M.I.A.

Advertising