Off The Shelf -- Department of Truth #3 Review

 

 

Review: Department of Truth #3
By Samuel Blair


Written by James Tynion IV
Art and letters by Martin Simmonds, Aditya Bidikar and Dylan Todd


There has been talk among academics and philosophers that we are living on the edge of a post-truth world, that is if we haven’t slipped over the edge already. Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Bristol in Australia, wrote that an increasing distrust in science and experts in general, coupled with growing economic inequality, the polarization of popular discourse, and an increasingly fractured media landscape have led to a culture context where what is real and what is fake is becoming less shaped by reality and more shaped by popular opinion. He writes, “Imagine a world in which it is not medical knowledge but a free-for-all opinion market on Twitter that determines whether a newly emergent strain of avian flu is really contagious to humans. This dystopian future is still just that – a possible future.” Tynion removes that last conclusion and instead imagines a world where truth really is shaped by opinion.


In issue one Tynion through his protagonist, FBI Agent Cole Turner, introduces the concept of tulpa, an idea borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism where a being or object is created through the sheer force of will and belief. The premise of the comic is that the spread of lies, conspiracy theories and misinformation through mass media threatens the fabric of reality itself. The Department of Truth, headed of course by Lee Harvey Oswald, tries to stop these false truths from rewriting actual reality.


The comic deals with such conspiracies such as flat-earthers and the satanic panic of the 80’s in highly personal ways. In issue 3 we see this in the story of Mary, a mother whose son was killed in a school shooting. She’s hounded by those who see the story as made up, a “false flag” designed to take away the guns of the populace. In her grief she starts to doubt her own sanity, and is approached by a group called “black hat” who convinces Mary that her son may really be alive in an effort to rewrite reality. Cole and his partner Ruby are tasked with confronting Mary in an effort to keep that from happening, which also means keeping Mary’s son dead.


Mary’s story is heart-wrenching in the way that most of the others are not. There are things, especially in times of great loss and change, that we just don’t want to be true. These changes are always difficult to accept, and even when we do we can end up holding two competing and irreconcilable “truths” at the same time as we try to cope and adjust. The author Joan Didion for example wrote that for some time after her husband’s sudden death she could get rid of most of his clothes but not his shoes. Because, she thought, what if he comes back and needs shoes?


While Department of Truth deals on one hand with the repercussions of living in a time where fringe ideas are becoming more acceptable and everything is a matter of opinion, it also deals with the personal struggles of trying to understand and accept what is true, especially when that truth is something you want to avoid. There are some lies we tell ourselves just to get through the day, acting “as if it is” because we can’t bear to live in a world where “it isn’t”. Other times we’re told the same lie about ourselves, that we’re not good enough, a failure, not deserving of God’s love, that we start to believe them. Unlearning these false narratives, in real life as well as in the comic, is not accomplished by simple revelation of fact. It’s painful, messy, and complicated.


Department of Truth feels very much like the X-Files: two investigators deal with conspiracy theories that have moved from fiction to fact. Both seem like polar opposites at times, with Ruby the cold logical thinker while Cole struggles with his own demons as well as the demons created by the lies around him. The art is often surreal, with grainy, washed-out colors that seem downright apocalyptic at times. Everything, even the lettering, seems off and unreal. It’s unnerving at times and definitely more in the “horror/thriller” side of the shelf than the “hero” side. It does contain mature subject matter and language, and some of the content may be difficult for some readers. However if you dig the horror genre and thought X-Files could have used a bit more paranoia, insanity and despair, this will be right up your alley.


Department of Truth issue 5 is currently on the shelves and you can probably still pick up back issues at your local comic store of choice. A TV series based on the comic, with Tynion and Simmonds serving as executive directors, is in the works.

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Off The Shelf -- Future State Swamp Thing #1-2

If you are a reader of regular DC titles, you will know already that you haven’t seen your books since last year. DC paused all of its titles for January and February so it could bring us the Future State event. Future State comes at the end, and as the aftermath, of Death Metal. The multiverse explodes with possibility and DC is showing us a vast realm of potential stories.

As someone who adores the old Elseworlds titles, there is a resonance with some of those. Not in the Batman as a vampire sense, but in the let’s ponder some other possible stories. We see a new Batman in Luke Fox, even while Batman continues to battle the Magistrate. And new Wonder Woman characters in Yara Flor and Nubia that coexist alongside Diana Troy. A whole new multiverse appears to be upon us for the intertestamental period after Death Metal and before Infinite Frontier.

A few complaints have of course arisen that it just seems like a testing ground for new characters. Others have mentioned that there is no real reason to get connected to these characters because they will mostly be gone after February. To be fair however, many of these stories are interesting ideas and one of the reasons that I enjoyed picking them up is precisely because I needed very little background. There was no continuity to deal with. No stack of back issues to plow through to understand how the families of stories fit together. Nope. None of that. Just some cool (mostly) stories that I can pick up, enjoy and not worry about larger ramifications. 

One of the Future State titles that I picked up was precisely because I thought I needed very little knowledge of. While I have had volumes one and two of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing on my shelf for a while now, I have not read it. So I picked up the Future State Swamp Thing, with the creative team Ram V writing, Mike Perkins drawing and June Chung with the colors. I had only the slimmest passing knowledge of the character, knowing that Swamp Thing showed up in various Justice League endeavors, like the recent Endless Winter event, or Justice League Dark. 

This independence gave me the freedom to pick it up. And for the most part I am glad I did. The first thing to notice is that the style of this book is different. The other titles I read have an art style indicative of most comics currently. Distinct colors with a limited pallet and what I can only describe as well-behaved shadow. Shadows cast neat lines. THey do not bleed into everything, creating murkiness and chaotic shapes that obscure faces and structures. Much of the art reminds me of the horror comics my great-grandmother used to unknowingly buy me. (Or if she knew, she never let on… ) And it plays well in this tale. 

The story takes place long in the future when humanity has been destroyed by the world; nature itself responded to the violence that humanity foisted upon the earth and was ultimately wiped out. In the aftermath, Swamp Thing is left as ruler over all the earth, at least ruler wherever the Green, the planet’s life force, has a foothold. Swamp Thing is recounting this history to his daughter Calla. Humans, he tells her, were flawed creatures; so capable of amazing change, but preoccupied with violence. 

 Since the end of humanity, Swamp Thing has been engaged in the creation of his own family. Throughout the two volumes there are asides where Swamp Thing details the steps he took in creating his own family, harnessing the power of the Green, manipulating the plant growth to produce offspring, earning the title Green Father. We see a large band of this family, but become acquainted with only a few. The child Calla, the favored Heather, the cynic Indigo, the older Vruk. The family exists to aid their father in searching for any remaining human beings. A great mystery to the family since Swamp Thing never tells them why they are engaged in the search. 

But by the end of the first issue, humanity has been discovered, far away in the North where the Green has no power for lack of plants. And at least part of humanity seeks aid from the legendary thing from the swamp because there is still some element of humanity that seeks to ensure that the Green is wiped out since nature was the downfall of humanity. 

Leading that endeavor is Jason Woodrue, the former worshipper of the Green. Woodrue, who went so far as to attempt to transform his body into a walking facsimile of Swamp Thing in hopes that he would be accepted and welcomed into the Green itself. Their spurning of his effort, along with their destruction of humanity, turns Woodrue into a spurned zealot who now with the help of the corpse of Obisidian and his power of shadow, will blot the sun out completely. This action will guarantee that the Green and all of its power will be destroyed. Humanity will ultimately win the contest. 

Frankly, this rationale is the weakest part of the otherwise tight story. The darkened earth will be a hellscape for the remnant of humanity. How they plan to survive is unknown, although it does appear that the humanity engaged in this Obsidian Sun project has control over a former Star Labs facility and were growing plants for food without the Green knowing about it. It is entirely possible that they had some plan, but they never even mentioned it. 

 In the end, it matters little whether Woodrue is successful or not. It matters only that Swamp Thing’s tale about humans and their pre-occupation for violence is still very much alive, nurtured carefully through those cold dark years in the North.. Swamp Thing, his family and the rebel humans respond to the violence Woodrue and his minions are about to inflict on the earth with their own. The battle scene is only a few pages, but is left within my memory as a major part of the book. Swamp Thing’s power made manifest as he and his band plow through the facility with ease. 

But in the end, Swamp Thing is forced to do two things. First, he must finish the story he would always start with Calla, but never conclude. He must be honest that it was he who the Green used to overcome humanity. His violence as the ruler of the earth punishing the wayward humans. Second, Swamp Thing had to make a terrible choice and undergo a great sacrifice. Was his effort in pursuing any remnant of humanity about wiping them out? In the end, no. He refused the calls of his family, his own creation, a people over whom he labored long, for their violence against them. At their anger Swamp Thing chooses an unbearable sacrifice, one which he is incredibly familiar given the unfinished part of his tale. Ultimately though, Swamp Thing refuses to end humanity because they are capable of being more than their flaws, tha they can transcend their bounds. Goodness is at the heart of humanity, and Swamp Thing refuses to ignore that. 

 I am reminded of the words of God in the first creation story. God looks out over all that has been created and claims that it is “very good.” And it cannot be ignored that being created in the image of God, grants what some call the Original Blessing that Original Sin cannot nullify. Swamp Thing knows this at the moment of his sacrifice because he too had a human existence, a human soul at his core. Following the Green, he wiped out humanity, a family out of which he came. Now he repays the survivors for his terrible wrath with mercy, even at a great cost. 

There is a great deal to reflect upon in this story. But despite the wildly chaotic, shadowy ink, there is ultimately hope and goodness to be found. We are not flawed beyond redemption. God has created us with a capacity to do good, even if we have a tendency to forget about it from time to time.

Off The Shelf -- SWORD #1 Review

Hello and welcome to the first installment of “Off The Shelf”, our new comic book review show. These are designed to be brief reviews of current books and series that we think you should check out.


I’ll be reviewing S.W.O.R.D. #1 by the creative team of Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti and Marte Gracia.


If you’ve been reading the X-books since Jonathan Hickman started steering the franchise, you probably feel like I do – it’s been amazing at times and downright disappointing at others. While HoX/PoX proved to be massively successful, the X of Swords event was tremendously disappointing in execution. Maybe that’s the sophomore slump here, who knows. And while jumping in at this point may seem tremendously intimidating, the new series S.W.O.R.D. is a great place to start for new readers of X material as well as fans.


In issue 1 we see the setup for S.W.O.R.D. right off the bat – S.W.O.R.D., which served as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s off-world intelligence and intervention agency, had abandoned their space station called The Peak. The Peak was taken over by Cyclops and Cable during the events of X of Swords, and has now been commandeered by the mutants of Krakoa to serve as a platform for their off-Earth enterprises. Thankfully the writers give a quick two-page spread that provides us info on who is on the station and their roles. Many of these are secondary characters, so don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize them. More familiar faces will include Cable (he’s young now, by the way), and several teleporters: Blink, Lila Cheney and Gateway. Lesser-known and newer members include Wiz-kid, a teenage technopath, and Risque, who can generate gravity fields that can condense inorganic matter and project it with great force.


S.W.O.R.D. by the way stands here for Sentient World Observation and Response Department, and is linked therefore to the comics and Earth 616 as opposed to the S.W.O.R.D. we see in WandaVision, so don’t expect continuity between the two.


The premise of the first issue is to simply show what the “mutant space program” can do, which, through the synergistic combination of powers and abilities, amounts to being able to break more than one cosmic law. This seems to be a series less about fighting and more about doing incredible things creatively.


How all that happens is the big payoff of the first issue. If you’ve read HoX/PoX, you’d know that the biggest advance in mutant civilization comes from mutants using their powers in complimentary ways. In the past we saw this in the famous “fastball special”, where Colossus throws Wolverine at something so he can stab it lots of times. Now though, the mutants have advanced this into its own kind of technology. In Krakoa, five mutants are able to combine and enhance each others’ abilities to bring back other dead mutants. Now in S.W.O.R.D., this is played out on a cosmic scale.


Now if the phrase “mutant space program” made you think this was going to involve weird spacecraft I wouldn’t blame you, but you’d be wrong. In S.W.O.R.D., mutants combine their abilities to achieve instantaneous universal transport, and are even able to bring back some of the fundamental particles of the universe, Kirbons (named for Jack Kirby naturally). How they do that is too long to explain, but it blows the mind of Magneto who serves as the Krakoan emissary to the station.


The writing is quick, with Ewing doing a great job of introducing us to these characters and their motivation while still maintaining a sense of mystery, and the artwork is top-notch. His takes on classic characters, especially Magneto, are fresh and welcome. Mags actually comes off as a happy, almost grandfatherly figure, rather than the glum stodgepot we often see in the other X-books.


And speaking of the other books, don’t feel like you need to buy every other title just to know what’s going on in S.W.O.R.D. Continuity between titles is, well, not a huge priority on Jonathan Hickman’s run with the X-titles. That can be a blessing and a curse. In this case count it as a blessing. This is probably the best thing to come out of the whole X of Swords event, trust me.


It certainly seems like S.W.O.R.D. will open up whole new areas for the mutants, as well as the Marvel universe, to explore. The resurrection protocols removed the limitations of death from the mutants, and now the limitations of the entire cosmos seem easily broken.


This review is for issue #1 and issue #2 is out now, and both should be available at your local comic merchant of choice.


That’s all for this time – check back with us again and, as always, geek be with you!

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