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.