Nov 25, 2008 16
on DMZ, the Death Of Irony, and Relevance For The Future
I was shown a couple blog posts last night just before bed, which had me up for a few minutes thinking. I’ll share them with you, and add my thoughts.
Both from a blog called Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader? the first mention of DMZ occured in the comments section of this post about a recent issue of Cable and a torture scene:
Is it just me or does it feel really cynical and played-out to be dealing with torture stuff now that Obama’s president? I know that’s silly but it’s sort of my feeling now towards this or ‘DMZ’ or whatever else
…
i think that’s like, another reason it irked me–obama’s in, the argument is over, the pro-aggressive interrogation crowd lost this time. i mean, obviously this comic was penned months before the election took place, but still. and seriously, if DMZ doesn’t declare itself irrelevant and wrap up, i’ll never buy anther DC comic again!
I am assuming that last line is hyperbolic, but its an interesting thing they are suggesting – that the election of Obama signifies such a potential for Things To Be Different Now that examination of the last 8 years is played out or irrelevant? I had some of these same thoughts a few weeks ago, right after the election, wondering how DMZ was going to be perceived… and more specifically, how I was going to write it from now on.
The blogger followed up on this with a new post. It’s a good post, looking at the first issue of the current DMZ story THE ISLAND, and wondering how this shift in the overall story matches up to the election of Obama and what everyone hopes will be a permanent change for the better in both this country and in Iraq (I apologize for the clumsy summary, guys — everyone should go read that blog entry in full).
What I concluded about the future of DMZ (the series and the story) is that it will largely be unaffected by Bush going out and Obama coming in. My cynicism is still in full effect, since it is my job to look at politics in the most cyncical way possible… and I don’t think any of us expect that, come January 20th, Obama will flick a switch and everything from that point on will get better. From his FISA vote to the hawkish people he is appointing, to his pro-war stance on Afghanistan and Pakistan and promise to ramp UP the war there, things in these areas will no doubt stay very much the same or perhaps get worse. And we have a long, very messy process still to complete in regards to Iraq.
Iraq is very important to DMZ, not just how it connects to us as Americans, but how the struggling government there is, well, struggling. I’ve felt for some time now that DMZ has more in common with the Maliki government than it does with anything else, and I’ve been increasingly looking to that for inspiration for future storylines. I don’t expect that to change.
And with all due respect to these two bloggers, they are looking at a very incomplete picture. THE ISLAND is a two-part story only, sort of a breather before we get back to the main storyline featuring Parco Delgado and the new Manhattan government. It’s not the start of a fundamental new shift in the series’ focus. No doubt current events will continue to shape DMZ as a series, just like it always has. As well written as that blog entry is, it misses the mark just a little bit.
Some points:
DMZ makes sort of an easy target because the stances it has taken have tended to the non-controversial in the sense that they comport neatly with those of the country’s nascent pseudo-anarchist anti-war movement.
I am pulling this line out for a couple reasons. One, that I dislike any sort of broad, sweeping generalizations of my work, and two, I am not sure I even understand this. I agree that DMZ has, by and large, not stirred up controversy, and I put that down to when the series debuted. It came along after public opinion was mostly recognizing the war as a failure and the Bush Admin as inept (to put it very kindly). Had the series debuted in 2002, things would have been very different*. Also, “pseudo-anarchist”? Everyone I know is anti-war, and they come from all walks of life and political backgrounds. I’ve said early on that DMZ is an anti-war book… anti- not just THIS war, but war in general, and I would sincerely hope, and demand, that everyone on planet earth should be anti-war, in a very fundamental way.
(* I think of when CHANNEL ZERO came out (1997), incredibly harsh against Rudy Giuliani and his policies, and no one cared. When I revisited those exact same themes in JENNIE ONE (2002-3), I was blasted by all kinds of people, friends too, for daring to take a shot at “America’s Mayor”.)
Wood’s attention to the shifting winds of American politics doesn’t begin with “The Island.” The recently concluded series about the election of the populist hero Parco Delgado is at base a story of the power of the human spirit in the face of incredible tragedy. The fact that Parco’s story is most emphatically not Obama’s does nothing to lessen the series’ prophetic power.
I appreciate this, seeing the clear distinction between Obama and Delgado (the tendency for a lot of readers to make that immediate connection baffled me, and I always wondered how much it had to do simply with the the color of their skin?) and again, this storyline is just getting started. I look back and see that I wrote the first issue of the Parco-Election story in January of this year, so I probably had it plotted out in October or November of ‘07, well before Obama was on his way. The solicitations for this arc called Parco a “Che Guevara”, and I’ve since refined my description of him to equal parts Hugo Chavez and Al Sharpton. Just look at this photo, and you’ll make that connection. “The power of the human spirit”, indeed… but to what end? Parco will likely be a part of DMZ from now until the series concludes.
Obviously I don’t find DMZ irrelevent now, and I don’t think that thinking/talking/examining the impact of the Bush Regime is played out, or overly cynical (at least not any more cynical than what’s at the foundation of the book’s very premise). And certainly this story, the story of the last 8 years of American policy is far from over, even as we move into year 9. I think I can safely say, as much for myself as anyone else, that the instant DMZ starts to feel played-out, I will kill the book.
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