This entry is a seconded recommendation to the second collected edition of Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s DMZ. The original analysis is available at Katuoja (and I do dig the HBO = Vertigo equation – even when the latter’s batting average keeps dipping year after year).
This collection is indeed a much more mature chunk of the story of the Second American Civil War. The first five issues contained in the first collection begin very much in medias res, and rarely lets down the pace. This selection (a five-issue story and two loose issues) takes its good time in establishing the scene and history, and then lets go.
Lets go in the “question authority”-vein like no comic has done in a while. The characters are rarely plain black or white – just complex shades of grey. And the tone, often pointedly critical, doesn’t really get preachy at all, but conveys well the desperation inherent in an unpredictable warzone.
So, where the story gained credibility from the previous outing, the art remains as it has been. And that’s a compliment: Ruined Manhattan rarely looked this good.
