Jan Philipzig's Reviews > DMZ, Vol. 4: Friendly Fire

As you may recall, protagonist Matty generally looks excellent amidst the ruins of New York City. He’s the cool, tough, handsome type, you see, though not necessarily the brightest bulb on the porch. Which is unfortunate, as it's Matty’s smarts the reader ultimately relies on when it comes to making sense of the story.

Coming into this fourth volume, the only thing journalist Matty has been able to figure out is that “this is a war of extremes pushing against each other”--whatever the hell that means. And by the end of the volume, he hasn’t exactly made a lot of progress: “I don’t know a single fucking thing more than I did yesterday. Except that everything about this is still shit.”

Yep, same here, Matty. Four volumes in, and the only thing I know for sure is “that everything about this is still shit.” Which isn’t really all that surprising, considering we’re still looking at war through the eyes of a hipster who “never paid attention to politics.” Wait a minute, thinks Matty, “or is this war just so fucked up that no one has a handle on what they’re doing anymore?” Whoa, that’s deep, Matty, that must be it...