DMZ: Body of a Journalist (Volume 2 reprinting DMZ # 6-12)
Writer: Brian Wood
Artists: Riccardo Burchielli, Kristian Donaldson, and Brian Wood
Publisher: Vertigo
Content: Mature Readers
DMZ, for those who might not know, stands for Demilitarized Zone, or, No Man's Land, where no military force is supposed to be. The border ground or bloody buffer between two opposing forces. The front lines. Where would that be exactly in relation to our story here ? Well, that would be the war torn streets of NYC. Why ? Well, with America's military spread precariously thin outside of its own borders, anti-governmental forces have risen up in revolution to confront a government they feel is out of control. Think Civil War or Red States vs Blue States. Neither analogy is exactly spot on, but it kind of has that same tone. Middle America rises against the power structure.
Matty Roth, a journalist, goes behind the "insurgent" lines of the Free States of America (FSA) and their Free Army, to report for TV's Liberty News, "News for America, and Americans". Matty is trying to find out what happened to fellow Liberty News journalist Viktor Ferguson, who was captured by the insurgents. After arranging a rendezvous with the Free Army, his hands are tied but he is released to go back to report Viktor's status as a hostage but otherwise alive and OK. With hands bound behind him, he's released to go back to Liberty News but is captured crossing the DMZ by the military. After interrogating him they propose that he continue to go back and forth as a mole. The military assigns him a mentor, Eve Lindon, who actually ends up being a handler. She's a knockout who fakes real concern about him but Matty figures out that she's being used by the military to try to control and manipulate him, after he figures out that between the equipment and antibiotics for his infection they've given him, they are somehow following him. Why ? They're using him as a bird dog to point them towards where Viktor is being held. He throws away the new equipment they give him and with the help of old friend Wilson figures the antibiotics are bugged too. How to get rid of ingested pills fast ? Not so pretty. He still needs meds and calls an underground acquaintance with some medical background, Zee, who hooks him up.
Returning for another round of talks with the Free Army, Matt learns that the leader is asking for three minutes of unedited airtime on Liberty News along with $ 120M in cash and a pull back of all military forces within 10,000 feet of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and ceding the entire western side of Manhattan to the FSA. The government's official stance of not dealing with terrorists means that the bargaining chip of Viktor is reduced to nil. As Matty as talking with Eve on the phone, he sees a televised report stating that he barely got away with his life and that the military is sending in search teams to free famed captured journalist Viktor. Lies. All lies. When confronted by Matty, Eve explains that the government is just looking for an excuse to attack the FSA. One of the generals goes on TV to say that in trying to rescue Viktor, Matty was killed by FSA forces. Matty's idea that he was being used is only further validated. The FSA leader finds that a traitor has sprung Viktor and the two of them are escaping. Matty and the leader try to stop them. As Viktor runs to freedom, he's gunned down by the military but not before Matty gets the whole thing on tape.
The military uses it as an excuse to bust loose with the big guns. Matty and his friend Zee are laying low in an underground station when a hot looking babe in glasses, clean clothes and a backpack is asking around for Matty and finds him. He instantly recognizes her as Kelly Connolly, Independent World News' progressive counterpart to Liberty's Viktor. She's trying to recruit him when he reveals he has the ace up the sleeve of footage of the military killing Viktor in cold blood and that he will see that it's broadcast if his demands are not met. First, with the help of Kelly, he makes backup copies as insurance and transmits them to the safe hands of friends. He contacts his old "friend" Eve who feigns to care about his "back from the dead" status, when he tells her to shut up and he knows exactly what's going on. She screams that Liberty will sue if he airs the tape at which point she shifts gears and asks what kind of deal he wants. Eve is suddenly gone and a general is now on the phone asking Matt to name his terms in return for that tape. The Powers That Be meet all his demands, war is temporarily averted, some of the truth is put forth and corrected to the American public, and Matty has some well deserved rest, relaxation and celebration in the DMZ for the night.
The next story is Zee's showing a day in the life as she tries heroically to help the war wounded and her flashbacks to before the war and the day of the big attack and what happened in her corner of the world.
