The Department of Truth #24 // Review
It’s a series about the truth and belief. The first issue to come out after an assassination attempt on a U.S. presidential candidate...is about the assassination of a US president. Nothing to see here, but it’s worth listening to. It’s fun, too. It’s the 24th issue of The Department of Truth and it’s about the assassination of JFK over half a century ago. Writer James Tyrion IV continues a compelling series with artist Martin Simmonds and letterer Aditya Bidikar It’s a dark dialogue with dark visuals that delves into the darkness of a particularly powerful moment during the Cold War.
Belief creates truth in the world of The Department of Truth. What does that mean for a world that also experienced the assassination of JFK? Good question. There’s a contrast that increases and exacerbates everything. It isn’t just East versus West or Capitalism versus Communism. It isn’t just the U.S. against the U.S.S.R. and vice-versa. It’s the Department of Truth against the Ministry of Lies. It’s all a matter of what really controls the world and it’s going to be hell on anyone forced to tread the front lines of one of the most incomprehensible conflicts in the history of humanity.
Tynion is once again channeling Alan Moore’s work on Brought to Light n a very, very direct way. The 24th issue of The Department of Truth feels a lot like an extended look at the way Moore handled the JFK assassination in that graphic novel. On many levels, Brought to Light feels like a much more powerful look at the nature of truth than Tynion’s work...it’s much more elegant and concise. Nowhere is this more obvious than in issues like the 24th...where there’s a deeper connection with the world on this side of the comics panel and a search for meaning in the very real history of the 20th century.
Simmonds does a solid job of illustrating the darkness around one of the darkest moments on the national stage for the U.S. in the whole of the 20th century. He once again manages to frame the darkness in a way the seems to almost leer at the reader with its tragic garishness. It’s quite intense getting into the heart of it in a way that’s going to make any sense at all, but Simmonds manages to pry into the darker end of popular nightmare to pull out something subtle and creepy. Bidikar once again has a really remarkable opportunity for a letter artist to bring across some of the darkness of the narrative in blocks of text that flash out at the reader from Simmonds’ shadowy darkness.
There’s a WHOLE lot for The Department of Truth to cover with respect to the nature of truth and popular consciousness. Tynion, Simmonds and Bidikar are cutting a very narrow path through the darker ends of the 20th century in ways that continue to be compelling. It’s not certain how much longer they can keep this up, but it’s deliciously dark fun so far.
