After a sudden drop in volume 3, DMZ comes roaring back with Friendly Fire, an arc looking back into the history of the war as a US soldier is brought before a military tribunal to answer for his role in a massacre of unarmed (or were they?) protesters. It's a strong story, with Matty trapped between two opposing narratives of the event, and unsure of who to believe. I'm not sure the writing quite measures up to this, though, as the book spends a lot of time building sympathy for Stevens, the aforementioned soldier, and casts more of a villainous light on Nunez, his commanding officer. The art is solid (Burchielli's work has grown on me quite a bit, and I was pleased to get another issue with Kristian Donaldson's art popping in). Definitely a return to form after the lackluster Public Works. ( )

Starting off in the middle of this series was a bit jarring but by the end I really started to know and feel for these characters. My criticism of Woods early work was that I always found his characters artificial but I was really impressed by the work here. Definitely will be going back and reading the first 3 volumes. ( )

When American troops open fire on a peaceful protest, Matty Roth gets involved in the quest for the truth about what actually happened. Riccardo Burchielli's art is as bad as it usually is. There is a section drawn by Kristian Donaldson, who is not particularly good but at least doesn't sexualize every female in every scene, nor does zie rely upon gratuitous amounts of bodily fluids and harm. ( )

The best one yet by bar. Just raised the series up a notch ( )

http://jmgold.blogspot.com/2008/03/dmz-friendly-fire.html ( )