DMZ #65

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Riccardo Burchielli

Parco Delgado is no Osama Bin Laden, but it's interesting to look for parallels between these two figures, given the proximity of the release of this comic to Bin Laden's death at the hands of the American military.

In this comic, Delgado became the Governor of New York through what is believed to be a rigged election.  It comes out during his trial that he was receiving money and security from the FSA, but that he had no intention of ever becoming their puppet.  He also makes it clear that he did not detonate his nuclear device at Indian Point, and that it was indeed the US Army who caused the explosion there.  Matty has proof, and decides to enter into negotiations with the US so that he can save Parco from execution, and also bring the war to an end.

Bin Laden, of course, is an Islamist fundamentalist who received training from the US during the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, and who later used his training and connections against the US.  Parco was never meant to be an analogue of Bin Laden, but this comic and world events have often gone hand in hand, in an allegorical fashion, and the timing here is a pretty cool coincidence.

On top of these events, Matty also gets to see Zee again, meets the president, and has finally come as far as he can from being the self-absorbed loser we met when the series began.  I think there are four issues left in this series, and I'm looking forward to watching Wood wrap things up.  Next issue is a Zee solo issue, and it should be great.