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DMZ #5
DMZ, Vol. 5: The Hidden War
Collecting issues #23-28 of the acclaimed series from writer Brian Wood (DEMO). The world and characters of the DMZ are expanded and enriched in this volume as Matty Roth turns his attention to several locals — a guerilla artist, a former ally who's now worse off than a homeless person, the powerful head of an organization within the DMZ and more
141 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2008
19 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Brian Wood
1,173 books961 followersBrian Wood's history of published work includes over fifty volumes of genre-spanning original material.
From the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.
His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.
He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character.
From the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.
His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.
He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
October 26, 2016
Various minor characters get the spotlight for a change, but it's the same old shallow, generic, exploitative, pseudo-political story. I'm outta here...
May 3, 2025
Intense !
March 7, 2022
Sei one shots, brevi racconti incentrati su personaggi che non conosciamo o non conosciamo molto bene.
La storia su Amina ci mostra spezzoni della sua vita (principalmente dopo Matt), c'è potenziale per essere interessante ma è brevissima.
La storia su Kelly ci chiude anche il discorso per quanto riguarda questo personaggio.
Piacevole la scoperta del passato di Wilson.
E poi... un noto graffitaro che, alternando "prima" e "ora" riesce a vedere il suo capolavoro prima di essere rinchiuso in prigione; un dj che viene "arruolato" da un'ex mercenaria per salvare il locale dove si esibisce, contro gli interessi delle grandi corporation esterne alla DMZ; il racconto allucinato di un guerrigliero disertore.
Ne riceviamo un collage di esperienze di vita in DMZ che ha sicuramente spunti interessanti, ma alla fine è troppo poco per rendere davvero piacevole il volume.
La storia su Amina ci mostra spezzoni della sua vita (principalmente dopo Matt), c'è potenziale per essere interessante ma è brevissima.
La storia su Kelly ci chiude anche il discorso per quanto riguarda questo personaggio.
Piacevole la scoperta del passato di Wilson.
E poi... un noto graffitaro che, alternando "prima" e "ora" riesce a vedere il suo capolavoro prima di essere rinchiuso in prigione; un dj che viene "arruolato" da un'ex mercenaria per salvare il locale dove si esibisce, contro gli interessi delle grandi corporation esterne alla DMZ; il racconto allucinato di un guerrigliero disertore.
Ne riceviamo un collage di esperienze di vita in DMZ che ha sicuramente spunti interessanti, ma alla fine è troppo poco per rendere davvero piacevole il volume.
September 6, 2010
I enjoyed these stand-alones, but didn't LOVE them. I dunno, a few of them didn't feel tied into what we've been used to in the previous comics, and a few I felt could have gone further, actually I liked them but felt like I would have liked a more dramatic arc for the Amina one, since she is a really interesting character. Didn't feel like we learned MORE about her from the stand alone. Still really enjoyable, but felt overall skippable in context.
June 9, 2019
This is a step back from the last two volumes.
Mostly a bunch of one shots of the DMZ city but none of them are all that compelling. We go into the life of a warlord, or gang leader, or whatever you want to call him. We also get a look at a character from volume 3 and how she is surviving the streets. The other issues focus on a news reporter Matty knew, and how she died.
Overall, none of these are bad but none very interesting. Probably the best was the news reporter but even that wasn't all that interesting. I really enjoyed volume 3 and 4 and hope 6 picks back up, but this is about a 3 out of 5.
Mostly a bunch of one shots of the DMZ city but none of them are all that compelling. We go into the life of a warlord, or gang leader, or whatever you want to call him. We also get a look at a character from volume 3 and how she is surviving the streets. The other issues focus on a news reporter Matty knew, and how she died.
Overall, none of these are bad but none very interesting. Probably the best was the news reporter but even that wasn't all that interesting. I really enjoyed volume 3 and 4 and hope 6 picks back up, but this is about a 3 out of 5.
August 18, 2009
This volume was really hit-or-miss. A collection of one-shots spotlighting different people living in the DMZ, this should have been a nice break from Matty's sometimes frustrating narration, and for the most part it was. The stories about Wilson, Amina, and Random Fire were all great, and the story about graffiti artist Decade Later was just stunning. However, the story about the defecting soldier, Soames, was confusingly rendered, making it hard to discern its point.
And then there was the story about Matty's girlfriend, Kelly. Brian Wood has a really good track record with gender issues, so I don't want to be too hard on him, but this was a major disappointment. Unlike the other issues, this wasn't from Kelly's point of view; instead, it was Matty reflecting on Kelly... after her death. So, essentially, Wood killed off "the girlfriend" randomly, and then used her death as an excuse to make his male protagonist emo and tell us about her secondhand from his limited point of view. In a volume of stories ABOUT their subjects, this issue stuck out like a sore thumb. I, for one, would have loved to get a look into the head of a woman who would choose to be a war reporter in this awful place -- but that isn't what we got, and, since she's dead, I doubt we ever will. For that alone, I can't give this volume more than three stars.
And then there was the story about Matty's girlfriend, Kelly. Brian Wood has a really good track record with gender issues, so I don't want to be too hard on him, but this was a major disappointment. Unlike the other issues, this wasn't from Kelly's point of view; instead, it was Matty reflecting on Kelly... after her death. So, essentially, Wood killed off "the girlfriend" randomly, and then used her death as an excuse to make his male protagonist emo and tell us about her secondhand from his limited point of view. In a volume of stories ABOUT their subjects, this issue stuck out like a sore thumb. I, for one, would have loved to get a look into the head of a woman who would choose to be a war reporter in this awful place -- but that isn't what we got, and, since she's dead, I doubt we ever will. For that alone, I can't give this volume more than three stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2008
A solid chapter in the continuing DMZ series, six short stories focusing on peripheral characters. The two issues drawn by Danijel Zezelj and Nathan Fox were killer.
November 12, 2018
Este tomo bien podría ser un impasse en la escalada violenta. Comprende de seis historias unitarias enfocadas cada una en un personaje secundario. Quizás la mejor sea la primera, injusto englobarla bajo tres estrellas, es un número que hasta vale la pena leer por fuera de la serie.
El resto navega entre información adicional de personajes y situaciones menos retratadas, complementando el entorno mas no aportando a la trama central.
El resto navega entre información adicional de personajes y situaciones menos retratadas, complementando el entorno mas no aportando a la trama central.
March 4, 2022
Varie ministorie su personaggi secondari. Non so quanto possano essere utili per la trama principale. Vedremo...
April 21, 2023
Decent entry into the series, but this is just filler material. Characters who've made brief appearances get their stories told. Some don't make it, but this is war, that does happen.
June 13, 2021
Five stand-alone issues, individual stories that flesh out The War and the New York setting. It's an excellent idea for a volume but a mixed bag in execution.
Decade Later
...is the tag of a renowned Manhattan graffiti artist who wants to push the public to look beyond the immediate present. He's regularly beaten by a local militia for refusing to join up and eventually gets erroneously arrested as a militant anyways. This ironically affords him a bird's eye view of his magnum opus, a decades-long project involving the tops of all the subway cars in Queens.
Amina
After Matty "rescued" her, Amina was reduced to a life of squalor and despair. She's used by a string of petty warlords. She can't get Matty's naïve, optimistic insistence that she's in control of her life out of her head.
Wilson
Matty's elderly Chinese drinking buddy slash supreme gangster of Chinatown gets some backstory. A minor mobster when The War began, he used charisma and foresight to gain the respect of young toughs and made Chinatown a relatively safe space. He eventually sighs in boredom and declares that he needs a new thing, then spots Matty stumbling through the street on his first day in the DMZ.
Kelly
Matty's IWN contact and occasional lover Kelly Connelly is dead. This short is a collage of moments in Kelly's life, showcasing her professional drive and heedlessness of her own safety. That presumably got her dead but I'm not sure how. Not the best issue.
Random Fire
A local DJ gets bumped at a DMZ club for a VIP DJ from Japan. When it becomes clear that DJ Grendel is planning to use Blackwater mercenaries to stage an attack for publicity, Random Fire tries to empty the club. I couldn't tell whether the plan is sensical or not, or if it even worked. The setup is cynically sharp but the author's execution is not.
Soames
A Free States soldier, fed up with his fellow rednecks' cultish fervor and short-sightedness, jumps in the toxic Hudson River and swims away in a longshot attempt to defect. Fever, starvation, and homicidal locals hamper his progress and by the time he finds a US Army checkpoint he's hallucinating glorious herds of elk.
Decade Later
...is the tag of a renowned Manhattan graffiti artist who wants to push the public to look beyond the immediate present. He's regularly beaten by a local militia for refusing to join up and eventually gets erroneously arrested as a militant anyways. This ironically affords him a bird's eye view of his magnum opus, a decades-long project involving the tops of all the subway cars in Queens.
Amina
After Matty "rescued" her, Amina was reduced to a life of squalor and despair. She's used by a string of petty warlords. She can't get Matty's naïve, optimistic insistence that she's in control of her life out of her head.
Wilson
Matty's elderly Chinese drinking buddy slash supreme gangster of Chinatown gets some backstory. A minor mobster when The War began, he used charisma and foresight to gain the respect of young toughs and made Chinatown a relatively safe space. He eventually sighs in boredom and declares that he needs a new thing, then spots Matty stumbling through the street on his first day in the DMZ.
Kelly
Matty's IWN contact and occasional lover Kelly Connelly is dead. This short is a collage of moments in Kelly's life, showcasing her professional drive and heedlessness of her own safety. That presumably got her dead but I'm not sure how. Not the best issue.
Random Fire
A local DJ gets bumped at a DMZ club for a VIP DJ from Japan. When it becomes clear that DJ Grendel is planning to use Blackwater mercenaries to stage an attack for publicity, Random Fire tries to empty the club. I couldn't tell whether the plan is sensical or not, or if it even worked. The setup is cynically sharp but the author's execution is not.
Soames
A Free States soldier, fed up with his fellow rednecks' cultish fervor and short-sightedness, jumps in the toxic Hudson River and swims away in a longshot attempt to defect. Fever, starvation, and homicidal locals hamper his progress and by the time he finds a US Army checkpoint he's hallucinating glorious herds of elk.
September 16, 2009
This was the first DMZ installment that I can call a genuine disappointment. Wood collects here a few single-issue tales giving the backstories of a couple notable DMZ characters. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly compelling, and none of them drive the overarching DMZ story forward in any meaningful fashion.
What we get instead is a rather pointless death scene for Kelly Connolly, a confusing "origin story" for Soames, and some other random bits that don't really add up to anything I care about. Even the character of New York suffers here, which I found surprising, as the DMZ New Yorker culture is something I thought Wood was working hard to explore. There's just not much here to be excited about.
The art really suffers here too. Burchielli's chapters look rushed and hollow, a mere shell of the former brilliance he turned in during the first 15 issues of the series. Worse, Daniel Zelzelj turns in the Wilson chapter, which totally sucks because Wilson is one of my favorite DMZ characters, and Zezelj's artwork always looks like he pooped on the page, smeared it around, and tried to turn it into passable attempts at sequential art.
As DMZ goes on, it's becoming more and more obvious that the art is failing, and perhaps BEING ALLOWED TO FAIL. A lot of folks revere Zezelj's work and styles similar to his. Wood himself comes from a decidedly indie background, so these "indie" artists he gets to fill in on DMZ may be collaborating as part of some other deal happening outside the narrative itself. Whatever the deal is, it's taking me out of the story completely, and I hope Wood corrects this in future volumes.
What we get instead is a rather pointless death scene for Kelly Connolly, a confusing "origin story" for Soames, and some other random bits that don't really add up to anything I care about. Even the character of New York suffers here, which I found surprising, as the DMZ New Yorker culture is something I thought Wood was working hard to explore. There's just not much here to be excited about.
The art really suffers here too. Burchielli's chapters look rushed and hollow, a mere shell of the former brilliance he turned in during the first 15 issues of the series. Worse, Daniel Zelzelj turns in the Wilson chapter, which totally sucks because Wilson is one of my favorite DMZ characters, and Zezelj's artwork always looks like he pooped on the page, smeared it around, and tried to turn it into passable attempts at sequential art.
As DMZ goes on, it's becoming more and more obvious that the art is failing, and perhaps BEING ALLOWED TO FAIL. A lot of folks revere Zezelj's work and styles similar to his. Wood himself comes from a decidedly indie background, so these "indie" artists he gets to fill in on DMZ may be collaborating as part of some other deal happening outside the narrative itself. Whatever the deal is, it's taking me out of the story completely, and I hope Wood corrects this in future volumes.
June 9, 2015
If you love the City, whether in spirit or in reality, these stories will make you ache to smell it.
Pretty books and pretty words and not too far from ugly truths.
Pretty books and pretty words and not too far from ugly truths.
March 4, 2020
Es un volumen de historias sueltas explicando el origen de algunos protagonistas y presentando a otros. En estos momentos de la serie me ha provocado un bajón.
October 21, 2024
This one dials the forward momentum down a bit to give us a more in-depth view of some of the side players in this story, and also brings in some different artists.
Nice little palate cleanser.
Nice little palate cleanser.
October 10, 2019
After two really strong volumes, this collection of single issues picks up characters from around the DMZ in stories that don't seem quite as... important. It's more color than content, especially as it focuses on a couple of artists that have gotten mentioned in the past. Amina reappears in a story that is probably the most brutal in the collection, touching on the fragile alliances and questionable behavior of everyone in the DMZ, but it's Wilson's story that really seems to provide the most insight into the DMZ. It's not on a scale of the previous volumes, but it does help add dimension to the world that Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli have created. So, while it's a moment to take a breath in the overall series, it's not a reason to stop reading.
March 29, 2018
Eh. Thing about DMZ is that it's always about people living in a warzone, so six unrelated short stories about people living in a warzone that don't do much to expand our understanding of the series don't really add much to the series. I didn't feel that I learned much more about the neighborhoods or the culture of the DMZ; in a few stories, I don't even feel like I learned much about the character involved! The last two stories, Soames and the DJ short, were both poorly scripted and hard to follow. The others were just kind of bland. I like Burchielli's art a lot, but Zezelj is really the perfect artist for this book. Nobody does urban settings better than he.
May 10, 2020
The War in New York City continues.
But this time, we learn about the war for the prospective of other people - most of whom we haven't encountered yet. A underground DJ; a reluctant, delusional FSA soldier; a Street Graffiti artist who dreams of the ultimate tag; a lowly Triad member who takes advantage of the war to rise to the top; and the girlfriend reporter who discovers more than the story in the war zone.
But this time, we learn about the war for the prospective of other people - most of whom we haven't encountered yet. A underground DJ; a reluctant, delusional FSA soldier; a Street Graffiti artist who dreams of the ultimate tag; a lowly Triad member who takes advantage of the war to rise to the top; and the girlfriend reporter who discovers more than the story in the war zone.
March 13, 2017
There is a right and a wrong time for fillers, after four fluctuating issues is not the right time. You have not converted me into a fan and then you give me a bunch nonsense to read through? And on top of that you kill one of my favourite main characters in a filler issue? What were they thinking?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2017
storie di vita quotidiana nella d.m.z., storie di personaggi già incontrati (amina, soames, wilson) e nuovi, storie che aumentano il grado di verosimiglianza di quest'opera sempre più fondamentale.
da l'idea di essere il preludio ad un punto di svolta, sicuramente è l'occasione per wood di mostrare la sua bravura nel costruire personaggi credibili.
da l'idea di essere il preludio ad un punto di svolta, sicuramente è l'occasione per wood di mostrare la sua bravura nel costruire personaggi credibili.
November 7, 2019
A little backstory and some character stories. Also the story of an artist that does a big art project that can only be seen and appreciated from the sky and in a particular way. Reading Preacher book six and there is a similar event.
It makes you wonder when you read a bunch of things together and see similarities.
It makes you wonder when you read a bunch of things together and see similarities.
July 17, 2022
Another excellent edition of the DMZ series. This was an anthology issue showing the stories a some of the key characters and their link to Matt Roth. But this was much more about these individuals and how they are handling the ongoing War and its ramifications. An excellent entry into the DMZ mythos.
June 6, 2019
A break from the main story,
Single stories, different styles, Different point of views of different individuals.
Some recurring characters like Amina and Kelly and some new ones but :/ did not care that much about them :/
An OK volume! less than average though.
Single stories, different styles, Different point of views of different individuals.
Some recurring characters like Amina and Kelly and some new ones but :/ did not care that much about them :/
An OK volume! less than average though.
January 17, 2021
A pace change after the last book. I get that. But some missed opportunities to add more detail and depth to the main arcs with Amina and Wilson and some random stories that were enjoyable but....unnecessary? Not sure see what happens next I guess
March 2, 2017
Was this one filler? Didn't really do much for me.
May 29, 2017
Background/motivation of some of the non-Matty characters.
August 25, 2017
A collection of tragic stories with some hope thrown in.
September 2, 2018
Unclear why I'm doing this to myself. Or why I'm even giving these three stars. I'm not really enjoying this.
June 12, 2019
Přiblížení života v DMZ epizodními příběhy známých i neznámých postav. Bohužel příliš krátké na to, aby dokázali čtenáře nějak zasáhnout.
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