The O.Z. #2 // Review
Dorothy Gale, the granddaughter of the original Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz fame, is no longer in Kansas. But she's not in the Oz of her grandmother either. Now a hellish landscape called the Occupied Zone, Dorothy joins the resistance against the Scarecrow to try and save her new home. The O.Z. #2 is written by David Pepose (Spencer & Locke, Scout's Honor), drawn by Ruben Rojas, colored by Whitney Cogar, and lettered by DC Hopkins.
In The O.Z. #1, former soldier Dorothy Gale lives in Kansas with her grandmother and namesake, who tells her tales of her time in Oz. Dorothy doesn't believe her grandmother's stories, thinking they're too fantastical and far-fetched to possibly be true. In addition to her grandmother's declining health, Dorothy is haunted by her experiences as a soldier in the Iraq War; it's heavily implied she has PTSD, struggling to adjust to civilian life.
When a tornado interrupts Dorothy's suicide attempt, she's transported to Oz, where she quickly learns that she's traded one war zone for another. Now called the "Occupied Zone" (O.Z.), Dorothy discovers that the Scarecrow took over Oz with the fall of the Wicked Witch of the West. But making someone a leader solely because they have a brain, and lack a heart, turned out to be a massive mistake as the Scarecrow is a tyrannical leader who has no problem killing anyone who gets in his way. But the O.Z. hasn't given up, and there's a rebellion brewing, led by Toto and the Tin Soldier.
In the first chapter, Dorothy struggles with deciding to join the rebels or not. She's initially reluctant to fight, wanting to leave all war behind. She has enough death weighing on her conscious. But The O.Z. #2 opens with Dorothy having decided to fight. This is her home now and her fight.
Dorothy is a real asset to the rebels because she brings tactics she learned during the Iraq War to the O.Z., tactics Scarecrow's armies have never seen. But her success horrifies her as well. Now she's responsible for even more deaths, soldiers and civilians alike. While Dorothy and the rebels believe they are fighting for what's right, for justice, they have to do horrible things to achieve that goal.
The O.Z. #2 is a war story, but it does not glorify war. There's lots of introspection within the story as a whole, especially within Dorothy's dialogue and thoughts. Questions such as is there a winner and loser in war? And what, if anything, makes a war justified?
Rojas and Cogar's art perfectly complements the story of The O.Z. #2. There are elements of the Wizard of Oz story, such as the Tin Man (Tin Soldier), Cowardly Lion (Courageous Lion), flying monkeys, etc. But they've all got a twist to fit into this wartorn take on Oz. It drives home that this is not quite the Oz that Dorothy's grandmother saw, putting readers in Dorothy's shoes, being familiar yet utterly unprepared for what's to come.
The O.Z. #2 is an incredible story that makes the reader question their ideas about war and what it means to be a hero. Magnificent writing combined with stellar art makes it a comic you don't want to miss. I can't recommend it enough.
