The Department of Truth #34 // Review
Cole Turner is returning home. Matty’s there at the table when he comes-in. He’s at his laptop. Writing. No internet where they are. They’re out in the middle of nowhere trying to survive...on the run from the government. On the run from everything. Cole can’t afford to think about that right now, but he can’t afford not to think about it. Right now he’s going into the basement to feed his childhood nightmare. This isn’t a metaphor. This is The Department of Truth #34. Writer James Tynion IV continues a fascinating walk into paranoid horror with artist Martin Simmonds.
They’re looking for Cole at the Department of Truth. There have been major changes in and around the office making things that much more difficult for everyone involved. Ruby has been asked what she knows about it. She IS the one among them who had worked closer with him than any of the rest of them. If anyone has any clue as to where Cole is, it’s her. If she DOES know anything, she’s not going to tell him. There are others who do. It’s only a matter of time before they track him down. Thankfully he has a monster in his basement that just might defend him if he lets it out...
James Tynion is working through a crucial period in the series in which everything gets shaken-up. Havign carved his way throguh a WHOLE lot of the series’ lore and mythology he’s at a point where he can begin to work with the pieces that he’s put int play and develop them into some very interesting and fairly unique patterns. What Cole is doing is remarkably punk on a whole bunch of different levels that articulate provocatively with the basic elements of a very, very fascinating series.
Simmonds allows the horror to play out in odd angles and shadows that play like a vivid nightmare on the page. The moody drama haunts the page in blurry low-res phantasms that slide across the page in a state of mercurial exhaustion. Aside from a few establishing shots, the action really could be going on anywhere at all. There may be definite spaces in definite places...a small shack in the woods. An office complex in Washington D.C. The specific location doesn’t matter, though. Simmonds is illustrating the heart of human connection that lies deep within the heart of Tynion’s horror.
Somehow it’s gotten to be 34 issues into the series. Some three years into the series, things have started to articulate and gain dramatic tension. Specific elements that Tynion has been so patient in rendering are starting to move across the page with the kind of darkness and horror that one might have hoped for. It’s difficult to know exactly where it is that Simmonds is developing, but he’s been so good about developing everything. The story seems to be in remarkably good hands as it progresses into the inevitable end of its third years.
