The Department of Truth #35 // Review
Cole Turner is feeding the mosnter in the basement. It wants to eat children. He’s feeding it meat. The monster says that the meat isn’t good enough. Cole figures maybe it would have just been better to TELL the monster that it was eating children. Its belief would have been enough. The monster in the basement is the least of Coles’ concerns in The Department of Truth #35. Writer James Tynion IV continues his long-running paranoid conspiracy horror with artist Martin Simmonds. The complexity of things takes a dramatic turn in a fun issuethat ushers-in a whole new era for the series.
Above the basement, Cole is asking Frank how it’s going. Frank is having a cigarette on top of a white van. She tells him that’s it’s not ideal but Cole and company will have access to the outside world without the outside world having access to them. That’s important considering that fact that they’re essentially conspiring against a conspiracy that’s essentially got contol of everything. The Department of Truth is looking to reallign its goals. That makes things particularly complicated with its adversaries at the Black Hat. Cole and Frank and company all have to decide to relate to it all if they’re going to be able to survive.
Tynion has been spending the bulk of the five years or so of the series thus far setting-up the pieces of the Department of Truth universe in order to be able to set them on a kind of field of battle so that they can all engage in a warped war for the fate of humanity. It’s fascinating to see it all come together. The issue is that...once the conflict really starts rolling, it might seem like a bit of a silly sci-fi/horror action story if it can’t maintain the appeal that it’s had for the first 30+ issues.
Once again, Simmonds is being asked to illuastrate a story that’s mostly just drama between characters that might not have any intrinsic visual appeal. The conversation between Cole and the monster at the beginning of the issue IS actually deliciously creepy, but so much of the rest of it’s just a dark conversation between shadowy figures flecked with grainy ink that’s washed-over in watercolor. And yet...Simmonds is able to make it all look so appeailing from beginning to end. Quite an accomplishment.
There are now three major forces at work battling for, with and against humanity. It’s fun to see everything develop the way that it’s developing as things progress. It’s been a lot of fun thus far. It’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together as things progress into the sixth year of the series. It’s been a really fun run so far with lots of interesting corners and edges to engage the readers’ imaginations. There are a lot of directions that Tynion and company could take the story in. The latest developments at the end of the 35th issue seem quite promising.
