Weekly Review - Combat Zone

Well, this comic finally came out. Originally solicited as several single issues by Marvel, it eventually came out, many months after it was supposed to, in trade paperback/graphic novel form.

This comic set off a firestorm - Rich Johnston over at Lying in the Gutters declared that this was the beginning of a neocon take over of comics (or something like that). In any case, his rabid hatred of conservatives came out in his reviews and message board posting over this comic. See - its okay for liberal world views to appear in comics by Mark Millar or whoever is writing Captain America at the time - but have a somewhat conservative journalist attempt to write a comic about the actual Iraqi conflict, and suddenly that's out of bounds.

Well, let's get past all the controversy and stuff and see whether this comic is any good. I may disagree with the politics of Alan Moore or Frank Miller, but I can agree their work in comic books has been (mostly) brilliant - even their overtly political works. For example, Moore's V for Vendetta is a sharply written and engaging piece of comics art. The politics are rather simplistic and unnuanced (i.e. - conservatives are evil and will take over the country so they can rape women without restraint), but I still like the comic because it’s so well done. Moore is a master of the comics form, and can tell engaging stories. On the other hand, Rich Johnston seems to like V for Vendetta because its simplistic politics fits in with his rather simplistic liberal world view.

As for Combat Zone? It's actually quite good. Dan Jurgens art is outstanding - gorgeous, detailed and sharply executed. In fact, the only complaint I might have is that at times the art is too "clean" - I would have liked more of a sense of the dirt and grime the soldiers had too deal with.

The story, at first seems slow (something this reviewer criticized it for, though that reviewer was, as seems usual, mostly upset that a conservative actually got a comic published). However, this represents the reality of war, especially in the early stages. Generally, most wars are lots of waiting around, planning, moving and scanning, interrupted by brief periods of conflict. Extended periods of fighting generally don't occur until later in the game - as with this comic. Most of the fighting occurs in the last chapter. This comic takes its time getting there, but there's a rhyme and a reason behind it all. This comic represents what the soldiers really did, rather than just showing the "exciting parts."

Combat Zone does what many war comics have never done before - it humanizes the war. The soldiers come across as real people, not just brainless shock troops doing the evil will of the warmongering leaders.

This comic will likely anger those who opposed the war, as it portrays the soldiers as attempting to avoid civilian casualties, and in some cases dying to avoid endangering defenseless women and children (that the Iraqi soldiers use as human shields). This is the version of the war that most liberals don't want you to see.

Over at the Wall Street Journal's opinionjournal.com website, James S. Robbins said that "Combat Zone is closer to the somewhat propagandistic comics produced during World War II that also depicted actual battles." There is some truth to that statement. This comic does feel like propaganda in how it portrays nearly every soldier as noble, nearly every action as justified, and the entire war as worthwhile. But compared to what I read in the headlines every morning, this is a refreshing new view on the war that we just don't get anywhere else. If that's "propaganda" than we need more of it. However, this comic is NOT propaganda. It may share some features with the old propaganda comics of WWII, but it transcends that genre distinction.

This comic is highly recommended. Just don't expect non-stop action - instead expect a well done character study of soldiers in combat. The action just spices things up a bit.