DMZ #16

Part four of the "Public Works" arc, this 2007 Vertigo series issue presents a striking cover by Brian Wood — a yellow, map-overlaid composition connecting a lone silhouetted figure (marked with a hazard symbol) to a young woman framed within a heart, with a broadcast signal icon, the Empire State Building looming in shadow, and biohazard and skull-and-crossbones warnings scattered throughout. The graphic design sensibility is sharp and deliberately unsettling, threading together themes of danger, communication, and urban survival in the demilitarized zone. Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's collaboration continues to deliver one of Vertigo's most politically charged series.