DMZ #68

Part two of "The Five Nations of New York" arrives with a cover by John Paul Leon that captures the raw tension of Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's war-torn Manhattan perfectly — a massive military tank suspended from crane rigging looms over a rubble-strewn street, while graffiti-covered walls and small figures below underscore just how precarious life in the DMZ has become. The sepia-and-rust palette gives the whole scene a grim, documentary weight, with a faded mural of a reclining figure visible amid the wreckage as an eerie reminder of the city that once was. Vertigo's mature-readers series continues to find striking imagery in the collapse of civil order, and this 2011 issue is a strong example of the book's unflinching vision.