DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #5: The Blurred Line Blurs Even Further…

What makes the Department of Truth #5 and the series as a whole so incredibly riveting is that perfect marriage of real-world fringe conspiracy theories with a fictional narrative that uses the imagery of things, places, and events in the real world.

Before we talk about the issue as a whole let’s talk about some of the imagery in this issue. Right from page one of issue #5, we are presented with the menacing image of a statue of a blue-black stallion with demonic red eyes rearing up by Denver airport against a brown-orange sky… This isn’t a coincidence. Martin Simmonds’ image is powerful and immediately drew me in, making me curious about the statue and this is where Tynion IV and the team are so brilliant because before I knew it I was down the rabbit hole… That work of art known as “Mustang” but locals call it “Blucifer” is a very real  32-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture created by artist Luiz Jimenez and it’s got quite the history including actually killing the artist when a piece of it fell off while Jimenez was working on it, severing a vital artery leading to the artist dying by bleeding to death…

The issue opens with DOT agent Ruby doing recon on a Black Hat facility housed in “secret” tunnels beneath the Denver Airport and again nothing is a coincidence from Tynion IV because researching that statue led me to the conspiracy theories around Denver Airport which include said tunnels, as well as several conspiracy theories around the airport (which many American readers may be familiar with already but for me as a non-American was completely new information) including one Tynion IV manifests in all its reptilian glory, brilliantly illustrated by Simmonds but it’s even more amazing when you think that in the real world people actually believe this as Ruby makes a horrific discovery and realizes she needs to get to Agent Cole ASAP.

The issue then moves to Cole, picking up immediately after his last violent act in issue #4 and several pages are Cole reeling with the trauma of what he’s done including a phone call to his partner before he heads home to vomit at the horror of his actions only to be being confronted by someone in his apartment.

This is where it really gets interesting. Up until this point, Tynion IV and co have led us to believe and written the main character to believe that The Department Of Truth is in the right and that the mysterious Black Hat is in the wrong in a typical good versus bad trope but now this line is blurred as the mysterious figure who identifies himself as Black Hat’s leader has a conversation with Cole that immediately adds to the erosion (especially after the act Cole has been pushed to commit by Oswald) of that belief. Tynion adds the additional twist of placing the mysterious woman in red as something apart from both The Department of Truth AND Black Hat which is a further complication to everything and completely reframes Cole’s importance ( including his past with the frightening Star Faced Man) in this secret game of power that’s been going on in the shadows of human history.

The art is brilliant from Simmonds who uses powerful iconography and symbols throughout the issue to subtly comment on the physical action happening on the panel. His images are visceral, impactful, and carry weight on every page making every single one engaging. Simmonds doesn’t shy away from mixing the paneling style up from conventional nine-panel grids to more open and loose nonsymmetrical free form grid work. It’s all incredibly atmospheric and never lets you go. Simmonds understands the power of the image and uses it to it’s fullest potential from first to the last page, there’s nothing spare or casual in any of his pages and that kind of constant attention to detail on every page is really a hallmark of why this series five issues in has not produced a single poor issue to speak of. When you add all of this to the dreamlike quality of Simmonds art where you often question if what is there on panel is real physically and what is not there physically but rather a manifestation of the characters own psyche it makes for a book that gets its hooks into you on a subconscious level and that for me is the hallmark of a superb story in any medium.

Bidikar is on point as always with the lettering but I want to draw special attention to the brilliant graphic font used for the name of the issue and that cover, especially after recent events in the capitol in the US, adds a psychological edge from the get-go