The Department of Truth, Volume 1: The End of the World Review (James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds)

We’ve all heard the conspiracy theories: who was really behind the JFK assassation, the moon landings were faked, Flat Earth theory, crisis actors and false flag events, and the Illuminati - the secret group controlling the governments of the world. But what if they were all true? Cole Turner is head-hunted by the secret Department of Truth and enters the shadow war that’s been going on for decades between the Department and another clandestine group called Black Hat - a group whose members include a woman in a red dress with black crosses for eyes and the Devil himself…

James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds’ The Department of Truth, Volume 1: The End of the World touches on the interesting ideas of conspiracies permeating our culture and systems of control, without really cohering them into a good comic that makes much sense or is all that fun to read.

Like all of Tynion’s comics, he manages to overwrite each page without creating a clear or compelling story at the end of it all. I was never sure what was going on or what the story was besides that The Department of Truth and Black Hat butt heads and both seem to want Cole to join them, though we don’t know why Cole is so important (I’m sure we’ll find out in later books but I’m not hanging around for that).

At first I thought the Department was making sure the truth of the conspiracies didn’t come out, but then later on we find out that Black Hat is manufacturing evidence to support these conspiracies and the suppression of that evidence is what the Department is really trying to do. Also - in a way we’re never told - Black Hat have the ability to turn collective belief in fringe theories into reality. What?!

So, if I understand that correctly, that means that if enough people believe that the Earth is flat and there is an ice wall at the edge then that somehow transforms into reality?! That makes no sense. And I guess - because we’re never told; again because Tynion is a feeble writer - the motivation/goal is some kind of power struggle/control over the masses? Except this is the dumbest version of that concept.

I was never pulled into or cared about the story because I didn’t understand what was happening or why or what the stakes were (maybe make clear what happens if dangerous conspiracies do get a foothold in the real world?), and not a lot happened anyway besides numerous sequences of dreary exposition that failed to land. Exploring conspiracy theories though remains interesting and that first issue isn’t bad - I do think there’s a great book to be written on this subject even if this one falls well short of realising that.

To those of you who know comics, Martin Simmonds’ art screams ‘90s Vertigo. Think every Bill Sienkiewicz or Dave McKean comic, or Duncan Fegredo’s art in Kid Eternity, and that’s what you get here. To those of you who don’t know those names, it means the art is overly scratchy, deliberately messy, highly “stylised” art that’s horrendous to look at. I’ve never liked this art style and I didn’t like it here.

Tynion’s popularity continues to bamboozle me. He’s such a bad writer! I’ll put it down to what I call the Hickman effect, who’s another awful writer with an unfathomably huge following. This could’ve been a decent comic if a decent writer were at the helm but it’s Tynion so this turned out to be a convoluted, confusing mess of murky, half-baked ideas and sloppy storytelling with matching chaotic, grimy art. The Department of Truth, Volume 1: The End of the World is boring, trite nonsense.

That said, the Denver Airport probably is satanic…