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Vertigo's DMZ: On the Ground, by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, literalizes the metaphor of a divided America. The demilitarized zone of the title refers to Manhattan, where the Free States face off in a second civil war against what's left of the U.S. government. Journalist Matty Roth (the journalist is often the true hero of post-9/11 comics) struggles against government censorship to tell the truth about life in the DMZ. 'There's no borders or front lines for this war,' writes Matty. 'The Free States are an idea, not a geographic entity. The same asymmetrical insurgent warfare that bogged down the U.S. military overseas is happening here.'

It's a theme echoed in Douglas Rushkoff's Testament, which depicts an America in which all young people have chips planted in their arms that are used for surveillance and control. Told in parallel with stories from the Bible, Testament follows a group of mystical cyberrevolutionaries as they attempt to 'hack the global economy-and deprogram the greater population.' Testament's concepts, characterization, and images can cross the line into clich?d and puerile, yet its juxtaposition of Bible tales with anarchist propaganda is curiously intoxicating.

Image's Emissary is the only comic to attempt any kind of healing of an America at war. Unfortunately, Emissary is even less successful than Testament. The plot, of a magical alien being who appears in Times Square to show earthlings 'a way to enlightenment,' is overly familiar. Worse, it's politically escapist in a way that Ex Machina and DMZ are not. Do we need an alien messiah in order to reunite as a people, or do we need journalists like Sally Floyd and Matty Roth who can expose the truth? Though it is earnest, Emissary reads like unhealthy wish fulfillment.

So much for fantasy. Do these comic books tell us anything about the real world? They are all portraits of a country at political and cultural war with itself. Twentieth-century heroes like Superman fought for all of us and for an American way that everyone supposedly shared. In the 21st century, comic book heroes are fighting over the very meaning of the American way. The winners will decide who is an American-and who is a criminal. It's not a hopeful message, but it might help readers young and old to understand what's at stake.

The Untold STORY

AMONG THE RIGHTEOUS: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands

By Robert Satloff (PublicAffairs)

In the volumes written on the Holocaust, the stories of those who saved Jews occupy hallowed ground, offering a glimpse of shared humanity during a time that saw too little of it.

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