Brian Wood - Channel Zero

-Might contain spoilers-

Finally i'm writing about this graphic novel! In the beginning of the semester when i saw this graphic novel on the list, i immeadieately ordered it. It was exciting to see a graphic novel in the list. I am familiar with Brian Wood from his Northlanders, a series of graphic novels whose setting has nothing to do with Channel Zero (definitely recommend it to everyone, especially for those who are interested in vikings and northern cultures).

The setting in Channel Zero is pretty much a dystopian near future America where media is completely under the control of a totalitarian government. Our main character is Jenny 2.5, a revolutioner young rebel who, when she was a kid got influenced by important revolutioner icons and tries to become one throught the story.

The first thing i noticed when i start reading this graphic novel was that i immediately felt that this piece was completely done by artistic desires of Wood. You can feel that it's a very personal work. I also liked the introduction by Warren Ellis a lot.

Although i liked the spirit of this graphic novel, i must say that it's not the most impressive future pessimism piece to me. Most of the time, the reading parts and the drawings were not very unified and i found myself reading more than looking at the images, which is not a great thing to do when what you read is a graphic piece. But this is just my opinion.

But there are so many things to write about the concept of this novel. Like most of other dystopian stories, this one makes us think about our future and how close we are to that level. In the story what struck me the most was that towards the end Jenny 2.5 gives up on her fight when she sees the younger generation that were wearing Jenny 2.5 t-shirts and being wannabes. Just like once she was when she was young. She hopes that one day one of those wannabes would become a real revolutioner. That's pretty much how the story ends. I really liked the way Wood shows us this interesting cycle.

To sum it all up, i would say i enjoyed reading this piece and i respect it for being such an artistic endeavour. But it was not effective and strong as Alan Moore's V for Vendetta (or Watchmen).