Channel Zero: Dupe

    (Image, 1999)
™ and ©1999 Image Comics, Inc.

If you can get past the premise, the Christian right and angry mothers forced Congress to suspend free speech, granting absolute control of the press to the government. If you can also get past the preachiness that bloats word and image, this book offers a fabulous sense of design and compelling art. There’s little else.

Dupe contains short comic stories and problematic, unfocused prose. Its center: an information terrorist works to free the minds of the masses. She encourages people to organize using her website, because the establishment can’t track you there. Thing is, the establishment can track you over the Internet now, so what’s to stop them when they’ve got complete control? It’s a small thing, but this book’s chronic failure to attempt substance while championing style cripples the entire work. Instead of extrapolating to create a fresh dystopian universe, Dupe offers every single cliché you’ve seen before.

Channel Zero was created by artist/writer Brian Wood.
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