DMZ has been stuck in some of the most intense, dramatic and politically charged comic book action you'll find on the shelves in the past five or six months. This book has been upping its own game ever since the first issue, challenging itself, its author and its readers to adapt and rethink. Ever increasingly relevant, DMZ is a book comic fans should not be skipping.

Issue #33 picks up with Election Day fast approaching for the island. Delgado is still unconscious, and only those closest to him and his movement know the truth. The hunt for the assassin continues, and Matty Roth's mother leads the charge. The thing with this issue that threw me off at first was the seeming absence of Matty. He's certainly there throughout, but his presence seems like such a null-factor at this point. It's like Wood has forced the perspective back far enough from Matty to make his readers focus on the problems of a nation and a group of neglected and terrorized people. By moving away from Matty and focusing on the motions of a movement, the weight of this "Blood in the Game" arc has been magnified intensely.

Matty gets a call from his father close to the end of the issue where his dad tells him that matters are about to get seriously bloody. Trustwell is moving in on the election centers, weapons in hand. By the end of issue #33, you'll know that a massacre is about to happen. Something close to what happened to the group of demonstrators Wood focused on about a year ago.

This arc--and this issue specifically--have done a great job at recreating the sense of pressure that is squeezing all of the residents of the DMZ nearly to death. There's such a defining moment looming that Wood has managed to highlight and intensify the sense of waiting. It's like with every page I expected something epic to go down, but Wood kept me salivating throughout.

Burchielli is still great with his littered and slightly imprecise look. There's one moment in particular that brings with it a feeling of haste and that looming nature that I spoke about above. It is Election Day, and the city seems to have fallen silent. There's a shot of an area called Washington Heights that is riddled with debris, but devoid of life. A young boy comes whipping around the corner, slams something on a lamp sign. It's a flier that simply reads "Vote" with a single star. Something I recognized as part of Delgado nation, but I could be wrong. This moment delivers the sense of unstoppable urgency that the Election brings to the series. It's like this is it, this is what we've been waiting for. Let's see where Wood takes that moment.

This fifth part in the six part arc stands as a build up point. While not much physically happens within, the issue serves to make readers anxious for the conclusion. I can't wait to see how the chips fall.

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