I have a suspicion that this series is flying under the radar of a lot of comics readers, which is a shame, as it's some of the strongest work that Brian Wood has done. Each issue is a totally self-contained story, meaning that you can pick up any one issue and not worry about having to get any others, except that you'll probably want to see if the rest of them are just as good. In the notes that close out the issue, Wood indicates that this story is more of a supernatural story than one of superpowers, but the truth is, that's been the case with every issue of Demo, which has been more about exploring the notion of extranormal abilities as connected to normal (not in terms of being average, but in terms of being believable) people than about the usual superhero genre trappings. It's not deconstructionist, because it's too different to be called such, it's more like slice-of-life with a big twist.
Each issue of Demo has also explored a theme, something that we can relate to in regular life. In this particular issue, what drives the story is racism and the fear and anger it brings into the world. Wood and Cloonan's story can be interpreted as metaphor for what racism does to the world, creating an inevitable backlash, and bringing death with it. The notion of an entire whitebread neighborhood that is so isolated and overtly racist seems unreal to me, but that is because (thankfully) I've never experienced it, not because I don't believe such places exist.
Cloonan and Wood play with fire in this story, not in terms of material (really, "racism is ugly and bad" isn't a radical message) but in terms of risking audience reactions to the story. Their protagonist is essentially revealed as a mass murderer, and there's a particularly gruesome scene here wherein an animal was killed that was a bit hard to stomach, just because of my own personal feelings. However, there's no getting around the feeling that these people deserved what they got, and Cloonan and Wood make the reader feel exactly what the protagonist does, at the same time leaving us wondering how we could think that anyone deserved that. Basically, the reader is dragged right into the story, right into the same headspace, to experience the protagonist's feelings, and the weight of what he carries with him, even in the midst of a happy adult life, is palpable.
It's funny, because Cloonan mentions The Shining as one of her influences, tonally, on this issue, but what I got was a total Akira vibe. Not just in terms of the subject matter, but in terms of the look of the book. Cloonan has always had something of a manga sensibility, and it comes through clearly here, especially when the book goes from normal to more of a horrific tone. Though it's not as scary or creepy as something like Uzumaki, the manga style definitely seems to be suited to horror, and the sinister overtones in the final sequence are very powerful. There's a different personality that plays across the lead character's face throughout those scenes, showing the physical manifestation of the hatred that the narrative captions are talking about.
Despite being created by the same creative team, each issue of Demo has been a completely different kind of beast in terms of story. The thing that ties them together is a common theme of superpowers and the impressive caliber of talent. AIT/Planet Lar is known for graphic novels, not single issues, and I'm more of a graphic novel fan in general these days myself, but Demo really does read like short graphic novels without a spine rather than as a series that will eventually be collected. While I'm never one to tell people not to "wait for the trade," Demo really is a series that reads just as well in single issues as it probably will in collected form.
