Even the initial anti-establishment message seems to become lost in the conflicting ideologies of Jennie 2.5. While the artwork is fantastic in its monotone starkness, the plot doesn’t compare and is often overshadowed by the dramatic panels. Jennie 2.5 is a poor anti-hero as she seems far more interested in generating attention rather than bringing about change. At the forefront of this resistance movement is Jennie 2.5 who uses the government’s media against them with questionable results. The resistance movement appears to be a group of individuals who wish to appear ‘hip’ and seek attention rather than liberation. Luckily there is a resistance movement prepared to fight for the freedom of thought and speech.

The only media freely available to individuals is so filtered and dumbed-down that the majority of citizens lack the mental fortitude to question the government’s agenda or generate any thought demonstrating individuality.

The government has passed a ‘Clean Act’ that heavily limits the freedom of speech of individuals and gives the government full censorship rights over the media that is available to all citizens. The novel opens with the scene of New York that has undergone censorship. My main criticism of this novel is that it is unable to keep up the energy and interest that is generated in the first few chapters. Although providing a sobering message and some fantastic art work, “Channel Zero” does not pack the proverbial punch that it should have. For any paranoid readers out there, it is easy to envision that the plan to intellectually disable individuals is being inaugurated as we go about our daily lives. “Channel Zero” is a sobering look at a government agenda that thrives on keeping people ignorant. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.

His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. Brian Wood's history of published work includes over fifty volumes of genre-spanning original material.įrom the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.

Channel Zero by Brian Wood