Politics shouldn’t influence artistic criticism, unless, of course, politics are the focus of the art being evaluated. That’s the situation here with The Enforcers: Zero Issue, a comic book written by Carl Herring Jr. and illustrated Tod Smith. The premise is simple: a fictional drug czar is assembling an elite team to combat illegal narcotics. Think the Avengers meets D.A.R.E.
The fictional drug czar in question is Senator Lawrence Fulton, and he seems like a guy who is awfully white-knuckled over America’s “war on drugs.” He’s enlisted the help of Special Forces Commando Maddox Turner to train an elite force of federal warriors who will kick the drug war back into overdrive. Clearly this is a fictional story, because if there is one thing the United States government is adept at throwing money at, it’s the nation’s treasured drug war. There’s never a time when it’s not in overdrive. See, there is an example of politics rearing its ugly head.
The three individuals that Senator Fulton has his eye on are Clayton Jagger, Steven Carter, and Rio Mendez. The first two are N.Y.P.D. cops: Jagger is is a rough-neck loner who prides himself on being a bad-ass ever since a failed drug raid happened that resulted in the death of his partner. As these things go, of course he blames himself. Carter is the opposite of Jagger: he breaks out into a cold sweat at even the thought of picking up a gun after he shot a violent teen dead who was high on PCP. Lastly, we have Rio Mendez, a rookie Karate instructor; he’s not afraid to put someone in their place Xena-style.
While this may sound like an innocent enough premise, I can’t help but let my politics get the better of me. Call me a bleeding-heart liberal, but are more DEA officials what the American drug war needs? What about treating the addiction instead of imprisoning the addicted? From what I understand, it’s much more cost-effective and far less violent.
Then again, this is only a comic book, and yet I had such a visceral response. So then, does it work? Yes, I think it does. I feel invested in The Enforcers exactly because I disagree with its premise. What a cunning approach on the part of writer Herring. I almost feel tricked, and yet I await the next issue.
This comic book review originally appeared on Broken Frontier.
