Wood describes DMZ in an interview as "equal parts Escape From New York, Fallujah, and New Orleans." Stories in this familiar but alien setting echo headlines from Iraq: We read about civilian casualties of American bombing and the insurgent kidnapping of a prominent American journalist. The current story arc follows Trustwell, the Halliburton-esque government contractors brought in to rebuild parts of Manhattan. These well-tuned details move the plot forward, but—more important—they provoke authentic response from Wood's real subjects, the civilians desperately trying to make a life inside a war zone. At the center of the story is Matty Roth, a photojournalism intern stranded in Manhattan, who becomes the only source of information for the outside world. Roth and his new friends and neighbors—among them Zee, a med student who's become the only "doctor" on the Lower East Side—offer an intimate (and distinctly American) portrait of the hardships of civil war.