History ComicBook / TheDepartmentOfTruth

* BlackHelicopter: Their significance in anti-government conspiracy theories is discussed in issue #11. Hawk tells Cole that, while he was trying out ways to expand the power of the Department and by extension the U.S. government in the 90s, he tried to tap into the ones about black helicopters as a supposed mode of transportation by secret, powerful government agencies by sending some actual black helicopters into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge standoff]]. [[spoiler:When this got people killed at the standoff and lead to similar right-wing extremism incidents like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the siege at Waco]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], it started to push him into turning against the Department and joining Black Hat]].

* BigBad: So far, Martin Barker and his organization, Black Hat. Their plan is to spread as many wild, inflammatory conspiracy theories as they can in order to make them retroactively true and use this new reality to bring down society as we know it.

* AmbiguousSituation: The man who runs the Department of Truth says that he is Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who (allegedly) [[WhoShotJFK assassinated President John F. Kennedy]]. It is brought up multiple times whether or not he's the real Oswald, a belief-based manifestation or if this is just a codename, but a real answer is never given. [[spoiler:This later becomes a plot point when Hawk Harrison reveals that he is working both sides, thinking that the Lee Harvey Oswald is a "wild fiction" resulting from conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK assasssination.]]

* StraightGay: Neither Cole Turner, nor his husband have any of the campier stereotypes of their sexuality on display.

** Creator/FrankCapra led the Department of Truth before Lee took over under Nixon's orders. In turn, the head of operations of the Soviet Ministry of Lies was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov Dziga Vertov]], the Soviet filmmaker perhaps best known for ''Film/ManWithAMovieCamera''. Creator/StanleyKubrick is mentioned as having been involved in faking the moon landing; while his memory was retroactively altered when the landing became reality, Lee notes that he'll have "some kind of nightmare" as a result (likely alluding to the claims that Film/TheShining featured clues to Kubrick's involvement in faking the landing, suggesting that, in-universe, those scenes reflected his fragmented memories of doing so).

''The Department of Truth'' is a 2020 NewWeird {{Horror}}-{{Conspiracy Thriller}} written by Creator/JamesTynionIV and illustrated by Creator/MartinSimmonds.

** Creator/FrankCapra led the Department of Truth before Lee took over under Nixon's orders. In turn, the head of operations of the Soviet Ministry of Lies was [[Film/ManWithAMovieCamera Dziga Vertov]]. Creator/StanleyKubrick is mentioned as having been involved in faking the moon landing; while his memory was retroactively altered when the landing became reality, Lee notes that he'll have "some kind of nightmare" as a result (likely alluding to the claims that Film/TheShining featured clues to Kubrick's involvement in faking the landing, suggesting that, in-universe, those scenes reflected his fragmented memories of doing so).

** In Chapter 3, the parents of a kid who died in a school shooting are continuously harassed and threatened by fans of a ConspiracyTheorist who accuse their kid of being a crisis actor. While the talking head is never named, he sounds and looks an awful lot like Alex Jones from ''[=InfoWars=]''.

''The Department of Truth'' is a 2020 NewWeird {{Horror}}-ConspiracyThriller written by Creator/JamesTynionIV and illustrated by Creator/MartinSimmonds.

With the proliferation of information, UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories have taken root in the minds of the modern era. Unfortunately for humanity, if enough people believe in something, it becomes true, and a lot of people believe in a lot of horrifying things. Luckily, the United States of America has the Department of Truth to [[MasqueradeEnforcer prevent such things from becoming real]].

* BlackHelicopter: Their significance in anti-government conspiracy theories is discussed in issue #11. Hawk tells Cole that, while he was trying out ways to expand the power of the Department and by extension the U.S. government in the 90s, he tried to tap into the ones about black helicopters as a supposed mode of transportation by secret, powerful government agencies by sending some actual black helicopters into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge standoff]]. [[spoiler:When this got people killed at the standoff and lead to similar right-wing terrorism incidents like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the siege at Waco]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], it started to push him into turning against the Department and joining Black Hat]].

* BlackHelicopter: Their significance in anti-government conspiracy theories is discussed in issue #9. Hawk tells Cole that, while he was trying out ways to expand the power of the Department and by extension the U.S. government in the 90s, he tried to tap into the ones about black helicopters as a supposed mode of transportation by secret, powerful government agencies by sending some actual black helicopters into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge the Ruby Ridge standoff]]. [[spoiler:When this got people killed at the standoff and lead to similar right-wing terrorism incidents like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege the siege at Waco]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing the Oklahoma City bombing]], it started to push him into turning against the Department and joining Black Hat]].

* ConspiracyKitchenSink: Invoked and analyzed. In a world where [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve collective belief warps reality]], conspiracy theories manifest as real-life monsters, selective memories and other anomalous activity, things that only grown more and more dangerous the more sense they make to people. One of the Department of Truth's jobs is to decentralized conspiracies in a way so that not too many people can latch onto the same idea in a "too many cooks spoils the pot" kind of way. Oswald gives an example of various inane theories -- citing theories like Obama being from Kenya, that 9/11 was an inside job and everything [=QAnon=] ever says -- and asks Cole to put them all together. Cole is able to weave a linear, ongoing narrative based around these facts where the world is being controlled by a globalist Shadow Government, Obama is the Antichrist and the War on Terror was all a plot to destroy America, a "big picture" that the Department is trying to prevent.

** [[spoiler:According to Harrison's father, Creator/LRonHubbard and Jack Whiteside Parsons tried using occult practices they learned from Creator/AleisterCrowley to summon the Scarlet Woman. Not only do they succeed, but the sudden breach in reality results in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and an unprecedented number of UFO sightings and wild fictions that pervaded the late 40's and 50's.]]

** The Star-Faced Man is a {{Tulpa}} manifestation of the SatanicPanic of the 70's and 80's, later reemerging with the rise of Pizza-Gate and [=QAnon=]. He appears in the nightmares of children as an inhuman entity with a pentagram over his face eating a baby, and his presence is nothing short of traumatizing for his victims. It was him who inspired Cole Turner to become a government investigator, having encountered him in his youth, and it's when he's offered to hunt down the Star-Faced Man does he agree to join the Department.

* InsufferableGenius: Hawk Harrison is an agent from the Department of Truth since the 1960's and he is tasked with doing or undoing manifestations if needed, having taken down the [[FlatWorld ice wall]] and Black Hat facility in Denver because he has an intimate understanding of the subjective nature of their job. He's also a massive {{Troll}} that likes saying offensive things to people just to get a reaction out of them, best indicated by his iconic inverted-flag baseball cap. Even Oswald hates his guts, but he keeps him around because Hawk can be counted on for results. [[spoiler:Its eventually revealed that he is a rogue agent, having become disillusioned with the [=DoT=] when the Star-Faced Man manifested in front of him after he was commissioned to create him.]]

* SatanicArchetype: Hawk Harrison is one of the Department of Truth's oldest and most accomplished agents in spite of his {{Troll}}ish behavior, is always seen wearing a cap with an inverted flag on it (which evokes the idea of an inverted cross) and [[spoiler: is eventually revealing that he has since gone rogue]]. This is made all the more poignant in a flashback where he is literally made out to look like a BigRedDevil to a young, impressionable Cole Turner, [[spoiler:having been the one to create the Star-Faced Man and the SatanicPanic of the 70's in the first place.]]

** The first issue features the Boulet brothers, heirs to an oil fortune who have been funding right-wing politicians and conspiracy theorists. They're presumably stand-ins for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers Koch brothers]], who likewise made their money in oil and fund conservative groups.

''The Department of Truth'' is a 2020 NewWeird {{Horror}}-{{Conspiracy Thriller}} written by Creator/JamesTynionIV (''ComicBook/TheBackstagers'', ''ComicBook/TheNiceHouseOnTheLake'' and various ''[[ComicBook/BatmanJamesTynionIV Batman]]'' and ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' iterations) and illustrated by Martin Simmonds (''Blood-Stained Teeth'' and ''What's The Furthest Place From Here'').

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In Chapter 3, the parents of a kid who died in a school shooting are continuously harassed and threatened by fans of a ConspiracyTheorist who accuse their kid of being a crisis actor. While the talking head is never named, he sounds and looks an awful lot like Alex Jones from ''[=InfoWars=]''.

* SovietSuperscience: The Soviets had their own Department Of Truth equivalent, the Ministry Of Lies. It was apparently led by fabled soviet filmmaker [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziga_Vertov Dziga Vertov]] and thus shaped by his philosophical theories about the technological evolution of humans into "machine men" (i.e. men with a movie camera, shaped by cinema's possibilities).

* TheMenInBlack: The Men in Black are a type of Wild Fiction the Department of Truth had encountered during TheFifties, taking the form of a tall [[TheGrey Grey-alien]] in a black suit and hat. It was his investigations into the Men in Black that led to the Department hiring Doc Hynes (as well as indirectly contributing to the conspiracy theories surrounding them).

** [[spoiler:According to Harrison's father, Creator/LRonHubbard and Jack Whiteside Parsons tried using occult practices they learned from Creator/AleisterCrowley to summon the Scarlet Woman. Not only do they succeed, but the sudden breach in reality results in the unprecedented number of UFO citings and wild fictions that pervaded the late 40's and 50's.]]

* BrownNoteBeing: [[{{Tulpa}} Entities that manifest under shared belief]] instill an inherent sense of fear, dread and curiosity whenever a person sees them since they are these ideas made manifest, made only more and more real when encountered.

* MoonLandingHoax: In issue 1, one of the first signs that Cole is heading down the rabbit hole is the film he's shown of an astronaut climbing down from the lander—with a man in a normal business suit visible in the background, standing in the wrong part of the set.

* AmbiguousSituation: The man who runs the Department of Truth says that he is Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who (allegedly) [[WhoShotJFK assassinated President John F. Kennedy]]. It is brought up multiple times whether or not he's the real Oswald, a belief-based manifestation or if this is just a codename, but a real answer is never given. [[spoiler:This later becomes a plot point when Hawk Harrison reveals that he is working both sides, thinking that the Lee Harvey Oswald is a manifestation of America's collective distrust of the government.]]

* TheMenInBlack: Discussed. The Men in Black as a concept is brought up multiple times, and either the Department of Truth or Black Hat acts as a stand-in to these, or they manifest as {{Tulpa}}s that the Department have to deal with regularly. The comic also references to the ''Franchise/MenInBlack'' franchise multiple times, claiming that they don't have [[LaserGuidedAmnesia neuralyzer]] or fancy ScienceFiction spy-gadgets to help maintain [[{{Masquerade}} normalcy]].

''The Department of Truth'' is a 2020 NewWeird {{Horror}}-{{Conspiracy Thriller}} written by Creator/JamesTynionIV (''ComicBook/TheBackstagers'', ''ComicBook/TheNiceHouseOnTheLake'' and various ''[[ComicBook/BatmanJamesTynionIV Batman]]'' and ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' iterations) and illustrated by Martin Simmonds (''Blood-Stained Teeth'' and ''What's The Furthest Place From Here'').