The Vietnam War is one of the most documented wars in history. This has been done through a variety of sources including live footage, documentaries, journals, books, films, television, and music. One of the newest mediums in capturing Vietnam is through comics/ graphic novels. The Other Side, written by Jason Aaron (Star Wars, Thor) and illustrated by Cameron Stewart (Motor Crush), attempts to cover this genre.
Summary:
The Other Side tells the story of American Soldier Billy Everette and Vietnamese soldier Vo Binh Dai as they both are fighting on opposite sides of the Vietnam War. Billy Everette is from a small town in Alabama and does not want to be drafted into the war. As a result, he attempts to catch an STD and make it seem that he is queer to avoid the draft, both fail and he is drafted to become a marine. Conversely, Vo Binh Dai is the only man from his village who volunteers to fight for his country. Vo knows that he might die, but he believes it is righteous and there is honor to die this way. As the war wages on both Billy and Vo experience the everyday hardships of war, how it tests their resolves, and how it affects them physically and mentally as they both try to kill the enemy in the jungle.
Significance:
The graphic novel pulls no punches in showing how America, through Billy’s experience, viewed the war. In contrast, it shows and how Vietnam, through Vo’s experience, views the war. When Billy first got his draft notice he attempted to catch an STD or state that he was queer shows how little he and most Americans cared about fighting for Vietnam, even if it meant being unpatriotic. Conversely, Vo volunteered along with several others from villages across Vietnam to join the army shows the level of patriotism that the Vietnamese had for their country, that they were willing to fight and die for it. The Other Side depicts how the war was viewed in both countries at the citizens level and what lengths the people from each country were willing to go to achieve what they believed in. Furthermore, the graphic novel captures physiological aspects of war for both Billy and Vo and how it affects them on and off the battlefield. In particular, for Billy we see how him being drafted and sent to boot camp begins to dehumanize him. In this process, he starts envisioning his drill sergeant as a deformed human creature due to the amount of stress that is place upon him. As the stress and intensity of his training and deployment in Vietnam increases more and more people and creatures start to appear deformed and talk to Billy about life and death. This shows what soldiers were experiencing in Vietnam due to the nature of the war and the amount of pressure it put on the body. Vo, in many ways experienced the same thing that Billy did, initially at a lesser level, but he envisioned the Americans being the main enemy in his dreams and with deformities. This shows that the stress and intensity of the war was not one sided but rather equal to soldiers on both sides. As the psychological stress grows for both Billy and Vo their resolve and reasons for being in this war are challenged. For Billy, he gains the resole he did not initially have and he wants to return home and protect his fellow soldiers. Vo has a complete one-eighty. He questions why he volunteered to be a soldier as he could have had a nice life in his village with his parents and had a family. This was not his initial position at the start of the war as he was ready to fight and die for his country. The graphic novel highlights how war changes people as some people rise to the challenge while others fall. In many ways that is the outcome of the Vietnam war as the real battle was not in facing the Vietnamese people, but rather staying sane enough in a battlefield that was designed to drive men crazy.
