Department of Truth is a high concept conspiracy thriller comic, written by James Tynion.
The story follows an FBI special agent named Cole Turner, who has been fascinated by conspiracy
theories since his youth.
Instead of believing every theory, he simply analyzed the theories as well as the people
that did believe them, and perhaps the people that influenced the theories as well.
Pondering their legitimacy, and more or less just entertaining the notion of certain things
so outlandish.
Through this story he learns more truths than he could handle.
The story begins with an opening scene shortly after the assination of JFK. Lee Harvey Oswald
is being taken in by the police for questioning on November 22nd of 1963.
Shortly after he was taken in, two men in black suits came into the interrogation chamber,
clearing the room of everyone else.
The men shared dialogue that featured mad mumblings of a man that knew too much and
was being framed, and nobody believed him.
The men in black explained that they simply wanted to know what he knew.
After some hesitation, he explained that what he knew was going to change the world, with
lasting consequences beyond anything they’d imagined.
But he wasn’t sure if he could trust his memories or if he was going mad.
The men told Lee that they wanted Lee to say it directly so he knew it to be the truth.
Lee was silent for some time but finally says, “Up is down, and down is up.”
After this, we experience a time jump and begin following Cole in the present day.
at a flat earth conference when a man appears out of nowhere, who addresses him by name
and offers him an opportunity.
Calling it One of those moments that change everything.
Cole reluctantly agrees and is brought to a small room with 2 billionaire brothers that
served as oil company founders.
They had been helping to fund politicians for 2 decades.
But that’s not why Cole knew they.
He knew of them because they also had been funding extremist corners of the internet
for years.
It was them that had organized and funded flat earth conferences and many others like
it.
Cole knew that the two men were helping to harbor and facilitate certain beliefs that
could keep people divided, pliable and agitated.
Nevertheless, Cole felt a certain sense of excitement at the prospect of getting to the
source of these wild theories.
The brothers explain to Cole that they’re seeking to recruit an intelligent believer
and ask him bluntly if he specifically BELIEVES the earth is flat.
And even though he never accepted it as completely factual, that’s not what he replied with.
Instead he said, yes, he believed.
He wanted to see where this went.
Cole was taken to a smaller room with a number of wealthy men in suits and one single woman
in a bright red dress and sunglasses.
Her appearance was more bright and saturated than anything he’d ever seen.
And it scared him.
Especially when she smiled at him.
The lights in the room turned off and a projector began playing on a screen.
As the film was about to begin, Cole noticed a potent smug musk.
Men in the room began to lean in toward the projector.
Cole began feeling a certain anticipation that was almost palpable, as if the crowd
was on the edge of orgasm.
Being projected on the screen was the footage of the moon landing, Neil armstrong descending
down the ladder from the Rover, about to make the first small step for man.
But it was different from the footage that had been displayed many years ago, it was
from a different angle.
As Neil was descending the ladder, something began to appear in the background.
Then Cole recognized it.
It was a man holding a cardboard cup.
He was not wearing any space gear, just a normal dressed up man.
The room exploded with laughter, excitement and applause.
Everyone except for Cole, who immediately broke out in a nervous sweat with a pit in
his stomach.
The lights flipped on and the two brothers began speaking to the room.
They explained the footage was from Stanley Kubrick’s private collection, and that it
had been stored privately in a government warehouse for decades.
The two wicked men continued to explain their intentions to release it to the press in combination
with an even bigger find that would be revealed in time.
Cole’s reality had been shattered.
What had he just witnessed?
Was that real?
And if it was… what else was fake?
He wasn’t given time to ponder as one of the brothers approached Cole and asked him
how far he REALLY wanted to go down the rabbit hole.
Cole asked what he meant, and the brothers replied that they’d be taking a private
plane but their destination was a surprise.
They explained that Cole’s husband would be alerted by government agents that he is
required for government tasks.
Once again his curiosity got the better of him, and he reluctantly agreed.
He’d gone this far, he may as well see where this path leads him.
He was almost in shock, unable to believe and grasp at what he was seeing and experiencing.
But he wanted to know more.
The group of men boarded the private plane where most of them began to drink and excitedly
talk amongst themselves.
But not Cole.
He sat alone, thinking to himself.
He was unsure of how long that flight was, and he lost track of time after the second
stop to refuel the plane.
It could have been days for all he knew.
Feeling uneasy and sick, he finally fell asleep.
A hand on his shoulder awoke him as one of the brothers exclaimed that he needed to look
out the window.
What he saw was unbelievable.
A giant wall of ice was in front of them, and beyond that was space.
It was what appeared to be the edge of the world, other planetary systems and space beyond
it.
His brain simply couldn’t interpret or comprehend what he was seeing.
It was then that Cole’s nervous system went into overdrive as he leapt up, desperately
seeking some way to understand what he was experiencing.
It was then that he noticed the bright red woman.
For the first time, she spoke, asking Cole directly...
“Did you see?
It’s important that you see…”.
She then lowered her sunglasses to share what appeared to be two empty eye sockets with
a large black patch covering each socket.
It looked like two large X’s over her eyes.
Cole yelled in horror and ran to the plane’s bathroom.
Almost immediately he tore his glasses off in a frantic sweat and vomited violently.
Just then, some men in the cabin explain to the passengers that they would be arriving
at the base camp momentarily, where a helicopter will take them to as high as they can get
to the edge.
Cole finally collected himself as the plane landed in the Antarctic environment.
Cole and the rest of the passengers are given thick coats to remain warm in such cold weather.
The passengers all excitedly make their way out of the plane.
Cole was the final person to leave the plane and watched the two brothers lead the group
of people toward a large building.
Suddenly a woman approaches the group of people with an automatic weapon.
The brothers appear surprised and ask her if she’s with black hat, to which he replies
no, and immediately shoots the crew in cold blood.
Cole, who was far away from the rest of the people, saw the event and felt a mixture of
fear and horror, thinking that he was about to be next.
In a moment of panic, he slips and falls on the hard cold ground.
But by this point he had been through so much shock he was numb.
The woman approached Cole and for the second time he was addressed by name, Cole Turner?
He stammered, yes.
She calmly told him she was there to take him home.
At this point, Cole was almost completely checked out.
He’d seen things he couldn’t wrap his mind around.
And he was pretty sure that this woman was about to kill him.
He tried getting some information from her, she just told him to stop asking questions.
After another unknown duration of time, she eventually took him to a private room with
a white haired man sitting at the table.
Cole sits across from him.
The man asks Cole if he knew why he was there.
And of course he knew, he’d witnessed things he shouldn’t have seen.
The man asks about his interest and involvement with various conspiracy theory groups online.
Cole, realizing he was at the mercy of these unknown people, explained his interest.
He was studying how groups’ particular situations on the fringe of society grant a certain susceptibility
to influence.
The man then asked Cole about his experience at the flat earth conference and thereafter.
Cole was struggling to come to terms with what he had seen.
He couldn’t even trust his memories.
The mysterious man seemed happy to hear this, and encouraged him to recount the story from
the top.
Cole shared what he’d experienced after the conference, the plane, and beyond.
He shared everything he remembered, despite how crazy it sounded.
It was at that point Cole was expecting the people to kill him for seeing and knowing
too much.
But the man said he wasn’t going to die.
The man turned and addressed the woman as Ruby, asking her what she thought of Cole.
She replied that he would fit the role.
She explained she was looking for a special individual like him that was knowledgeable
and interested in various fringe theories, but not one of the crackpot tin foil hat wearing
nutjobs.
She also mentions it was good to have someone that was a part of something that significant
during the 80s.
It was at this point that Cole interjected, clearly confused, as to what was happening.
The man across the table explained how he was no longer going to work for the FBI anymore,
instead, Cole was going to work for them.
Cole struggled to understand what he meant.
It was then that the tone shifted.
The man’s demeanor suddenly changed, he explained that the world really was round
and that with the right tools, he could prove it.
But it wasn’t the truth because science showed it to be true.
The man went on to explain that what Cole had seen at the end of the world was only
a figment of another kind of truth taking hold.
Immediately Cole was reminded of his research from the past and asked if this was simply
a tulpa, or a spiritual concept for a manifestation that originates from a mental thought.
The man mocked Cole for bringing up the spiritual terminology.
Cole, thinking he didn’t understand him, explained the concept further, that a tulpa
is a thoughtform, a belief given a body.
The man retorted that he knew what it was.
He also said that Cole was partially right, he was just wrong about the scale of the concept.
The man leaned forward and in a serious and solemn tone said, “I’m going to tell you
the secret.
The big secret that you’ve known your entire life.
The more people believe in something, the more true that thing becomes.
The more reality tips in the favor of that belief.”
The man went on to explain that Cole’s experience in Antarctica was simply the product of what
had manifested from the amount of people believing that it was the truth.
If those people had managed to bring back verifiable proof of that manifestation to
share with the world, our world, and our reality would change.
“The Moon landing would be a hoax, every government, every airline, every communications
corporation, they would all have been in on it from the beginning.
And the world would retroactively have ALWAYS been flat.
And the people would rightly rise up in fury, having been lied to for decades.
It was for these reasons that this man’s organization existed.
It was their responsibility to make sure that conspiracy theories STAY conspiracy theories.
The man suddenly considered this meeting over.
He abruptly stood up and signified to the woman that it was time to go.
He looked to cole and told him that he was now a part of this organization.
As the two were turning around toward the door, he told Cole that he was to report and
answer to Ruby now.
Cole jumped up, explaining he had so many questions.
Quickly Running through his mind he wanted to know 2 things.
Who was the woman in red with no eyes?
And why did they think Ruby worked for something called black hat?
The man brushed off Cole’s request for information, insisting his questions will be answered in
time.
In a frustrated plea for understanding, Cole explains he doesn’t even know for whom he’ll
be working.
As Ruby and the man walked toward the door of the room, the man looks back and chuckles
as he says, “I guess I skipped that part didn’t I?”
“My name is Lee Harvey Oswald.
Welcome to the department of truth.”
This only covers the first issue and chapter of the Department of Truth.
There are 19 issues at the time of this video.
But more importantly, the comic series HAS been picked up to be turned into a TV series.
They’re even saying that James Tynion might be writing the script himself.
So we may be able to see something incredibly close to what he had originally envisioned
for this story.
It will definitely be interesting to see how the story continues, especially when we get
to the more wild and crazy conspiracies.
If you’d like to see more content like this, be sure to let me know in the comments.
Shout-outs to the channel members that support the channel every month.
Maker Out.
Oh and before I go, I wanna share some pretty vital information.
It’s about the conspiracy involving