"What am I missing? Do later volumes break out of this mold?"

They do. Each story arc (volume) seems to step into slightly different territory. There's always the continuing link of Matty Roth's caustic personality, but other than that, Brian Wood has really taken this story in very different directions than I was expecting. I haven't read any of the issues beyond the Friendly Fire arc, so I can't say for sure, but it seems like he's written the magnum opus of the serious already in vol. 4.

Perhaps it's a bad move when it comes to selling trades over the years (you always need a good "hook" first volume, i.e., Transmetropolitan Vol. 1, although Sandman seems to have done very well for itself even with its lackluster introduction), but the first volume of DMZ is almost a farce, showing how happily people can live in chaos, in a way, although it's nowhere near a "nice" place to live. The subsequent volumes hint further at the hell that New York very recently was before Matty's arrival, and how terrifying it could very easily become again.

Again, it's a shame it took Wood so long to get to a story like this, but read as a whole, it makes a lot of sense.

(ALSO: Scalped Vol. 1 was definitely stronger than DMZ vol. 1 -- and hit its stride with only the second volume. This book is the best thing Vertigo's published in many years. Support Jason Aaron, and give it a read!)

"Because there is an agenda. That agenda is to shape and direct mass opinion through all available media."

Read up on this. You don't know this writer. Matt Fraction is going to do something entirely unexpected for this, undoubtedly. He is not some Bush-supporting crony.

And yes, at this point in the character's life, he would be supportive of keeping his software and work private. Perhaps this villain has something to teach him. Perhaps not. This is the writer who wrote Five Fists of Science; this could go in a lot of directions. Whichever way, it will surely be fun to read, and be true to the character while exploring new ground.