Cover Art for Escape #7
Written by Rick Remender
Art and Colors by Daniel Acuña
Letters by Rus Wooten
Cover Art by Daniel Acuña
Sometimes, a comic will come along that completely blows you away. Everything from the story, to the art to the presentation and its covers will draw you in and won’t let you go. I’ve been reading comics for around 25 years now; I’ve read a lot of different stories from a lot of different writers and creative teams. Not every story will leave this kind of impact but when one does, you catch yourself thinking about the issue and how it made you feel and thinking how badly you want next month’s release daily. Escape is in that echelon for me.
Escape Chapter Seven: “Hope and Delusion” is another perfect issue in what has already been one of the best comic runs of the entire year. Rick Remender has written some incredible stories in his career and it's not a stretch to say this one already ranks among his best. Daniel Acuña’s art perfectly encapsulates this story; he’s gained a fan for life. Milton Shaw has become one of my favorite lead characters in comics. Let’s get into it. Spoiler Warning for Escape #7 Now In Effect.
A Brief Recap
The Narenian forces and their massive titan cannon have kept the allied forces at bay over the course of the first six issues. Milton Shaw has done the impossible and has made it all the way to the heart of the Narienian’s military base. A date with the titan cannon awaits him. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. This issue’s introduction doesn’t begin with Milton but with the evil Lieutenant Colonel that has been pursuing Milton throughout this story.
The Lieutenant Colonel isn’t happy that there's been a massive hole blown in the outer wall of his base. Last issue, Milton successfully blew up the wall and snuck in. The Colonel isn’t pleased that nobody has picked up on the fact that this explosion was most likely a distraction and he lets his son, the Major in charge on the ground, hear it. The colonel screams through the main radio channel to his son that essentially believes he’s an embarrassment and he should be a man for once in his life and figure out how to solve the problem. The Major begins dealing orders and then goes on the hunt for Milton.
The next massive chunk of the issue takes place around the titan cannon and the series of events that takes place there. After successfully sneaking through the Narenian military base, Milton has finally made it to the weapon of mass destruction. He gets out his C4 and prepares to pull the trigger. In Milton’s mind there's no way he’s going to get out of this alive but he needs to complete his goal. The Major finds Milton, realizes who he is and the battle that could change the tide of the war is on. As the battle between the two rages, it's tough for anyone to get the upper hand until Milton throws them both over the side of a guard rail and crashing to the foundations of the titan cannon below. Milton strangles the Major and blows the C4 as he tries to escape the base.
Milton shoots his way out of the base as fast as he can, dodging gunfire and explosions as best as he can. Eventually Milton gets pinned down and thinks his luck has finally run out. He looks at a picture of his wife as he’s surrounded by Narenian troops. Death it seems, isn’t ready for Milton just yet. A small band of resistance fighters fires upon the Narenians; led by the widowed father Milton met a few issues ago, Anders. The small band of fighters does all they can to help Milton escape the base but in the end, only Anders and Milton make it out alive and they pray help will now come from the Allied Forces.
Thoughts on the Issue
I’ll be the first to say war comics typically aren’t my thing but these seven issues of Escape have been great. This seventh issue sees the culmination of Milton’s missions that begins and ends in hellfire. He was the only member of his team to escape the attack in the beginning of the series and he is one of only two to make it out of the Narenian military base. Milton’s journey of survival has been compelling to follow since we first met him in issue #1 and he’s quickly become one of my favorite characters in a month-to-month comic. Remender’s use of anthropomorphic creatures has been genius because humans always seem to have a more caring disposition towards animals and it's definitely made many of the story beats have more impact.
Specifically with issue #7, this is a pretty straightforward plot but the genius of this issue lies in Milton’s inner thoughts and inner dialogue. That's what separates this issue from being just another great one in the run to being one of the absolute BEST in the entire run. Milton’s inner dialogue and what glimpses we’ve been given into his thoughts have been big highlights of past issues for me as well but what he goes though inside his head as he preps to destroy the titan cannon got very emotional for me.
Milton comes to terms with the fact that he’s going to die. Obviously, we know he survives now but in his mind there is currently no way out of his situation. He tells himself an honest truth: that he joined the army because he was scared that he would fail at being a father to his child. In his mind, he was just going to take himself out of the equation and let wife Ruth raise them right. He knows that his wife wouldn’t believe that and that he thinks he’s a really good person but he’s unsure if he is.
Milton admits some tough truths to himself here; at some point in all our lives we will have to come to terms with things before the end and even if Milton thinks he isn’t a good person, he’s certainly performing quite the noble task. I’m in the same boat as Milton where I feel like becoming a father is scary, I can understand his emotion there. It’s something that no matter what books you read about it, what information you gather and any advice you receive can’t help you figure it all out in the end.
It’s something you’re going to have to figure out how to do and how best to do it. But someone as noble as Milton? Someone driven to defend his country and to go deep behind enemy lines? Someone who is spitting in the face of insurmountable odds? Yeah, I think someone like that has the potential to be a great father. Milton deserves the chance to be a father and I hope he gets it.
Milton’s inner dialogue continues throughout his battle with The Major and he debates blowing the detonator a few times and just ending things right then and there. He would go out knowing he completed his mission but something keeps him hanging on and as strangles the Major he thinks “[this is the] first joy I’ve felt in weeks.” If bringing pain to the Narenian army will keep him going then he’s going to do that. With Milton pinned down by Narenian forces before being rescued he takes a picture of Ruth out of his jacket and this part has some of my favorite writing in the entire issue:
In what he believes are his final moments he forgets all that nonsense about not being a good person and as he stares at the picture of his Ruthie back home he finally agrees “he was good for something after all.” It’s a beautiful moment and I’ll fully admit that if the comic run ended right there it would have brought me to tears; thankfully we aren’t done with Milton’s journey just yet.
The dialogue between the characters has always been a highlight of this book; there are several scenes where the writing between characters is really well done. The opening scene with the Colonel reprimanding his son, the scene where Milton is fighting The Major by the titan cannon and finally the scene where Milton and Anders meet again all have great dialogue. The last thing I want to touch on before I conclude here is of course, the art.
Thoughts on the Art, Conclusion and Rating
Daniel Acuña… man what a hell of a job he has done on this book since its inception. Seeing this guy’s art every single month is a treat and I definitely need to pick up some more series that feature his work. This issue in particular had some standout sequences of art but before I get to that I need to talk about the ability Acuña has to show emotion on the characters faces. You never need to question how any person is feeling at any time. Whether it's joy, fear, anger, hate, love… Acuña is one of the best artists in comics at showing emotion on a character's face. I’m going to reference the opening scene with the Colonel and the Major yet again because man, even if the words weren’t on the page you’d have a pretty clear idea of what was happening.
Acuña makes some great stylistic choices during certain parts as well. When Milton makes his way to the titan cannon and is internalizing how he feels, his face is consistently shrouded in shadow. We don’t get a clear image of Milton’s face again until he is fighting the Major with his new found purpose. A choice like that, to not just tell us with the writing but show us with the art, is just more of a reason why this issue and this run has been so good. The writer and the artist are in lock step.
Finally, Acuńa’s use of color and shadow in this issue is great. For the most part, muted colors and deep shadows dominate the art of this book. Stylistically that really works for this story; bright colors just wouldn’t work for how dark this story is. Possibly the coolest use of color in this issue begins when Milton starts choking out the Major by the titan cannon. As he begins to choke him out a yellow aura surrounds him. As he continues to strangle him before getting the detonator, the yellow turns into a bright orange and finally an angry red leading up to him pulling the trigger and setting off the massive explosion. Milton's rage was igniting before he hit the trigger and the art brilliantly paints that picture.
Escape #7 is one of the best issues of the entire run. Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña’s anthropomorphic war saga is one of the best series of the year. Milton Shaw’s journey has brought him into the heart of the enemy and in the face of insurmountable odds, we are rewarded with one of the best single issues of the year.
RATING: 10/10