In the original announcement solicits for Escape, author Rick Remender boldly referred to the work as “a perfect comic book.” After reading the first issue, I’m inclined to agree with him. Escape is a war comic unlike any we’ve seen in quite some time, as it forces us to not only reckon with the inhumanities visited upon innocent people during wartime, but it does so with an instantly captivating cast of dogs, cats, and other anthropomorphic animals.
John Steinbeck once wrote, “All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal,” and it feels like Escape picks up on a very similar train of thought. By portraying the characters as animals rather than humans, Remender and Daniel Acuña also challenge the reader to empathize with both sides of this war in unexpected ways. Remender explains in the afterword to this first issue, “Years ago, I read an article about how humans feel greater empathy toward animals than other humans.” Again, this kind of shorthand is not something I completely expected, but the choice to cast the book with talking animals does lend a sort of immediate kinship to the story. We barely know these characters before things get really terrifying, but it’s gut-wrenching to see the immediate consequences of this issue’s big dogfight (no pun intended).
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It’s a brilliant gambit that really pays off. The first issue opens with the characters themselves trying to rationalize the dire mission at hand, clearing the way for the “big one” to be dropped on enemy territory, and desperately trying not to put themselves in the shoes of the civilians down below. Much like we’ve become desensitized to seeing war stories featuring human beings, so too have these soldiers managed to mostly convince themselves that every “bat” (the opposing side that represents Nazi Germany) is the same. But when the bombs begin to fall, Remender and Acuña make sure that it’s the everyday citizens of this country that we see getting the worst of it. Families are scattering for the hills, couples are huddled in corners as they watch mushroom clouds spring up outside their window. It’s visceral stuff, made all the more horrifying and emotional gripping by Acuña’s exquisite character acting and body language.
Is it a form of emotional manipulation to use this approach with the animals? Most assuredly. But Escape is also so beautifully written and perfectly paced that it stands as a form of manipulation with artistic merit. We as a culture have largely gotten used to seeing atrocities playing out every day in our media and in the actual news, and it’s easy for us to fall into “us vs. them” rhetoric to help us sleep at night. But there’s something about the way these animals are portrayed in this book that forces the reader to look at them as soulful beings. Even as I was thrilled by the action sequences, I felt a pit in my stomach through much of this first issue, and some of the plot elements that have been teased here and in the creative team’s interviews about the series have me fully invested in seeing where it goes. Without any fear of hyperbole, I think Escape could end up being this generation’s action-packed answer to Maus. Sadly, just like the latter book, the themes explored by Escape feel eternally relevant.
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