After a slight delay, Escape returns this week with issue #6. The last issue ended on an intense cliffhanger, with our hero, Milton, ready to go guns blazing into the villain’s den. His goal? Destroy their highly advanced cannon to take away their edge against bombers. Seemingly a suicide mission, Milton will keep you guessing for the entire issue of Escape #6.
For a series called Escape, the latest issue seems the opposite, at least at the start. Milton has a plan in place, and for much of the issue, the reader is trying to figure out what it is and if it’s even going to plan. At the start, we see enemy troops are relaxed and unaware of an impending strike, but soon a burning vehicle is hurtling at their front gate. Sneaking past them and heading to a control switch, Milton is captured, setting in motion much of the rest of this issue.
Writer Rick Remender and artist Daniel Acuña keep readers guessing with a key feature: cutaways from Milton’s perspective. Instead of simply having Milton get carted off to a holding cell, we see what he sees as he is shoved along with guns pointed at him. This keeps you and Milton keenly aware of his capture being part of the plan.
Milton starts off his mission seemingly at a loss.
Credit: Image Comics
This issue also feeds into Milton’s rather sad approach to his girl back home, as a higher-up enemy interrogates him. In this scene, it’s clear they are trying to bring Milton’s morale down and make him think there’s no escape for him and that his side will never win. One can see Milton rejecting the idea of ever going home as a kind of psychological preparation for scenes like this. They want him to think spies are infiltrating his country, and his girl is already sleeping with spies as they speak. The psychological warfare of it all is present.
Acuña continues to impress with simple scenes of intense motion. In a previous issue, it was a moment involving tossing a baseball, and here it’s a scene where Milton must drop a tool into his hand, and if he misses, he’s surely dead. From sweat dripping down Milton’s brow to close-ups of the tool dropping, you’ll feel the intensity. Little moments like this, or simply the crack of a neck, show how the tiny moments are as impactful as blasts of dynamite. We get the latter, too, and in one scene it’s gorgeously rendered in purple and yellow smoke.
By the end of Escape #6, it’s clear the creative team has Milton back on the ropes, sneaking about and escaping the best he can. Rick Remender structures the issue around uncertainty, forcing readers to interpret every glance and shove as part of something bigger. The result is a tense cat-and-mouse experience that keeps you leaning forward. A tightly wound chapter that balances psychological pressure with bursts of explosive action, Remender’s knack for suspense and Acuña’s ability to turn even the smallest physical movement into a moment of life or death keeps your on the edge of your seat.
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