The 06 Protocol #2 // Review
She’s on the run from correctors. She knows that her daughter is in trouble too. There’s a lot that she hasn’t explained to her daughter. She happens to be hanging out with her friends from archery. When reflex leads to murder, she has to keep track of her daughter AND her friends on the run from the government in The 06 Protocol #2. Writer Lee Turner continues to slice through the tight corners of an admirably precise drama that is drawn to page and panel by artist Cliff Richards. Color fades into view and occasionally splatters across the page courtesy of Matt Herms.
She’s on the run when she flags down the first vehicle she runs across. The good news is that it’s a neo-hippie band that’s more than happy to help her out. The bad news is that it’s their tour bus, and it isn’t exactly an easy vehicle to keep a low profile in. Things get worse for her when she shows up to get her daughter from school. The correctors show up to eliminate her and her daughter. One of her friends eliminates one of the correctors with a perfectly aimed arrow. Now mother, daughter, and a couple of high school kids are on the run from highly trained government operatives with limitless resources. What could go wrong?
Turner takes the traditional cloak-and-dagger action-drama stereotypes and skews them appealingly. Super-secret agent mom might have been done before, but putting her on the run with three kids...two of which aren’t hers? This extends the super-mom dynamic in an interesting direction. The terrain of a fugitive drama is very familiar, but Turner is looking at it in a way that mixes intrigue with family drama in a way that hasn’t been explored a great deal elsewhere before. The overall structure of the drama doesn’t seem all that compelling. (It’s been done a million times before.) The themes that Turner is exploring, though...they’re deeply engaging.
Action hits the page in wincingly static images. Motion lies flat on the page when it should be shooting across it. It’s okay, though: the should of The 06 Protocol lies in the intrigue. Richards does a brilliant job of framing the intrigue in a way that pounds itself through the visual in huge shadowy swaths of black. Herms adds a somewhat immersive atmosphere to the page with some beautiful color work that adds a great deal of detail around the edges of the drama. Tragedy hits the page with profound emotional impact thanks to an impressive fusion between Richards and Herms.
As familiar as the overall story is, the specifics of The 06 Protocol are being navigated into some relatively uncharted territory. The distinct fusion between action, intrigue, and....parenting is a fascinating one that should continue to twist and turn in weird ways. Turner has a really interesting direction for everything. Things have started dark. They’re getting darker by the page. Things are going to get much darker before there’s any kind of resolution.
