When the Squad showed up, the Scourge was already waiting for them. They’d lost one of their own in the ambush. Given that they’re not far from the Squad’s target, there’s little question that the Scourge is out after the same Chernobyl fuel rods. The Scourge already has a head start on them. They will need to move quickly in Savage Squad 6 #2. The writing team of Robert Venditti and Brockton McKinney continue a fun action series with artist Dalts Dalton and colorist Geraldo Filho. The badass action fiction continues running across the page in an entertaining sci-fi/fantasy melange. 

Mags has a view of the facility, but she’s not sitting where she is for the view. She will send a drone to examine the perimeter of the derelict nuclear reactor. They’re going into the most toxic place on the planet: the red forest. Naturally, they’re going to need to mask up and look sharp. There’s no telling what may be waiting for them in that place. The max-rad zone is home to a peaceful group of cows, but there’s something much more dangerous stalking that forest. 

Venditti and McKinney march the Squad right into Chernobyl and set them up for their second battle. They set up the conflict for the second issue pretty solidly in the first, but the overall scope of the danger wasn’t entirely clear until the end of the second issue. It may be a traditional squad-based action series, but Venditti and McKinney are open to maintaining some level of surprise and suspense throughout the series. The second issue sets the conflict for the third quite as well, but there’s little doubt that there will be twists in the plot that launch the heroes in a completely new direction.

The script is fun. Dalton and Filho pick up that fun and run with it through some well-executed bits of action and horror. The monster they ultimately face in this issue looks horrifying enough to be overwhelming, even for an elite squad. The peripheral danger rolls through the story in many different forms, framed quite well by Dalton, with some beautiful sense of depth, radiance, and atmosphere brought to the page by Filho. There’s a distinct look and feel to the world of Savage Squad that feels slickly deadly and brutal, thanks to some very sharp work by Dalton and Filho. 

The issue marches on, and the pacing begins to reveal itself. Two issues in, and it already feels like it’s organized and articulated well enough to have been running for years. If each Savage Squad mini-series could be its mission, it could become an enjoyable property over many years, with squad members occasionally dying in service to add to the stylish brutality of the series...but that’s all in the future. The Squad has a small pack of monsters to deal with next month.

Grade: A