Staff Picks (Sept13): Protocol #1

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

When I was just a kid one of my favorite science fiction books was Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I was completely enthralled with the idea of the government taking gifted children into an orbital space station and then training them to be the next master tactician to save the human race from a dangerous alien threat. I think what resonated with me in the book was that it didn’t matter what age you were. It only mattered what you could accomplish if you put your mind to it and applied yourself.

Protocol by BOOM! Studios has a similar theme.

In Protocol we see the government has acquired orphan children and through a brutal training regimen to shape them into the next generation of super spies and, just like in Ender’s Game, these kids are dangerous. The orphans are trained and then sent back into the world to act as sleeper agents to be called upon when needed. These kids have the skills to disable bombs, engage and defeat trained military groups, but they still have all the angst associated with being a teenager. The book reads like the Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith mashed up with Saved by the Bell. Just don’t look for any giant 90’s cell phones here. The State has provided these kids with only the latest and greatest in gadgets and weaponry.

~ Matt Demory