Queen & Country, Vol. 1: Operation Broken Ground

Greg Rucka

ISBN 10: 192999821X / ISBN 13: 9781929998210

Published by Oni Press, 2002

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Queen & Country, Vol. 1: Operation Broken Ground
• Publisher: Oni Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 192999821X
• ISBN 13: 9781929998210
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Steve Rolston
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

As part of the Special Section of Britain's Ministry of Intelligence, Tara Chace is one of a handful of operatives they call when they need to clean up a mess, or to make a new one. It's a world of questionable morals. For instance, is it better to assassinate a general in the Russian mafia rather than allow him to peddle more guns and drugs in underprivileged countries? Tara's bosses seem to think so. But the Russian mafia ask their own question — once someone has taken the life of one of their officers, can they continue to let that person live? Greg Rucka peels back the lid on the traditional espionage story to see the nastiness inside, and Steve Rolston brings it to life with stunning clarity.

Reviews

The more screwed-up the protagonist, the better a spy story tends to be, and Rucka (who's also written a series of prose mystery novels) has come up with a memorably dysfunctional antiheroine in Tara Chace, a burned-out, amoral "minder" (i.e., agent) for Britain's Ministry of Intelligence. This volume, which collects the first few issues of the Q&C comic book, opens as Chace carries out an unauthorized assassination in Kosovo to the consternation of higher-ups, her boss orders her to off a former Russian general running arms to Chechen rebels then makes a complicated getaway after being wounded. Chace soon learns she's become a pawn, now with a bounty on her head, in a seemingly endless game of international reprisals and counterreprisals. Newcomer artist Rolston combines bold outlines, expressive body language and clean, cartoonish lines for his characters, with detailed, realistic backgrounds; it's a trick often used in European comics, and he makes it work here. In fact, nearly everyone in this taut and violent drama seems to sag, physically and emotionally, under the psychological and moral weight of their grim profession. Together with Rucka's clipped, spare dialogue, the work offers the sense that espionage is just another job, exactly as grinding and tedious as any other except that interoffice politics can get people killed. The action sequences are fast-paced and exciting, but the truly engaging part of the book is how sharply Rucka and Rolston are able to define even minor characters.Award as best serial.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.