Queen and Country

It's graphic novel season here at the Wildebeest Asylum, so get ready for some hardcore discussion of sequential art.

First up it's 'Queen & Country' volume 1, subtitled 'Operation: Broken Ground', written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Steve Rolston.

For some time now I've been a sucker for modern, post-cold war spy stories. Compared to the black and white democracy vs communism stories you used to get in the heyday of James Bond, modern day stories usually have a large cast of minor global players, and every character and organisation is some dirty shade of grey. There's always plenty of opportunity for complicated relationships and clever schemes, and even more opportunity for it to all go awry. I love it.

Anyway, 'Queen and Country' fits right into this mold. The main character, Tara Chase, is a British SIS operative, and the first time we see her she's in Kosovo, blowing out the brains of a Russian mobster. Sweet. From then on in, it's all clever schemes, gunfights, inter-agency politics and stuff getting blown up, all done very gritty and realistic like.

Unfortunately, despite it containing all the ingredients to impress me, it felt a bit like it didn't quite achieve its potential. It's not that the characters are unlikable, you expect that from this genre, and I've enjoyed plenty of stories about unlikable characters in the past (although these guys did remind me a bit too much of Harry Enfield's 'Dog of War' character, "Insoide, Oim dead!"). It's pacing was very good, avoiding the most common problem I have with graphic novels. I think it just comes down to there being too much time spent on the characters interacting with one another, and not enough on shit getting fucked up. I know it sounds like a very low brow thing to say, but I expect a bit more action from my spy genre!

Having said that, by and large I thought it was pretty well done, and I expect I'll buy the next in the series at some stage. And the art is pretty cool too. Monochrome, simple and clean, but very realistic and expressive.

I also hear that Greg Rucka has written a Batman spin off about the everyday cops working in Gotham City. Sounds cool, that'll go on the 'to buy' list as well.

More comics soon....