QUEEN & COUNTRY #7
"Morning Star" Part 3
Recommended (8/10)
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Oni Press
Writer: Greg Rucka
Pencils: Brian Hurtt
Inks: Christine Norrie
Letters: Sean Konot
Editors: Jamie S. Rich & James Lucas Jones
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
Rucka and company have yet to disappoint with Queen & Country. Despite the fact that they delve into the unfathomable world of espionage and the psychology of people trained to bad things for good reasons, the writer and artists never fail to convince the reader of the realism of these characters and circumstances. Rucka's writing for DC and Marvel and his novels may get more attention, but his work on Queen & Country is really his most passionate -- and perhaps most important -- work.
Tom and Ed search for the agent list that an executed fellow agent had hidden somewhere in Kabul, and time is running short. Crocker knows he has to pull the plug on the operation or he'll lose two more agents on top of those on the list. Before calling it quits, though, he tasks Tara Chace to find something -- anything -- in the late David MacMillan's private life that might point to the list's location. In addition to the lives of agents in Afghanistan, redemptiom rests on Tara's shoulders as she goes about her work.
Though their collaboration boasts a simple tone, Hurtt and Norrie bring a vital level of detail to this book. The artists are the ones who take the characters -- and the reader -- to Kabul. The arid, desperate nature of the city really comes out in this black-and-white art, and that's no small feat. It doesn't hurt that they have the urban familiarty of London against which to contrast the exotic and dangerous locale as well.
By the end of this issue, we find that this story is still very much about Tara, but I'm pleased to find that other minders -- in this case, Tom and Ed -- get plenty o time in the spotlight as well. I found their trials and tribulations in Afghanistan to be far more fascinating, and not just because the setting and the politics are topical. They're literally in the crosshairs, yet they go about their job. It's not about bravery; it's just their job, and they know it needs to be done. It really humanizes these figures, making them seem like much more than one-dimensional James Bond-types.
Rucka provides the stereotypically happy ending, the emotional turning point that the lead protagonist needs, but he still finds room for the dark cynicism that's at the heart of this book. He makes it clear that there can be no happy ending for Tara, given the nature of her work. Her work is slowly destroying her, but without it, she is without purpose. It's a catch 22 that promises to keep things unpredictable and interesting as long as Queen & Country is around.
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