Of the three Infinite Crisis Specials published thus far, this stands out as the strongest. It follows up on events from this week's Infinite Crisis #6 seamlessly. To be honest, the real title of this book, as far as I'm concerned, is Checkmate #0, as Rucka sets up the new espionage series quite adeptly here. Even those readers unfamiliar with the events of the OMAC Project limited series will be able to appreciate this story, as it's a completely different sort of tale than the one presented to readers last year. Rucka, the writer and creator of Queen & Country, really puts his talent for the spy genre to good use here, and it makes me eager to see what he has in store for us with the new Checkmate series (debuting later this month).
The Brother Eye satellite has crash-landed in a remote corner of the Middle East, and two soldiers find themselves the victims of the powerful machine, transforming them as a first step in the process of rebuilding itself. With a cosmic crisis brewing, the Batman has tasked the cybernetic Checkmate agent named Sasha Bordeaux with ensuring Brother Eye is destroyed once and for all, but soldiers from various nations are dispatched to retrieve the satellite and the information and pwer contained therein. Meanwhile, the new Black King of Checkmate believes Sasha's on her way to restore Brother Eye, and she sends agents of her own to put a stop to it.
Saiz's artwork here reminds me of British artist Steve Pugh's style. He brings a realistic and grim look to the book and the players in this drama, and the violence that erupts in the desert among various factions really makes it seem like a small war is being waged over the satellite. As was the case with the OMAC Project limited series that preceded this special, I'm not at all taken with the OMAC-infected design for Sasha Bordeaux. The different eyes looks rather silly rather than inhuman or intimidating.
Rucka strikes a perfect balance between establishing the critical nature of events here while not making the event so large so as to intringe on the cosmic cataclysm unfolding in Infinite Crisis. Only one super-hero turns up in this story, really, so it never feels like a full-fledged superhuman action piece. Of course, it's a pleasure to see Amanda Waller back in a prominent role. Rucka builds nicely on what has come before while not requiring his readers to be familiar with that history in order to appreciate this one-shot.
Though Checkmate played a prominent role in The OMAC Project, there was never a strong secret-agent vibe coming from the story. That has changed now that a non-corrupted vision of the organization is taking shape in this story. As he's proven in his Q&C comics and novels, Rucka knows how to tell an espionage story, and those strengths really make themselves known in this comic book. This story is all about distrust in the international intelligence community, and it makes for some fun suspense and drama. 7/10
