You've got to hand it to Greg Rucka, he knows how to write smart and entertaining, and the first chapter of the newest Queen & Country storyline is both. It's complex enough, and steeped in enough jargon, that I had to give it a second read-through to fully grasp what was going on, but it feels much more like real espionage work while cutting out the actual boring routine that is part of any job using judicious cuts away to the more interesting stuff. The last time he tackled industrial espionage, it was my favorite story arc so far (Operation: Blackwall), and I have high hopes for this one as well. As is traditional for Queen & Country, new story arc means new artist, and this time out it's Mike Norton, whose work compares nicely with both Q&C originator Steve Rolston and the previous arc's artist Mike Hawthorne, with a crisp style and sharp storytelling.
I love Alias, and I love some of the James Bond flicks, and I loved The Bourne Identity, but what I love about Queen & Country is that it doesn't play like an action-heavy version of the spy genre. Whereas most of those stories would start with some sort of big action sequence, Queen & Country #26 starts with what is much more likely to really kick off a shitstorm in the real world: an innocuous message that looks routine. Rucka and Norton give the sense almost immediately that this is something, though, from the way the noise of the message's arrival interrupts a quiet, somewhat empty room to the look of concern that crosses the face of Ron as he starts to figure out what's going on. By the time the spies have been actually called in, things have gotten more serious, but we get to see the build-up, the slow realization of what might be going on, and Rucka lets the reader in on the fact that something is up while obscuring what's actually going on with jargon and people not wanting to come out and say what they think, lest there be political consequences.
Reading this issue, and indeed reading many issues of Queen & Country, is like peeling an onion. Every answer reveals a question, whether it's something simple like "what does UKCS mean, and why is Crocker concerned about it?" or something like "who is that guy, and why did he just beat up one of the good guys?" There's a terrific subtlety at work in Rucka's writing and in Norton's art, and re-reading the issue not only clears up exactly what's going on but reveals some of these subtleties. Notice how Crocker maneuvers everyone, especially his boss, into doing what he wants, by pretending that he hasn't already authorized an operation or acting like he didn't think of tossing the room long before Barclay came up with it. Look at the way the Russian goon confirms his suspicion about the British spy by asking him a routine question about directions in town.
Norton's artwork is another in a line of pretty good artists on this book. I confess that his Tara Chace looks a bit too young, and far too pleasant in her demeanor, for my tastes, and that I could use a more distinctive appearance for Minders Two and Three, but these are relatively minor quibbles about detail. In general, Norton hits all the marks required of a Queen & Country artist, namely the ability to tell a story with subtle emotional cues and small moments and to make the office and hotel enviroments of espionage work suitable for suspense storytelling. The last couple pages are nail-biting suspense, and it's Norton's panel placements and slow reveals of what Minder Three is seeing that sells a whole lot of it.
We're off to another slow but undeniably compelling start for the newest Queen & Country arc, and if you still haven't jumped onboard this series, here's another chance. Rucka's smart, politically-aware writing may not be for everyone, but Queen & Country is the comic he was born to write, and he keeps on doing impressive work on the book.
