Well, this has been an arc for surprises, hasn't it? A couple big deaths, a tie-in to an old case for Paul Crocker and a general shaking-up of what there is of a status quo in the service has made for a bit of a rollercoaster ride in this arc of Queen & Country. This issue demonstrates something we don't see every issue, and that's how Tara Chace earned her reputation and just how effective she can be in the field. That makes it a more action-oriented issue than I'm used to seeing from Queen & Country, but despite my concern in the last issue that the action was McNeil's weakest part of the book, she comes through with flying colors (or flying black and white, perhaps) in this issue with some of the strongest art I've seen so far.
One of the really memorable stories in Queen & Country was the first one, where Tara found herself alone, wounded and surrounded by enemies and was just trying to get to cover. This issue opens in much the same way, and given that she's already lost an ally to these villains, the stakes seem just that much higher. Which means that the reader really feels the danger that Tara is in, and even though there's a general sense that Rucka won't kill off his main character, he's shown no such qualms about inflicting psychological and physical scars upon her.
Which of course makes for a nice context for Tara's rather brutally effective methods of escape. This is a collaborative effort, a scene that requires Rucka and McNeil both to be on the same page, and the sequence turns out to work very well. Little details like a smirk that crosses Tara's face when her opponent lets his guard down, or the speed with which the circumstances turn upon the bad guys are both executed very well by McNeil. There's still a surprisingly low level of detail, given that McNeil packs her pages in Finder with detail, but the general storytelling is spot on. And certainly McNeil can do the smaller storytelling bits in her art as well, as when she handles the difficult task of showing Tara turning her shirt inside out.
Of course, while the action is at the forefront this issue, it's only part of what drives Queen & Country, and the rest of it is the office politics back in London. Crocker's personal reasons for wanting this mission to succeed, and the resentment that causes in Wallace, adds an interesting level of tension. And the surprising revelation about the change in fortunes in the office is par for the course in terms of the shake-ups that have been going on in this arc. However, what really struck me about the developments in the office was that it once again shows the relationship that Crocker and Chace have, a certain understanding of how the other will react and what they want the other to do, even when protocol prevents one of them from saying it outright.
Queen & Country continues to be a difficult title to review, because there's a certain amount of predictability to my reactions to it. After 19 issues, I know that I can expect a solid level of craft from all involved, and I know that it's going to be worth the time and money to read. Hopefully, more and more people will continue to learn that lesson as time goes by, because Queen & Country is consistently one of the best books on the stands.
