Queen & Country: Declassified Volume III
Written by Antony Johnston
Illustrated by Christopher Mitten
Published by Oni Press
Released June 22nd, 2005
Price $2.95
Order Code MAR053076
Greg Rucka’s Eisner award winning series, Queen & Country, regularly provides comic readers with something of rarity -realistic, exciting stories of international espionage with nary a cape or bit of spandex in sight. The series covers the modern day exploits of the fictional British Special Intelligence service and the “Minders,” as the three principal agents are called, and focuses on main character Minder Tara Chace. Each previous Declassified volume has taken a supporting character from the series and focused on a pivotal event from their past. In this respect, Declassified Volume III is no different as the story involves new Minder and former SAS solider Nick Poole.
Unlike previous volumes, which were all scribed by Rucka, Antony Johnston has taken the writing tasks this time around. Also different is the range of the story. Instead of a story dealing with events of an international scope, we have a story centering around terrorism issues in Northern Ireland.
The Queen & Country series has a very realistic feel to it, and Johnston does a good job of capturing the tone of the series. There are times when the dialogue falters a bit and sounds more like movie tough guy talk than real-life tough guy banter, but this is a small distraction and only really seems to come into play when Nick Poole is interacting with his SAS comrades.
The story jumps back and forth in time. This is an effective technique in film but tends to be hit or miss in comics. However, the strong, clear pencils by Christopher Mitten make the transitions work. He draws the players so that the jumps in time and subsequent shifts in ages of characters is never confusing. Considering that these are characters that the reader has little or no background of, this is vitally important. His style isn’t realistic, and some panels are empty save for the characters in them, but you never lose your sense of where the action is taking place.
In a time when a lot of comics can be breezed through in five minutes, Queen & Country traditionally provides a full, dense read without a sniff of decompression. This issue is no different. Simply put, there is a lot going on here and practically every page is packed with information, very little of it dumbed down. The story moves and the reader is expected to pay attention and keep up.
The action starts in 1981 with a semi-successful hostage rescue attempt and moves backward and forward through time to 2003 following two characters, one a hostage and the other an IRA hostage taker. We see how the initial event that links them together shapes their lives and the two serve as countering points of view, one violent and one peaceful, to means of resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland. This characterization seems a tad heavy handed at times but since we are dealing with extreme emotions and extreme viewpoints the characterizations feel natural. These are, in many ways, heavy handed, extreme characters by their very nature. Principal action seems set up to take place in 2003, with young SAS soldier Poole having to deal with fallout from both sides. Of all the characters present in this first issue Poole is the one readers of the series will be most familiar with. He is also the weakest in terms of characterization so I look forward to future issues where we find out more about who he is.
Queen & Country: Declassified is a smart, fast paced read that is a refreshing change from standard comic fare and is highly recommend