Reviewer: Will Cooling
Story Title: Untitled
Written by: Greg Rucka
Pencilled by: Steve Rolston
Inked by: Mike Norton
Lettered by: John Dranski
Editor: James Lucas Jones
Publisher: Oni Press
For me Queen and Country was one of those indie series that you pick a couple up in TPB and swear blind you’ll catch up with but never quite do. So, leaving aside my compulsive desire to not jump onto something mid-stream, I picked up Issue 25 as the first single I’d buy and put it on my standing order. For those who don’t know, Queen and Country is the story of Tara Chance, a British spy who as we head into this issue was Minder Two. This issue, she takes an unplanned holiday at the invitation of her soon-to-marry mother, and whilst she’s away, far-reaching changes are happening.
This is an excellent issue and the fact that it’s a one-off makes it a welcome jumping-on point for new readers. Tara’s trip to Switzerland to meet up with mother and fiancée offers a good chance to establish her personality. Here we are shown two sides to it; one the controlling and austere nature that someone with the level of dedication and commitment needed to be a spy would require. This is shown by her disdain for the “degenerate†lifestyle of her mother as she wades through an orgy to see her mother kissing a fiancée half her age. The control is also shown, when, after accidentally meeting up with friends, she plays hard to get with a man name Stefan, a man she’s totally into as well. We also, however, see the explosive and volatile side to her, a rebellious streak sown by a complete disdain for many of the authority figures present during her life. We see this in the passionate embrace between her and Stefan and most of all in the furious rows between her and her mother.
It is this relationship that is at the centre of the story with both sides having a reasonable grievance with the other; Tara over the way that her mother treated her as a child and her reckless living, and the mother over Tara’s intolerant and disrespectful attitude to her and her friends. Together they fight a pitch battle for most of the story with the rows being a great entertainment even when they slip into French (I think) with the effect being similar to that some movies use (I’m thinking On The Waterfront in particular here) of obscuring what characters are saying when they’re arguing, so forcing you to take it in through the body language of the characters. It also is a nice device when Tara insults the fiancée in French as when she’s pulled up on it later by her mother we have no idea what the insult actually was (unless you speak French that is). Another central thread is the relationship between Tara and her friend Rachel, with Rachel almost acting as a devil on her shoulder, tempting her to stop working and become a party girl. With what is happening back in London this makes Tara’s choice and the deliberation even more interesting.
Overall Rucka’s writing is excellent, with a story that whilst having a tight narrative manages to allow the characters and scenarios to breathe. In addition, he has an excellent characterisation with his British dialogue extremely good for an American writer (perhaps a slight over-use of bloody and cow though) and if that sounds patronising I refer you to Exhibit A-Claremont’s British Character’s during his X-Men run (shudder).
It would be wrong not to mention the excellent art of Steve Rolston, who in keeping to Queen and Country convention, adopts a caricature approach worthy of any news-strip. Shown in almost Brechtian sense of the flourishes that makes comic art for so many people you are forced to concentrate on the story with Rolston’s storytelling being extremely effective and understated. What’s more, that he’s able to achieve superb characterisation after being left with only the basics of characterisation yet the fact that the characterisation is testament to the quality of his art. Together he and Rucka deliver an excellent issue that shows just why Queen and Country is so well respected.
