QUEEN AND COUNTRY: DECLASSIFIED VOL. 3 #1 REVIEW

[Ryan Day]

Reviewer: Ryan Day Dreamhunter00@hotmail.com

Suggested for Mature Readers

Greg Rucka passes the reins of Queen & Country to a new writer for a look into the past of Minder Two.

Written by: Antony Johnston
Illustrated by : Christopher Mitten
Lettered by: John Dranski
Design by: Keith Wood
Editor: Randal C. Jarrell
Published by: Oni Press

It's easy to approach the third volume of Queen & Country: Declassified with a bit of trepidation. Queen & Country has been Greg Rucka's baby since its inception, and remains his greatest achievement in the industry. But for this tale of Minder Nick Poole's past, Rucka has handed the writing duties over to a relative unknown in Antony Johnston. While Johnston has been accumulating good reviews for the past several years, he's still not Greg Rucka, and the thought of anyone other than Rucka writing Queen & Country is slightly disconcerting.

Some of that fear is mitigated by the nature of the Declassified spinoffs, and this particular series' subject. Declassified is set in the past and doesn't necessarily affect the main series (though the first volume certainly did), so it's easy enough to ignore if it sucks. On top of that, Poole is still a new character who hasn't seen much development in Rucka's hands, so Johnston doesn't have the opportunity to tarnish established characters like Crocker and Chace.

The rest of the fear is chased away by the fact that Declassified Vol. III is very, very good. Johnston has managed to assemble all the hallmarks of a good Queen & Country story: Political intrigue, complex plotting, realistic grounding, and some fantastic action.

The first issue sets the plot up around the violence in Northern Ireland: In 1981, the IRA kidnaps a British sergeant and his daughter. The leader of the cell, Liam Finnegan, lands himself in jail until 2003. He hasn't spent a whole lot of time repenting and reforming, though, as he quickly meets up with the local IRA to make plans. He begins to suspect he's being watched, and sets a plan in place to prove it.

Johnston also follows the story of Lauren Mullen, the little girl who survived the 1981 kidnapping, as she attends law school and eventually becomes a politician advocating complete withdrawal of British troops from Ireland. Meanwhile, Nick Poole is stationed with an SAS (Special Air Service) unit in Ireland responsible for anti-terrorism.

Poole himself is a fairly minor player in the issue, though it becomes clear how his role will increase. Johnston introduces the tension between Poole and Hart, the fellow officer who will later play a part in Poole's transfer to Intelligence. Poole continues to hover somewhere between not "taking any crap from bigots" and "smartass"; while there's no question Hart is a jerk, Poole probably goads him more than he should.

Christopher Mitten joins the long line of excellent artists to work on Queen & Country and acquits himself well. His faces and character designs are reminiscent of P. Craig Russel's soft, rounded style, but he switches to a darker, more angular style for the action sequences. The opening hostage rescue is particularly well done - while there's a bit of confusion over exactly who gets shot, the dazzlingly dynamic splash page more than makes up for it. While most of the male characters are well defined and distinctive, Mitten could do a better job differentiating the female leads: Lauren and the female intelligence agent share enough similarities that readers may need to look twice in order to make sure they're two different people.

Like the other Declassified series, this volume's setting in the past makes it completely accessible to new readers: All the continuity from the main series is irrelevant, since it hasn't happened yet. And in a very welcome development, Johnston has included a glossary of terms in the back of the book for those confused by the book's frequent reliance on acronyms and slang.

While this issue is primarily setup, it's the sort of well-orchestrated and tightly-plotted setup readers have come to expect from the series. Johnston seems to be following Rucka's pattern of setting up the pieces with precision and foresight in order to knock them down more effectively. Rucka has clearly found a talented custodian for his baby; indeed, this is a much stronger debut issue than the Rucka-penned Declassified Vol. 2. While Rucka works through his crisis, hopefully soon to return to Queen & Country on a more regular basis, Johnston has maintained the high standards the book has set.

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[James Groves]

This rocked. Loved it. I picked it up...realised that Rucka wasn't writing it...nearly put it down because of this...flicked through the first few pages...and i got hooked on it straight away.

It felt very "British", very intense and captured the Irish, English and Scotish banter and lingo very, very well. The segments showcasing the "typically British SAS" piss-take humour made me laugh out-loud at times as well.

Great read.

Fine review, Ryan.

[tormented_spawn]

Very nice read. Looks like Antony Johnston will be giving me my Queen & Country fix, seeing as Rucka, well you know...

About the issue, I still didn't get why it didn't occur to them that the whole "hitting a cop shop" could a setup. Seeing, as Finnegan was keen to give her the info even if he did give a reason though, not convincingly, if you ask me.