Overall, this got really interesting towards the end of the volume. I'm not saying the art is terrible, but the tone is so wildly different than the story, that I felt it detracted from the atmosphere at times.
To be frank, I think the book suffers a bit from the cartoony style of Steve Rolston. It's grown on me slightly, but not by much. Ill be honest, the first thing that struck me about the book is the art.
Rucka's comfort with procedural type comics is in full effect here, and the writing works perfectly with the setting and themes of the book. There's a lot that isn't seen behind the scenes, and the red tape can get grueling for the people who have boots on the ground. I really like the way Rucka shows us not only the action heavy parts of Chace's adventures, but the back office politics of what it takes to get operations and plans set in motion. From there, it is a game of cat and mouse as the Russians come after Chace, who then has to bait them out into the open in order for the department to take them down. Tara Chace is the main agent that we follow for this book, and we see her opening the series with a messy, yet successful, hit on a Russian General. Rucka's take on the "secret agents" of the United Kingdom, and the inner workings of the department. You know what new ground this comic broke? New levels of monotony! I couldn’t have been more bored reading Queen and Country, Volume 1: Broken Ground. It’s the kind of art I’d expect in a Paul Hornschemeier comic about some sad sack worker’s ordinary life, not some pseudo-action spy thriller! Steve Rolston’s black and white interior art is nothing like Tim Sale’s covers (not a bad thing if you aren’t a fan of Sale’s art like me!) but Rolston’s art is too clean, bright and cartoony for such a dark and gritty story. They’re not sharing info! They’re going over my head to talk to my boss! Oh my god, who fucking cares?! This is why in Bond movies the focus is on Bond while he goes on his globetrotting, exciting adventures and not the dudes in the office back home filling out the paperwork!
This stuffed suit doesn’t like this stuffed suit. Cue endless interminable scenes of interdepartmental squabbling between bureaucrats from MI5 and MI6! Female Bond-esque agent goes on a generic hit job somewhere out east – the Russians are the villains once again, unsurprisingly given how uncreative this book is – before heading back to Vauxhall Cross for a debrief. Wow, this is one of the most tedious comics I’ve read in some time! It’s basically super-shite Bond.
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