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10th out of 79 books
—
47 voters
Queen and Country: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 (Queen and Country #1-3)
Queen & Country, the Eisner Award-winning and critically lauded espionage series from acclaimed novelist and comic book author Greg Rucka, is back in a new series of definitive editions collecting the entire classic series in just four affordable soft covers. In this first collection, readers are introduced to the thrilling and often-times devastating world of internat...more
Paperback, 376 pages
Published
January 2nd 2007
by Oni Press
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I enjoyed this a lot. It's pretty standard spy-agency fare, but the drawings really made the journey enjoyable.
This book compiled into graphic novel form the first 12 comics from Greg Rucka's "Queen & Country" series.
As you might guess from the title, the book -- though written by an American living in the U.S. -- centers on a very British view of the world. We follow several high-level intelligence operatives based in London who are sent out around the globe to protect their country's interests when things get messy.
It's a James Bond/Borne Identity type of world, with lots of intrigue, shooting, c...more
As you might guess from the title, the book -- though written by an American living in the U.S. -- centers on a very British view of the world. We follow several high-level intelligence operatives based in London who are sent out around the globe to protect their country's interests when things get messy.
It's a James Bond/Borne Identity type of world, with lots of intrigue, shooting, c...more
I like graphic storytelling and I like a lot of espionage stories (be they fiction, film, nonfiction), so when the four-volume collection came out, I figured it was high time I sample this series. This first volume collects three stories about the British SIS (Special Intelligence Service, aka MI6). In "Operation: Broken Ground" (illustrated by Steve Rolston) an agent is sent to Kosovo to assassinate a Russian arms dealer. In "Operation: Morningstar" (illustrated by several artists) an agent is...more
I really like the Q&C series and there's plenty of reviews here that'll tell you what great spy fare it is. I just want to put in my 2 cents about Leandro Fernandez's artwork in Operation: Crystal Ball.
OK, sure, Tara Chace is depicted in the typical "tits on a stick" style of most comic heroines, but I think it's almost justified in the context of this comic. Fernandez isn't going for anything close to a lifelike depiction, or even a serious one. The plot is larger than life and so are the f...more
OK, sure, Tara Chace is depicted in the typical "tits on a stick" style of most comic heroines, but I think it's almost justified in the context of this comic. Fernandez isn't going for anything close to a lifelike depiction, or even a serious one. The plot is larger than life and so are the f...more
This is a spy comic that is very well written. It has suspenseful action during the assignments and has a lot of drama in between with the characters who we get to know very well. The one problem with this series, which is most noticeable in this first volume, is the change of artists for each storyline. The new artists coming onto each new story do not care about what the characters looked like in the previous storyline. So what happens is the plain looking heroine gets turned into a supermodel...more
This comic is great. I enjoyed the story and the characters and, especially, the fact that a lot of it revolves around a kick-ass female. However, because there is a different artist for each different issue collected here, you get a variety of styles, and I do NOT like how they changed Tara's look. At the start, she was reasonably pretty but not distractingly so. Then in the third story, she's suddenly had implants and walks around in a one-button suit jacket with nothing underneath. I lost a l...more
I liked this book, but I'm not sure if I will read more of the series. Essentially, it is an espionage/spy title that focuses on a female agent. Less James Bond and more of a realistic take on spies, my favorite parts were where we see the cost of Tara's job on herself. If I did continue to read this series, it would be for those moments as much as anything. I think the biggest turnoff for me was that it is set in such a real life mode that my political beliefs turned me off somewhat. I'm not as...more
My buddy, Erik, occasionally gives me stacks of comics (graphic novels, trade paperbacks, whatever you and your little pals calls ‘em these days) and I have to thank him for restoring my faith in comics and for turning me on to a lot of great stories. Queen & Country is on par with some of the best stuff Erik’s loaned me. Books that have become favorites, like Walking Dead, The Chronicles Of Wormwood, Rex Mundi, and Ex Machina.
Erik doesn’t like The Goon, though. He doesn’t much care for Moto...more
Erik doesn’t like The Goon, though. He doesn’t much care for Moto...more
I'm probably the worst person to judge this book. Most of my comics involve people wearing spandex and most of my novels are filled with tough guy detective types. I'm not really a spy-thriller reader at all.
However there is something very 'real' about Queen & Country that I enjoyed and it reads very smoothly so there wasn't the burden of slogging through some "must read bestseller". I've often complained that regular comics too often bring out the dottering old Nazis as faux political vill...more
However there is something very 'real' about Queen & Country that I enjoyed and it reads very smoothly so there wasn't the burden of slogging through some "must read bestseller". I've often complained that regular comics too often bring out the dottering old Nazis as faux political vill...more
I really struggled to write this review, and it took me a while to pinpoint why. Here's the crux of it: this book was disappointing. Not bad, mind you -- just disappointing. And, I think that what made it difficult for me to review is that I couldn't pinpoint*why* it was disappointing.
Queen and Country, Vol. 1: Broken Ground didn't really feel groundbreaking, but it was a good read. Perhaps more importantly, it was a good read with promise. The glimpses into the characters' lives made me want to...more
Queen and Country, Vol. 1: Broken Ground didn't really feel groundbreaking, but it was a good read. Perhaps more importantly, it was a good read with promise. The glimpses into the characters' lives made me want to...more
Aug 07, 2009
Jesse
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of british spy fiction and Greg Rucka
Recommended to Jesse by:
Noah Soudrette
Shelves:
graphic-novels
I really liked this collection. Greg Rucka has yet to dissappoint me. This has pretty much everything I loved from the tv series MI-5/Spooks (UK title) in a crisp and stark black and white comic, and its international rather than domestic.
The art varries between the 3 major stories in this collection, which is to be expect in a collection of regular print comics. Despite this, all the art is fantastic. The only draw back is the wide range of visual interpretations of the cast of characters, luck...more
The art varries between the 3 major stories in this collection, which is to be expect in a collection of regular print comics. Despite this, all the art is fantastic. The only draw back is the wide range of visual interpretations of the cast of characters, luck...more
Queen and Country follows the life of the England-based SIS agency and their premier operative - Tara Chace. This massive collection opens with Broken Ground, as Tara must escape Kosovo following her successful assassination of a top-ranked Russian General; she also must deal with the hired guns sent to collect her head back in England. Morningstar drops Chace and her fellow minders into Afghanistan to recover vital intel left behind from a murdered reporter. Finally, the Crystal Ball segemnt mi...more
I'm giving the 3 stars for the first two books in this omnibus. I hated the last book - more for the drawing then anything. I have no patience for the two inch waist and watermelon breasts. I also didn't enjoy how the men were drawn. I might enjoy Fernandez's drawing in a different context - I admired the technique - but in this one.
This is some of Greg Rucka's best comic work. The comment above by Felicia Day about it being standard spy fare is just insane. This series is very heavily influenced by the television show Sandbaggers, and spends just as much time with the behind the scenes bureaucracy of intelligence work as it does with the action. This series is like The Wire, except about british spies instead of policemen. It is the anti-spy-story. Dark and depressing, like John le Carre, but with more action to balance th...more
This was brilliant. Greg Rucka is one of my favorite writers, and this book is a perfect example why. I love how he writes women especially - his take on Wonder Woman is fantastic, and I don't need to talk about Batwoman, do I? In "Queen & Country", the main character is SIS field agent Tara Chace, and she's tough, strong, but still a woman (not just, like the saying goes, "a man with tits"). We accompany her and her colleagues on their missions, but we also spend a lot of time behind the sc...more
This large collection has a little James Bond and a lot of George Smiley and the UK TV series 'MI5'.
Like Le Carre's espionage series with George Smiley, the situations feel gritty and authentic. The action comes with less hyperbole than James Bond/Jason Bourne movies, but this only sells it better.
I absolutely loved the clean, concise drawing style of the artist in the first series (Steve Rolston); the artist who drew the last third or so of the book (Leandro Fernández) was also very dramatic wi...more
Like Le Carre's espionage series with George Smiley, the situations feel gritty and authentic. The action comes with less hyperbole than James Bond/Jason Bourne movies, but this only sells it better.
I absolutely loved the clean, concise drawing style of the artist in the first series (Steve Rolston); the artist who drew the last third or so of the book (Leandro Fernández) was also very dramatic wi...more
I don't usually go for spy/espionage stories in any format, but I surprised myself by how much I liked this one. The story is detailed but well thought out and the pacing is great. And it is more then just a story about sexy spies and big guns -- the characters are grounded in realism and being a spy is more like difficult lonely bureaucratic work then an action packed thrill ride. I wasn't pleased with how the art changed over the course of this volume. I thought that Tara was much more realist...more
Rucka doesnt mind spending time in the hallways and offices of intelligence gathering and we get to know his characters better as a result. I find myself intrigued with the lives and character, the quarrels and conversations of the mid-level management. The book is very compelling. I did have a bit of a problem with the moving target that this novel is visually. I wish he had chosen one artist and then let them develop more strongly through the length of the run. Sometimes it felt as though the...more
EXCELLENT series. Queen and Country tells the stories of various international missions by a British spy agency in the post 9/11 world. It's like James Bond without the smarm, invulnerability, or douchebaggery.
The art (in this volume, at least) is very comic strippy, and provides a hell of a contrast to the seriousness of the subject matter. There's sex and death, actual danger, mission successes and mission failures, depression and conflictedness, believable plots and lots of procedure and jarg...more
The art (in this volume, at least) is very comic strippy, and provides a hell of a contrast to the seriousness of the subject matter. There's sex and death, actual danger, mission successes and mission failures, depression and conflictedness, believable plots and lots of procedure and jarg...more
This was my first introduction to graphic novels (thanks to a recommendation from the staff at Forbidden Planet). I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps it's because I love strong female protagonists, and spies, and [covert] action. Perhaps it was because I never thought I'd like a graphic novel of any type - but this was like watching a movie. I loved the art in all three stories, and the characters were realistic and believable. I am glad there are graphic novels out there to appeal to me, and I rec...more
Writer Greg Rucka not only creates a great real-world espionage thriller, but also manages to convey information in a way that doesn't insult the segment of his audience who knows world events as well as providing essential information to those who don't, all without stooping to "As you know, Bob..." tactics.
The art style takes a pretty drastic turn in the last third of the book, with some exaggerated character features that distract a little too much for me. Yet Rucka's storytelling is rock so...more
The art style takes a pretty drastic turn in the last third of the book, with some exaggerated character features that distract a little too much for me. Yet Rucka's storytelling is rock so...more
I very much enjoyed this book. I was worried that I wouldn't because I'm not a spy thriller fan but this book drew me in from the first page. The stories are excellent and the characters are engaging. The art is not quite to my taste but it did not detract from the story.
I give the story a 5 out of 5 and the art a 4.5 out of 5 for a total rating of 5. I strongly suggest you give this a try.
I would like to thank a podcast for making me aware of this but I can't remember if it was Ifanboy, Comic G...more
I give the story a 5 out of 5 and the art a 4.5 out of 5 for a total rating of 5. I strongly suggest you give this a try.
I would like to thank a podcast for making me aware of this but I can't remember if it was Ifanboy, Comic G...more
Collecting the first twelve issues (and three storylines) of the Queen and Country series, this is a brick. But it's also an immensely enjoyable espionage tale. Bonus points for reading more realistically than a Bond movie. This feels rather more like what I would expect real intelligence agents would do on missions and at home, and I didn't spot any glaringly unrealistic points. I also appreciate how Rucka dealt with the toll a life in intelligence would take on an operative's personal life.
Bu...more
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So yeah, this? This was really, really excellent. Greg Rucka can write a hell of a spy story, giving us all the usual espionage tropes we've come to expect but still throwing some new takes into the mix. This is as much about what goes on behind the scenes as it is what goes on in the field... the politics, the inter-bureau rivalries, the personal lives of the people involved, and the sort of tolls (emotional and physical) this line of work takes on folks. Tara Chace is a fascinating character n...more
A graphic novel series about the British version of the CIA (operatives that only work on foreign soil). Even though the novel is very plot driven and doesn't really provide background information on the operatives (unless you count the blurbs in the beginning which I don't because really they only describe people's positions in the organization); I was still really interested in the characters, their interactions with each other and with the shrink. Too bad my library doesn't carry any of these...more
Absolute trash, unbelievably bad and anodyne, yet I read both... No, it's honestly terrible, the most pathetically boring, unimaginative storyline ever encountered, populated by the most anodyne collection of stereotypes ever assembled. It has all the right ingredients for a massive piss-take except irony. Dear god why?
The most annoying feature was the author's enthusiastic acceptance of the Sky News version of the world, the protagonists encounter (and of course, triumph over) vicious Russian m...more
The most annoying feature was the author's enthusiastic acceptance of the Sky News version of the world, the protagonists encounter (and of course, triumph over) vicious Russian m...more
Standard spy fare. Stock characters (The professional femme fatale dedicated to her job, the renegade, captain, etc.), similar plot structures for all the stories (spy performs operation, danger ahead, has to stop the bad guys while under some restraint, like having no weapon, having no backup, saves the day at the last minute), and crazy scenarios that require a good suspension of disbelief make the book. Still the graphic novel had two strong points. One was that the pace was just right, so yo...more
It promised much more, but at the end it turned out to be as biased and monochromatic as many other spy stories out there -not to mention dated. The fact that world events and reality have overtaken it doesn't help much, either (even James Bond has of late shown more depth of story and character than this). A disappointment.
This straight-forward spy procedural is strongest when exploring wonkish debates about jurisdiction and operating protocols. It's not so hot when it tries to illuminate the personal life of its main character, Tara Chace. The office and real world politics seem authentic, but Tara's tough-girl warrior is strictly cliche.
Slightly embarrassed to admit that I picked this up because I read an interview with Rachel Maddow where she recommended it! Liked the story and the Tara character, but was a little thrown off by the different illustration sets- definitely liked some more than others. Will probably read the next one too!
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Greg Rucka, is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.
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