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Checkmate #2
Checkmate Vol. 2: Pawn Breaks
Checkmate, a covert organization formed by the United Nations to bring down heroes and villains who get out line, regardless of national boundary, affiliation or agenda, uses unique abilities to deputize human and metahuman forces around the world.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
80 people want to read
About the author
Greg Rucka
1,493 books1,924 followersGreg 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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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 15, 2018
I love how Rucka is portraying Kobra as a quasi-religious terrorist organization. The first story in the book is about a Checkmate trying to infiltrate a Kobra terrorist cell. While the second involves Amanda Waller working behind the scenes against Checkmate to support America's interests. The fight between Bane and Jaeger was fantastic.
May 2, 2023
Nice superhero/espionage series. I think this is what the 1st series was trying to achieve. entertaining read. Recommended
December 11, 2015
Great stuff here. Now that all the confusion at who represents what piece is over, the flow of this book is smooth and easy.
The scene with Jagger, a character previously unknown to me, and Bane? Completely badass and impactful. I felt every inch of responsibility and duty. It was incredible.
Not enough Sasha Bordeaux or Amanda Waller, but plenty of the Wall's conniving. Ooooh, Amanda Waller, the bell tolls for you, but you will never go gently into that good night.
The scene with Jagger, a character previously unknown to me, and Bane? Completely badass and impactful. I felt every inch of responsibility and duty. It was incredible.
Not enough Sasha Bordeaux or Amanda Waller, but plenty of the Wall's conniving. Ooooh, Amanda Waller, the bell tolls for you, but you will never go gently into that good night.
January 19, 2012
Not the typical graphic novel as it's more intrigue than super powers.
January 28, 2018
ABSOLUTE RATING: {3/5 stars}
STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>
STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>
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August 28, 2022Overall this peaked with “the Fall of the Wall”, the story that sees Amanda Waller’s game play come to its final moves, and the rest of Checkmate making an effort to expose and remove her from the agency. Its exciting and full of character, a conflict that’s been simmering since the very beginning of the book. If anything I wish that we had gotten a bit more room to see some of the supporting characters, like Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Jessica Midnight, or Khalid fleshed out and dug into. That being said, Rucka makes use of every available moment to add depth to these characters, leading to fun surprises particularly with the reveal of Midnight’s magic powers, and August General’s relationship with Ghost Fox Killer and his conflicting loyalties to his home country of China and to Checkmate. Another standout issue was focussed entirely on Checkmate’s new head of security Carl Draper, former C list villain and a tech genius who’s story of getting a promotion and testing new defenses is just the dressing on a more moving tale about a man overcoming crippling insecurity and struggling to live with a fractured father-daughter relationship.
The volume is dragged down by the “Checkout” crossover with Outsiders and the conclusion to the run “Castling”. Judd Winnick just doesn’t do it for me, and there was an issue long running joke about a female character’s large ass showing out the back of her hospital gown. Just why Judd? It’s also much too long. By “Castling”, Rucka has a cowriter Eric Trautmann, and I can’t help but feel that he was possibly stretched thin here. The final issue is barely about the characters we’ve been following this whole time, and it felt like there were more ideas than there was time.
My biggest disappointment is this volume doesn’t evolve or answer any of the thematic questions it posed about the conflict between Checkmate’s purpose and the ideals of heroics. Rucka continues to have characters like Fire discuss these conflicts with Ice, but Mr Terrific and Sasha now feel a bit divorced from these ideas. While their stories are still exciting drama, I couldn’t help but miss the deeper thoughts on heroism present during Alan Scott’s presence in the book, which separated this from being just another spy or superhero story. That basically encapsulates my complaint with the Mademoiselle Marie focussed issue- all thrills, big fun ideas, but not much else, particularly disappointing given that France’s history of revolutions poses exciting conflicts in terms of an agent’s loyalty to the state across time.
Art continued to be tops outside of some of the Outsiders crossover. We got some Chris Samnee stuff! Santiago Arcas continues to kill on the subdued color pallette. Joe Bennett continues to impress in the action scenes.
The volume is dragged down by the “Checkout” crossover with Outsiders and the conclusion to the run “Castling”. Judd Winnick just doesn’t do it for me, and there was an issue long running joke about a female character’s large ass showing out the back of her hospital gown. Just why Judd? It’s also much too long. By “Castling”, Rucka has a cowriter Eric Trautmann, and I can’t help but feel that he was possibly stretched thin here. The final issue is barely about the characters we’ve been following this whole time, and it felt like there were more ideas than there was time.
My biggest disappointment is this volume doesn’t evolve or answer any of the thematic questions it posed about the conflict between Checkmate’s purpose and the ideals of heroics. Rucka continues to have characters like Fire discuss these conflicts with Ice, but Mr Terrific and Sasha now feel a bit divorced from these ideas. While their stories are still exciting drama, I couldn’t help but miss the deeper thoughts on heroism present during Alan Scott’s presence in the book, which separated this from being just another spy or superhero story. That basically encapsulates my complaint with the Mademoiselle Marie focussed issue- all thrills, big fun ideas, but not much else, particularly disappointing given that France’s history of revolutions poses exciting conflicts in terms of an agent’s loyalty to the state across time.
Art continued to be tops outside of some of the Outsiders crossover. We got some Chris Samnee stuff! Santiago Arcas continues to kill on the subdued color pallette. Joe Bennett continues to impress in the action scenes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2021
Checkmate rebounds pretty well here after a lackluster first volume. I really enjoyed both the Kobra infiltration story as well as the Fire focused tale. I thought both could have been elongated to improve the quality though. I still think their are too many chess pieces, so to speak, to get enough time "on screen". The art here was good but unspectacular. Overall, a solid spy book.
November 9, 2020
I wish I had found this run by Greg Rucka when it was published. The is top shelf espionage, spy literature that happens to have superheroes in it. If you like smart spy fiction, this is the comic series for you. Good stuff, Maynard!
October 19, 2019
I thought this was a great follow up to the first volume. Great story telling.
January 17, 2021
As enjoyable as the first volume, if not more so. All the manipulation and cloak and dagger stuff is lots of fun.
January 15, 2022
Review and Thoughts: This collection was a bit of a mixed bag, but more on the positive side. Since the art was fine, this review will mostly be on the plot.
What I like best about Checkmate is that it reveals a different side of the DC universe, one that is more human-centric, and not reliant so much on superheroes. I enjoy the espionage and balance of power that Checkmate juggles with. However, I felt like this volume took a while to get to that. At least the first half of collection (ten issues) deals with the Checkmate royals (leaders) trying to expose White Queen Amanda Waller, who despite her role on the politics side of Checkmate, is pulling strings, conducing missions, and even is still running a Suicide Squad on the side. The thing is, we all know this. Even if this hadn't been revealed in Volume 1, it's Amanda Waller. Backstabbing, manipulation, and Suicide Squad are what she does. We don't even need to see it. We already know. So, them trying to catch her at something we already know she's doing isn't very exciting, and got old fast.
Once they resolved that plot thread, though, it was a lot better. Even the backstory on Mademoiselle Marie, while unexpected for me, was better. I enjoyed the last five issues MILES more than the other portion.
I got the feeling that several of these issues (throughout the volume) were tied in to external events in the DC universe (for example, Birds of Prey come into one issue, and then of course the Suicide Squad,) but mostly, I was able to piece together pretty well what was going on.
Overall, a decent collection, but I hope the next will be better. Like the previous volume, I would only recommend this to people who are already somewhat familiar with the DC universe. You don't have to be an expert, but you should be able to name at least thirty heroes, say.
Plot Overview:
What I like best about Checkmate is that it reveals a different side of the DC universe, one that is more human-centric, and not reliant so much on superheroes. I enjoy the espionage and balance of power that Checkmate juggles with. However, I felt like this volume took a while to get to that. At least the first half of collection (ten issues) deals with the Checkmate royals (leaders) trying to expose White Queen Amanda Waller, who despite her role on the politics side of Checkmate, is pulling strings, conducing missions, and even is still running a Suicide Squad on the side. The thing is, we all know this. Even if this hadn't been revealed in Volume 1, it's Amanda Waller. Backstabbing, manipulation, and Suicide Squad are what she does. We don't even need to see it. We already know. So, them trying to catch her at something we already know she's doing isn't very exciting, and got old fast.
Once they resolved that plot thread, though, it was a lot better. Even the backstory on Mademoiselle Marie, while unexpected for me, was better. I enjoyed the last five issues MILES more than the other portion.
I got the feeling that several of these issues (throughout the volume) were tied in to external events in the DC universe (for example, Birds of Prey come into one issue, and then of course the Suicide Squad,) but mostly, I was able to piece together pretty well what was going on.
Overall, a decent collection, but I hope the next will be better. Like the previous volume, I would only recommend this to people who are already somewhat familiar with the DC universe. You don't have to be an expert, but you should be able to name at least thirty heroes, say.
Plot Overview:
May 12, 2008
This volume combines two short stories about Checkmate, a shadowy U.N.-backed hero and spy team that arranges its bureaucracy like a game of chess. (I wish more companies took their cue from board games.)
In the first story, Checkmate tries to get a pawn (get it!) in the snake-crazed terrorist organization Kobra, only to have a shadowy U.S.-backed agency foul up their plans. A forced crossover with Shadowpact ensues. Detective Chimp gets a few good lines of dialogue. It's a bit hard to follow in the beginning, but the story finishes strong (though the parts with "blood magic" are confusing and creepy).
After that comes a story about corrupt Latin American elections, involving Bane, the 'roided up villain that broke Batman's back. The story focuses on former Justice Leaguer Fire, and reveals her true heroism in some interesting ways. Also, apparently the son of Judomaster is in Checkmate. So there's that.
Greg Rucka can write really solid spy stories (as novels, but also comics like Queen and Country). Trying to cram in superheroes and chess bureaucracy weakens his work.
In the first story, Checkmate tries to get a pawn (get it!) in the snake-crazed terrorist organization Kobra, only to have a shadowy U.S.-backed agency foul up their plans. A forced crossover with Shadowpact ensues. Detective Chimp gets a few good lines of dialogue. It's a bit hard to follow in the beginning, but the story finishes strong (though the parts with "blood magic" are confusing and creepy).
After that comes a story about corrupt Latin American elections, involving Bane, the 'roided up villain that broke Batman's back. The story focuses on former Justice Leaguer Fire, and reveals her true heroism in some interesting ways. Also, apparently the son of Judomaster is in Checkmate. So there's that.
Greg Rucka can write really solid spy stories (as novels, but also comics like Queen and Country). Trying to cram in superheroes and chess bureaucracy weakens his work.
October 17, 2018
Letdown again.
Checkmate's clandestine espionage organization continues in a series of stories that once again don't really mean much.
On some level it does continue in the similar vein as Suicide Squad but those stories were so much cooler. This is a little to awkward and political for my taste.
Some members of the Squad do involve themselves in Checkmate again as well as some superheroes as well. This particularly works Fire, Enchantress, Nightshade and Judomaster
Once again, nothing that great. Though I had to admit I loved reading up on Fire. D
Checkmate's clandestine espionage organization continues in a series of stories that once again don't really mean much.
On some level it does continue in the similar vein as Suicide Squad but those stories were so much cooler. This is a little to awkward and political for my taste.
Some members of the Squad do involve themselves in Checkmate again as well as some superheroes as well. This particularly works Fire, Enchantress, Nightshade and Judomaster
Once again, nothing that great. Though I had to admit I loved reading up on Fire. D
September 20, 2015
The Checkmate team goes on more assignments battling the Kobra cult and miscellaneous villains in this volume. Love, love, love the story and characters, volume 2 is still an awesome compilation of one of the best comic series.
October 12, 2016
This one was ok. The first story is checkmate trying to get a man into the cobra organization and the second story is centered around fire and her dad. Both were so so. The fire one made me miss the old days of fires time in the JLI.
December 4, 2011
This has been an enjoyable series and something different. Not epic but enjoyable
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews