A review by iffer
Queen & Country, Vol. 2: Operation: Morningstar by Greg Rucka

4.0

Phew, Queen & Country manages to fulfill the promise that it showed in the first story arc, and even surpasses my expectations. Rucka's passion about the Taliban (and his letter at the back of issue #4 explaining the pre-9/11 circumstances of this story arc's writing) shows through this issue, and he manages to write a riveting story, that really doesn't contain that much "action." Rucka maintains tension as "Members" 1 and 3 attempt to retrieve a list of colluders against the Taliban from a dead drop, while simultaneously exploring the mental and emotional toll of special ops by showing how Tara deals with her assassination mission in the previous story arc.

Brian Hurtt's pencils, and the inking of Brian Lee O'Malley and Christine Norrie, really added a new dimension for me (no pun intended), and likely contributed significantly to my enjoyment of this arc. (As a caveat, I might just have a soft sport for Brain Hurtt, because he seemed like a stand-up guy the one time I met him.) Their collective art captured the tension and spy genre much better for me than Steve Rolston's art in the previous story arc, not in the least because of the way in which the art takes advantage of light and shadow. I'm kind of bummed that the art in the other volumes is done by a slew of other artists and then goes back to Rolston.