Customer Reviews

Queen & Country The Definitive Edition Volume 1

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Queen & Country is a collection of (mostly) independent stories, each of which focusses on a different mission of the SIS, a British government spy operation. The story is split, half the time following the "minders" (that is the spies) on there missions in the field. The other half follows the consequences for the minders and their boss. There is often strife and differences between the minders and the boss, and the boss and his boss, and the boss and another boss, and the boss and a boss of the CIA. That's probably the best and worst part of Queen & Country. It is both captivating to see the inner workings of the SIS and how people have to balance what's right and what works, however in many cases the "bosses of bosses" are hard to ddifferentiate. At least at first I had a hard time distinguish between the different positions, but as the story progresses I became more comfortable with it all. It doesn't help that often the "gritty realistic black and white" art muddies the stark faces of the characters with shadows.

Besides that minor caveat, the story is very exciting and the characters are very interesting. The main minder has a bit of a "freak out" that's very entertaining, but very sad.

Note about the style: Every mission contains the same characters and same universe, but each mission is illustrated by a different artist. This was a bit jarring at first because the first shift goes from somewhat cartoony to uber-gritty (think Sin City), and it's sometimes hard to believe that they are the same characters. By and large though, the art is amazing and rich and engrossing.

Note about the edition: There are 4 books in this edition, each in black and white. The books are slightly smaller than average which like Frank Miller's Sin City: The Hard Goodbye 2nd Edition make some of the work close to the center of the page hard to read. If you really like this series you might consider getting the books in the series like: Queen and Country Vol 3: Operation Crystal Ball.

On the whole though, very good graphic novel and you should definitely seek this out.