There aren’t many career advancement opportunities for Minders, assuming you survive long enough to need them. One of the only options for Minders is to become Director of Operations which makes this book particularly interesting as an indication of who Tara might become, and an examination of why Crocker is who he is. This volume of Queen and Country takes you back to 1986, during the height of the Cold War when Crocker was still a Minder and his mission was to help Valery Karpin escape from East Germany. The consequences of what happens that night will reverberate through the years and are influential in shaping how he acts when he becomes Director of Operations, and perhaps explains some of the leeway that he allows his Minders. Hurtt’s artwork is full of detail, without being overwhelming. He is particularly skillful when it comes to showing the toll that being a Minder exacts on both the Minder and their family. The faces and body language of his characters are exhausted and weighed down with the things that they can’t or won’t say.
Queen and Country: Declassified, vol. 1
ISBN 9781929998586
By Greg Rucka
Art by Brian Hurtt, Scott Morse
Oni Press 2003
