Queen & Country: Declassified (2002) 2

Queen & Country: Declassified (2002) 2

Dec 2002

Operation: Landslide (Part 2)

by Greg Rucka, Brian Hurtt, John Dranski

Crocker meets with Don Weldon (at that time the number two man in Prague) who explains the plan to him for extracting Karpin. Crocker moves ahead with the extraction plan but things go south quickly. Karpin was under surveillance and then he and Crocker almost get captured at the meeting place. Crocker gets shot escaping from the trap.

Crocker and Karpin hole up in a safe house. Francis Barclay, the number one man in Prague, has no interest in sticking out his neck to help Crocker. Barclay starts to draft a message to the home office blaming Crocker for going ahead with the extraction despite a (nonexistent) warning from Barclay. 

Crocker decides, after waiting in the safe house for a little while, that they have to do something. They leave the safe house and are immediately confronted by someone. 

Thoughts

The issue ends on a cliffhanger. It isn’t clear who it is that was outside the safe house. I think it must be Don Weldon. 

Francis Barclay is a real piece of work. 

I'm not crazy about the coloring of the covers to the issues.

This was a fairly quick read. The visual storytelling is excellent. The writer lets the artist tell parts of the story with pictures rather than loading it down with explanatory text.