Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Published by DC Comics
For the initiated, the Checkmate series revolves around a rather large spy organization populated by various superheroes (most of whom wear military style uniforms instead of spandex) and normal spies whose responsibility is similar to that of a global peacekeeping force. The idea behind is it that if the United Nations had the opportunity to use superheroes in their peacekeeping units, it would be something like Checkmate. The term comes about due to Checkmate's rather unwieldy structure of leadership, built around the various pieces that make up a chess set. (Although the pawns greatly exceed the required number, there is a Black Queen, a White Knight, etcetera.) Checkmate was a rather unsuccessful, albeit mildly interesting series from the 80's. Following it's cancellation, the group and characters occasionally appeared in various DC comic books, but it wasn't until a few years ago that they did anything important. Following their involvement in Infinite Crisis, the incredibly large and massively irritating crossover DC published last year, Checkmate was restarted as a monthly book, under the stewardship of Greg Rucka. Rucka, while mostly known in mainstream comics as the guy who wrote Batman for a while when no one was buying it or as the guy who wrote the best DC comic in recent years that no one bought (Gotham Central), has made quite a name for himself with his creator owned works Queen & Country and Whiteout, both of which will be movies in the next few years--and they'll be the type of movies that non-comics readers will be unable to identify as comic related movies. He's also written some mildly successful prose novels, all of which are currently in print.
Rucka seems to have been wanting to write Checkmate for a while--like Gotham Central, the book is a full read every month, bursting with all the type of international politics that are such a constant theme in Queen & Country. Whether it's backdoor dealings with China to negotiate the power of their veto or blackmailing low-grade superheroes to commit assassination, more intelligent stuff has occurred in Checkmate in the last ten issues than normally occurs in five years of a mainstream comic. This is heavy, scary stuff--and not because of the violence, which is rarely the focal point. It's unsettling because it's dealing with the very nature of what's acceptable when governments that don't like, or trust, each other are in a situation that involves them making decisions based on the greater security. Rucka does an excellent job of maintaining a constant theme of the attitudes and behavior of the soldiers on the ground versus their ability to follow protocols that, while achieving the ultimate end, are designed to negate all humanity in their practitioners. Much like a show like The Wire, where the emotional and mental component of doing ugly things wrecks havoc on the characters, Checkmate is full of people whose survival and success becomes predicated by their ability to ignore their inherent compassion and decency. Unlike 24, where a man like Jack Bauer is able to turn off his human emotion to save the day, the people who form the components of Checkmate are presented as being unable to make this distinction--in doing so, Rucka presents them as far more human than one would expect.
The most recent issue of Checkmate is the continuation of a storyline regarding the organizations attempts to infiltrate a terroristic religious cult--a cult that has stymied all efforts up until now. The storyline has been an ugly, frightening one, and through an excellent choice, the undercover agent is one invented at the beginning of the story, making it impossible for the reader to be sure how it will all turn out. (Had Rucka used anyone readers knew, and were possibly attached to, his choices regarding the outcome would have been predicated by the hellishly obsessive DC editorial department.) Although the issue has it's flaws, not the least of which is the hideous cover pictured above, it's an intelligent, exciting read. That's a statement that this writer would like to be able to make about DC more often.
-Tucker Stone, 2007
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