Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Jesus Saiz
Publisher: DC Comics
I honestly never thought we’d get a series like this. Rucka revived Checkmate seemingly on a whim four years ago at the end of his run on Detective Comics, and he promptly sent his creation Sasha Bordeaux packing with them. I assumed he had simultaneously written her out and written her off the series, never intending to use her again while ensuring no one else would either.
Well, good things come to those who wait. And in the case of Greg Rucka fans, great things come to those who wait longer.
Rucka’s never managed to wow me with any of his first issues. He often meticulously plans out long plot threads that pay off months, even years down the line. While I criticized the blatant use of the OMAC Crisis Special as nothing more than a launchpad for Checkmate #1 (essentially a Checkmate #0), this first issue gets off and running at breakneck speed, all the groundwork solidly lain from the outset. The core twelve-member cast is named and ranked, and while the surprise of those identities comes early, plenty more surprises are sprinkled throughout. The book also wisely takes advantage of the One Year Later gap, referring to as-yet-untold Checkmate missions from the last year and the reshuffling of global power. Oh, and one crucial DCU mainstay is missing an eye. Hey, it worked for Metal Gear Solid 3.
Miss Gotham Central? Look no further for your Rucka fix. Checkmate has less in common with GC than it does with Queen and Country or Suicide Squad, but an international covert ops intelligence agency set in the heart of the DCU is a formula for an insane number of potentially amazing stories. With this issue, the DCU international political climate is established, and it’s a setting and tone that hasn’t really been explored in mainstream comics since Priest’s Black Panther. In addition to the global power struggle, the internal politics and factions of the Checkmate members is rather compelling, utilizing the chess iconography and pulling it off with a straight face.
My one reservation right now is the art. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with it. Perhaps I just need time to warm to Saiz’s style. Then again, it looked a little crisper back when he drew the OMAC Project, so either he’s still molding his style or he was rushed on this assignment. Either way, I don’t necessarily feel he’s the best choice to illustrate this series, but I’ll give him a chance. Tim Sale would be a great choice, but I don’t really want to wait three months between issues.
Checkmate is another triumph for One Year Later. It’s easily been my most anticipated of the post-Crisis books and the first issue lives up to my expectations.
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