It's not the bullet that has your name on it you have to worry about...

Queen & Country #1 (2001)

Chosen by me as it was from the period when I was really getting into comics and still seems like an exciting golden age to me as everything had the thrill of discovery.

Cover Art by Tim Sale

Just a beautiful 22 pages or so. Clean, smart, concise - it get's the job done (much like it's main character) with a minimum of fuss but is exudes of intelligence and confidence. 

Rucka throws in enough character details in in this first issue that stop it from being a boring exercise in sub-Tom Clancy spy-jargon but throws in enough verisimilitude that it distances itself from a lot of the James Bond knock-offs and walks it's own interesting path.

Rolston's art is bold and dynamic (and I can vaguely recall a bunch of criticisms over it's 'cartoony' nature at the time but now it seems just perfect, fresh and modern) selling the character acting as much as the action. 

Just really strong stuff and I miss this book being around (the last issue was about 10 years ago though a couple of novels came after that point I think).

Writer: Greg Rucka

Illustrator: Steve Rolston

Letterer: Sean Konot