Rat Queens (2017-23) #16-25 and series Finale One-Shot
Story: Ryan Ferrier
Art: Priscilla Petraites, Marco Lesko, Marco B. Bucci, Moritat, Casey Silver and Roc Upchurch
My rating: 2 out of 5 Ω‘s
The Once and Future King (Issues 16-20)
A new story arc begins here as the series/volume is on the road to the final issues of the series.
A new threat emerges and both the Queens and their adopted home of Pallisade are in danger! With the previous departure of Violet, the team is struggling to be the action-winning heroes they were – infighting, drunkeness and personal struggles are overwhelming the team. Even the addition of Braga as a now full time member of the squad and the addition of young Maddie are not enough to stabilise things. The infighting and lack of communication continues, Bettys drunkeness has reached untenable proportions and things are not at all looking good as the proverbial shit has hit the fan. The Queens must get their shit in order – first up is using magic to try and force sobriety on their pint-sized murder machine and then to go find Violet and hope she can help them get their shit together again. Odds are not in the teams’ favour.
A high point issue in the arc comes when the struggling queens are sent on a quest by the now pregnant and no-longer-adventuring Violet. They all must brave a perilous quest to the top of the tallest mountain in the land to seek out potentially the most devastating weapon in the world or die trying. They struggle, they think, they feel and they have to face some stuff on the way. If they fail, the evil turd from their past named Gary will win and Pallisade will become his new kingdom and all is lost!
The high point remains the humour and the characters and they are damn side more fun now that the moping is over and they feel like the Rat Queens we’ve known. Maybe I’m not being fair, but I didn’t enjoy the self-loathing being cranked up the last few issues. The Once and Future King saga comes to an end as Dee finds her inner resolve and says “fuck it!” and the Queens get themselves back together (literally) and then it is in to kick some Gary ass!
But things are not all they seem and yet another old-new threat emerges!
Nice moments, some good action, amusing magic and lots of swearing (as per usual). Overall a decently written ending but I have to admit, I was fine without the swerve; I’m sure there are reasons as there is another story arc ahead, but it was not my favourite way this could have gone.
A good story arc that starts slow but then powers ahead – enjoyable enough for genre fans and fans of the Rat Queens series. The art across the arc was mostly decent, but nothing brilliant anywhere. Nothing overly memorable here, a middling Rat Queens story with a little extra emotional weight thrown on top.
The God Dilemma (Issues 21-25) + Rat Queens: Sisters Warriors Queens (Finale One-Shot)
The arc starts with an issue of mellow after the last story arc and it is a HUGE step up.
The art has changed dramatically and I have to address that first – I like it but given what the look of the series from the very first issue has been, this switch to this cartoonish, goofy art seems like such a jarring and wierd choice for the last 4 issues of this volume. I like the art but not for this series.
That said, the story is also pretty mediocre: The Queens and Pallisade are having a bit of down time, we learn that Maddy has some bard skills, for some reason a bunch of Goblins want Dee dead, there’s a Titan chilling in a field for reasons – plus Hannah has a suprise encounter with Castyver instead of her evil double and things take a turn. Hannahs new tryst is discovered by Betty who is continuing to try and stay sober and the threat of “moonhounds” is there – but while there’s some nice ideas in there, it somehow felt very flat to me. After the Moonhounds invasion, we immediately move onto a new grave threat to Pallisade making everyone sick with what looks like man-colds all around. Vines encase the town and the Queens are sick as well, except god-like Dee. They venture into the heart of the town and uncover an ancient secret buried regarding the origins of the town.
I mean… I kind of get what they were going for and it is perhaps okay in some issues vs others which are mostly boring and have mediocre jokes, but it is largely not all that interesting and frankly felt like a story that might have benefited from more time to breathe, give all the main characters a little room and build out the new things shown and maybe it would be better. But the story remains feeling rushed and a little try-hard.
The end-game in this arc has clearly begun as the Queens get thrown into a kind of crazy wonderland-house of mirrors and the world itself seems to be upending. Finally perhaps we are on our way to dealing with this repeatedly talked about “The Void” that was left apparently because Dee used her godly powers – all of which still seemed like such half-assed storytelling that made little sense to me and maybe it is me but I could not make sense of it and I am hopeful that we are headed there now. It is chaotic and nuts and things are building and for the shift to a focus I am interested in and has been hinted at but skirted this whole volume gives this issue a bump in points for me. The art is still a bit odd but the fact that I basically like the look carries it despite the fact that it doesn’t quite gel too well.
[SPOILERS!] When I started this series, I loved the world and the concept. It was fresh and fun and engaging. But as we get to the end-game here, it is not working. The chaotic fun-house of last issue culminates in evil-Hannah revealing her presence – again – and literally doing an arbitrary musical number and then she and Hannah have a show-down we don’t really get to see and then it is all over. No other character even really needs to be here. [SPOILERS OVER!]
The lettering really adds a nice vibe as always to the magical scenes in particular and points to Ferrier and team for that. The art is not always great but it is decent and lively enough.
The finale one-shot sees the return of Upchurch – the original series artist – a choice that I’m sure was not without some controversy given his exit early on in the series’ successful run. That said, his return definitely brings better art – a more familiar looks to things and the vibe. It also creates a situation where I have to mentally separate the art from the artist to fairly review.
The series that started off as a fun adventure romp with fun characters is now I don’t even know what. I know stories evolve but this was a raunchy, action adventure. Now it is just endless f-bombs just because, characters that feel not evolved but like poorly understood versions of what they were and adventures that that just sort of happen and neither are majorly fun nor add anything fun to the world, the mythos or the characters.
Everything feels rushed and like someone just wanted to get it all over with and we get a whole run of mediocre issues leading up to this finale that fell absolutely flat and made me feel like I would not be interested in reading another volume of this series if it was launched. I don’t know who was responsible because the creators involved in the volume were all capable writers/artists, but nothing seemed to really click.
One Happy Monk 
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