RAT QUEENS #2 continues the hilarious and bloody adventures of the four grossly mismatched mercs with perks, with the girls facing off against a disgruntled ..er, troll. Things get messy right away as Mr. Troll takes out their spell-caster rather brutally.
Banter. The right way.
The banter, spilled forth from the twisted mind of Kurtis J. Wiebe, doesn’t let up on the funny. I had to pause after the whole ‘Elven eyes vs. Dwarven ale‘ exchange, on account of choking with laughter. The art is handled solely by Roc Upchurch who does a phenomenal job with pencils and light washes of colour. His blood splatters are rather appropriately handled as well. Heck, there’s one team-up take down that even Kratos would be slow clapping. Upchurch’s panels and sense of motion evoke strong Anime-style action framing. It’s an artistic choice that serves this comic extremely well.
Fastball Special can suck it. Meet the ‘Betty Climber’
Thankfully, each girl brings something different to the table and Wiebe seems to have avoided dipping into the tired cliched character rolodex. I mean, where else could you have a divinely powered atheist? RAT QUEENS #2 walks a fine line between straight out raunchy comedy and hard-bitten violence, and I love it. This issue takes obvious glee with bashing fanboy female warrior tropes and making sure that a girl doesn’t need stunt worthy double D’s to be an effective fighter. By the end of the issue, things are pointing towards an ally and lets just say that illusion spells count for squat when you have bad timing.
Listen, do yourself a favour and grab RAT QUEENS #1 and get familiar with these merc madams of mayhem. I see a good long run ahead and it looks fantastic.
Editor’s Note: Look for the review of Rat Queen #1 this week! I’m late writing the damn thing! Sue me…