Rat Queens #3 – Review

by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Writer), Roc Upchurch (Artist)

The Story: The Rat Queens investigates a lead about the merchant guild as the readers learn a bit more about them.

The Review: Indie creators have it tough. Of course, any creators do have it tough as they need to sell readers their pitch and stories in order to make them buy their books, but there’s something rather endearing about those going all the way with an ambitious ongoing with a whole lot of unknown factors. It’s much easier to sell a book with Spider-Man or Batman in them, to say the least, as they are known quantities, with decades of previous works in various medias helping those that write them. Not to say that their jobs are easy, but the longevity of the title is never actually a part of the question when it comes to success.

It’s why it’s rather impressive to see that Rat Queens, in the span of three issues, did quite a lot in order to provide a lot of personality to its characters and setting. While the first two issues did help give readers a conflict and mystery to latch onto, Wiebe is able to juggle with a bit more character definition and development to set up a bit more likability to his cast, a job he actually does rather efficiently.

With a main cast consisted exclusively of women, Wiebe could have gone off and went to stereotypes to put it easy for his readers, but here he puts in effort to make them a bit more complex. While Hannah seems to be violent and chaotic, even self-obsessed in the way she perceives her skills and role on the team, there is a certain calmness to her that can be seen in the first scene of the book. The same goes with Violet, who is practical, down-to-earth, but also a tad prideful, violent and angry.

The character with perhaps the lesser amount of panels and personality is Dee Dee, who still do receive a bit of a focus in some panels. On the polar opposite is Betty, who’s perhaps, at least to me, the most interesting and entertaining character of the book, with a certain child-like sense of wonders without exactly innocence, a willingness to help yet one that seems to be unable to actually achieve true happiness in some more important parts of her life. She seems less intellectually-inclined, yet is also very perceptive. This is an issue that seems to focus a lot more on who these characters are, which ends up being very interesting to read.

What makes it so is the fact that those personal scenes are mostly set in between scenes concentrating on the plot, not removing an iota of importance to these scenes, yet standing on their own despite that. They not only add some gravitas and potential plot points for the future of this title, but they work in the present where these characters are as well.

The present of the book is much more represented by the conflict in which the Rat Queens are stuck in, with assassins sent in to kill them alongside other mercenary and adventurers group. The story, weaved in alongside the other personal scenes, is told in a way that manages to be subversive with the other scenes, creating some rather smart moment, like the panel where Betty explains everything she did see in the merchant’s guild office. There are surprises and twists here that also manage to play with another strength of the book: humor.

Comedy is always a nice thing in a book, as adding levity to some of the darker and more sinister scenes can make them either a bit more acceptable or memorable. It can sometime ruin them, but it’s mostly due to the humor in question or the tone of the book in itself. Wiebe manages to gives some few memorable lines while creating some rather funny scenes, like the very last few pages with Betty or how Hannah is a bit unacceptable in a social kind-of-way. It’s not the biggest focus of this book and this issue, but it’s noticeable enough to provide a chuckle or two.

Surely enough, Wiebe is not the only creator on this book that it notable, as Roc Upchurch gives us the absurdly important task of bringing those characters, concepts, jokes and pretty much everything on the pages, a job he does very competently. There is a small, but certain roughness to the lines here that actually does a great service to the book in terms of style, something that Upchurch doesn’t lack of in any way. The grey area the characters are in alongside the more violent or funny scenes are all portrayed quite well here, with enough of a visual flow and a certain focus on the motions themselves that connect very well with the visuals. The characters are also anatomically rather impressive, with the women not shown as anorexic or with impossible figures, with a certain expressivity that is both small but very effective. Upchurh is very good with the visuals, that’s for sure.

He is also really great in terms of colorization as well, with a certain minimal amount of colors chosen here, with brown, teal, orange, white, yellow and red serving up the main focus here. While the diversity isn’t the greatest, Upchurch does very well in switching things up to allow for a certain illusion of diversity, putting most of them in rotation and constant movement to let them play in the background and forefront. With these colors mainly represented, the other colors becomes suitably more noticeable, allowing for a great cooperation to enhance the focus on certain elements.

The Conclusion: A funny issue with some very interesting twists and a good load of fascinating character defining moments alongside some rather solid art and colorization. Fans of fantasy should definitely give this title a try.

Grade: A-

Hugo Robberts Larivière