Rat Queens #7: Review

Imagine Charlie’s Angels, but without a patriarch to boss the girls around. Now make those girls mythical creatures with a penchant for drug use and violence and this what you’d have: The Rat Queens. And issue #7 proves that they just keep getting better.

Here’s the official word from Image:

THE FAR REACHING TENTACLES OF N’RYGOTH, Part Two You didn’t see that coming, did you? Neither did the Queens but now they have an ally on their side with an innate knowledge of N’Rygoth, which is good because they’re going to need every bit of help they can get. Palisade is overrun with tentacle monsters.

Ask any writer and they’ll agree: building a new universe is hard work. And if this is true, then Kurtis J. Wiebe‘s first seven scripts for his new series The Rat Queens deserves all the high praise that it’s earned. Only seven issues in and Wiebe has delivered several satisfying arcs, and provided necessary back story in all right ways: be embedding it into the plot. Issue #7, which pushes the Rat Queen’s newest arc one step forward, puts Delilah at the center of the story as the Rat Queens encounter a new foe with powers gained from a stolen artifact central to Delilah’s origins: The Haruspex Requiem. While it’s too early to know what the The Haruspex Requiem is exactly (yes, we know it’s a ceremonial death mask but that’s about it), the fact it has fallen into the wrong hands scares the crap out of Delilah and her estranged husband who’s come back to retrieve her. While issue #7 is mostly set-up, Wiebe does a great job of balancing first act info with tons of action, and Rat Queen humor.

For a new series Roc Upchurch has done a beautiful job of establishing these characters. Missing is all the awkward framing of an artist trying to understand his subject: Upchurch may only be seven issues in, but he handles the Queens like he’s known them forever, and issue 7 provides all the visual fluidity that you’d expect from a more established title.

Issue #7 offers another great installment of the Rat Queens. Go grab this thing today.