You all went out and bought Volume 1 of Rat Queens after my last review, right? (Or, if you are narfna, you demanded that your library supply you with it, because who really stocks a library with only volume 2 of something?!) I’m going to pretend that you all did, because I want to believe you are wonderful people that love nice things and it would break my heart to find out you were apathetic about my Rat Queens.
If it’s possible, this volume managed to be even better than the first. Allow me to enumerate!
- Hannah gets pants! Not that the skirt was bad, just… She’s out casting spells on a battlefield, she needs pants. She still has the 40’s pip-up bustier, but I don’t think anyone could Hannah what is and what is not acceptable battle wear. Hannah wears what Hannah wants.
- New bad ass woman alert: Lola of the city guards.
- Betty eats a lot of mushrooms. A LOT of used-to-be-mushroom-people mushrooms. At one point she thinks Violet is a peppermint person.
- More Dee! Lots more Dee, actually. Which is great, because she is my favorite. (They are all my favorite.)
- Violet backstory! AND female dwarfs in this this universe have beards! (Violet shaves her because fuck tradition.) It’s olde timey lore about dwarfs that get left out a lot because women in fantasy, no matter what species they are, must always be do-able.
- Violet’s mom! I just love a good mother just wants her daughter to be happy story.
- Hannah’s mom! Apples and tress and distance of falling, it’s obvious where Hannah’s snark was learned. Although because these flashbacks are happening because of some giant, reality shifting, floating giant squids, I don’t know how accurate the backstories are that we see, especially with how Hannah’s ends with her mom (although her family is necromancers, so I figure death is merely a setback for them).
- Unexpected sex scenes and comic book nudity.
- This exchange: Henchman 1 – “The Rat Queens AND the Four Daves AND Lola AND Braga? We’re going to need an army!” Henchman 2 – “What the hell are you on about? We ARE an army!” Henchman 1 – “Oh Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad. You are so fucking dumb.”
- College age goth Hannah!
My only slight quibble (and it’s really not even a quibble, just a fear of change) is that a new artist started half-way through the volume, so it was mildly discombobulating. It’s not bad, just…different. And everyone has a slight touch of red eye (which, of course, makes total sense in Betty’s case).
