Rat Queens Volume 7: The Once and Future King (RAT QUEENS TP)

Volume seven in the series of paperbacks that collect issues of the comic 'Rat Queens.' Telling the adventures of a group of lady adventurers in a fantasy world.This contains both 'Rat Queens; Swamp Romp', a recent one off special for the characters. Plus issues sixteen to twenty of the current Rat Queens series. All are divided up with covers from the comics as chapter pages, so you can tell where parts end and begin.As with the rest of the series, strong language, violence and adult references aplenty make it only for adult readers.A new creative team took over the series after the end of the last volume, so there's a new writer and some new art here.Swamp Romp is a one off story as mentioned, which sees the characters hired by a rich man to kill a monster in an area of Swampland. Only to find...Many regular readers of this comic liked the first two volumes a lot, but found it lost it's way after that and hasn't quite recovered since. Yet from the off with Swamp Romp, the new writing is a breath of fresh air. It gets the tone of the series as it should, with good interplay between the characters, and just the right level of humour and action and fantasy as well. The art is pretty good, but you could do with it being slightly more realistic looking at times.So this is a good start.The next five issues have another artist on them. But they're even better. So that helps.This sees the Queens deal with a blast from their past, when Palisade is conquered by an invading army from another kingdom. When dealing with this, they are dealing with personal issues each at the same time.And as with Swamp Romp, the tone is much more focused than the last few volumes. And every character is well rounded, with issues to deal with throughout. This is what gives them good detail and strength as characters.It also does continue on from where book six left off, with a few changes to the status quo. And that's part of the theme of this, in regards to how they handle these. VIolet is no longer around after the end of that volume. Which some may not likely but I never found her very interesting. Maddie, the Inkeepers daughter introduced in book five though, is superbly handled here. Really well written, and very three dimensional, as she learns a lot on the job. Her relationship with Braga also sparks.Since it carried on with these changes, there's a lot of plot hangover here from before, so it may not work as a jumping on, or jumping back on point, as some things might confuse. But for those who hung on with this series in the hope of a return to initial glories, it seems you can sometimes get what you want after all.The Rat Queens are back! Looking forward to book eight.

It’s ok, has some good bits but not as good as the first few in the series. Less funny, more gory. It was better when it was all a bit more lighthearted and goofy. Also evil Hannah sucks, just bored of that character. I thought / hoped they’d wrapped up that storyline in the last one.

The Rat Queens always have had fun stories and this one is no different. If you love the series then this is a perfect product for you.

Good read