Rat Queens 1 & 2

[skemono]

I myself do not care for Rat Queens. I find the characters unlikable and, for the most part, very bland (and as a D&D player, I find myself wondering about the mechanics of this world). However, I picked it up because it got good buzz, and it's also nominated for an Eisner for "Best New Series", so clearly some people like it. Perhaps some of you will enjoy it more than I.

Also the series can be fairly bloody, so while I'm not posting the worst of it, fair warning.




I'm far more interested in that beard championship than most of the rest of the series so far. And I may be reading too much into this, but does anyone else think that the elf that got thrown through the window is meant to resemble Cutter from ElfQuest?

Anyway. The people who threw the elf through the window are the titular Rat Queens: a group of adventurers comprising Hannah, elven necromancer; Dee, human cleric; Violet, dwarven fighter; and Betty, hobbit halfling kender smidgen thief.

Since everyone's rather pissed off that adventurers keep having wild bar fights and wrecking the place, Captain of the Guard Sawyer gives them all adventuring assignments to complete, or else get kicked out of town.



Like with the beard championships, I'd much rather read about the Four Daves than the Rat Queens. And if their battle cry is not "The Daves I Know", then there's no hope for humanity.

Anyways. Off they go!




Hey, guys, do you think Dee belonged to a cult of N'rygoth? If only there were some way to tell...

So they're at Hindman Cave, and send Betty in to check for traps.




Roll for initiative! And they fight, and they fight, and they fight, and they fight... (why the assassin didn't just kill Betty while she was face-down in front of him, given another one killed one of the Obsidian Darkness as soon as he walked in the door, is best not thought about).

BLURCH

Issue 2:




Huh. They apparently washed all the assassin's blood off them in-between issues. And they fight, and they fight, and they fight, and they fight... Anyways, while walking back after killing the troll, they come across the Peaches. Or what's left of them.






Our heroes! Aren't they just so likable?

Anyways. They go drinking, and the Four Daves show up and confirm that they, too, were attacked by an assassin. So they decide to burn the town to the ground and kill the mayor, not necessarily in that order.




Wait, thirty nine? You're an elf. Shouldn't you be more like three hundred ninety? Maybe that's why Hannah's laughing. Certainly not because she's an insufferable and infuriating jackass!

Anyway. They go home (as Violet says, you'd be surprised how throwing up in your mouth takes the fight out of you). The next day, while the other Rat Queens are nursing their hangovers, they find breakfast-maker Hannah is not there.




Next issue: the Rat Queens investigate who wants them dead! I mean, really wants them dead. Er, I mean, enough to pay for it. Okay, let's be more specific: the Rat Queens investigate who hired assassins to kill them this time.

Not in next issue: why I should care whether they die.


Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Artist: John "Roc" Upchurch

Comments

[halloweenjack]

It's not bad, and the art is very nice, but it's not as if there aren't already a bunch of webcomics (not to mention John Rogers' D&D comics) that don't already lampshade various D&D tropes.

Also, "The Daves I Know" is basically my favorite earworm.

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, it's not the most original concept, but you can still make an entertaining story from it. Whether this will end up being one of those stories or not is something I can't really say from the scans alone.

[fiddlingfrog.livejournal.com]

I thought the Daves was a reference to Terry Pratchett's running joke about the criminals in Ankh-morpork having run out of simple nicknames, resulting in names like "Bigger than Small Dave but smaller than Medium Dave" Dave.

[grazzt]

Maybe if this series is popular enough, we'll get spin offs for the Four Daves and the Brother Ponies.

[drtechnobabel]

Let's see: the main characters are all jackasses, the world's mechanics are poorly explained, the group is being railroaded into seemingly pointless quests, one person's backstory keeps being brought up ad nauseum, the enemies acts more like video game bosses than actual killers, the lack of respect for NPCs, the main characters deciding to burn down the starting city...

I don't know about you guys, but this seems like an almost perfect representation of my average experience with D&D.

[sindra]

Ya know, I was going to say the same thing. Just has less cursing.

[bizarrohulk]

I actually found it quite funny, but it'd be just as funny without the swearing and gore. It's one of those books that tries so hard to be "adult" it actually ends up coming off as childish.

Also, Order of the Stick did it better (but that should go without saying).

[philippos42]

I thought the parts of it we saw were funny.

[richardak]

I agree. I thought it was pretty clever.

[randyripoff]

Meh. Strikes me the creators are trying way too hard to be edgy, rather than just tell the story. And yes, every other adventuring group is more interesting than the Rat Queens.

[burkeonthesly]

Eh, I'm not sold on the Peaches. Everyone but the Rat Queens and the Peaches, I'm with you.

[arbre_rieur]

Based purely on these scans, I'm liking it. The art's nice, and the writing's genuinely funny.

[mrstatham]

This. I can maybe understand people with more D+D/fantasy game-playing experience finding it a bit lacklustre, but I really enjoyed the first trade. It's probably not my favourite series coming from Image at the moment, but when Image are publishing everything from Velvet and Saga to Lazarus and The Wicked And The Divine.. That's not saying much.

But.. Each to their own, and I have to commend the OP for posting something they might not particularly enjoy but think others might, and might not have seen yet.

[northstarfan]

I have a lot of D&D/RPG experience and I still enjoy it. I think there is an element of "trying too hard to be cool", but that rather rings true to the gaming experience -- adventurers are typically not well-adjusted people.

[beyondthefringe]

I find these scans amusing. I might possibly pick up a trade at some point, but no hurry.

But it does get one thing right: adventurers are assholes. :)

[northstarfan]

Yes. In that way, very true to most D&D parties I've gamed with.

[misanthr0pe]

I only know 3 davids and 0 daves. I don't know how to feel about this.

Also it really sounds like they just went back through the script and added cursing.