Since their debut in 2013, The Rat Queens have enjoyed a cozy status as one of the more popular mainstream fantasies on comic newsstands. Filled with a spunky cast of well-characterized leading ladies, and enough sex and violence to make a Catholic nun blush, it’s really all you could ever ask for in a series (especially when it comes to filling the void between new Game of Thrones episodes). Unfortunately, The Rat Queens: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth loses momentum with a poorly paced and uninteresting tale in only its second volume.
After saving the city of Palisade from an invasion, the Rat Queens awake from a celebratory night of sex, drugs, and alcohol to pick up the pieces from the night before. However, before the Queens can finish breakfast, an evil rises from the depths of the past. When a crazed widower obtains a mystic artifact, the warrior maidens must hatch a plan to stop the evildoer before all is lost.
While this volume is a step backwards from the successful and hugely entertaining first story arc, this Rat Queens is not without its strong qualities. Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic render the underwhelming arc with fantastically vibrant artwork; the best of the whole series so far. Fight scenes, which were a strong element of past issues, continue to be a gory spectacle of violence.
Unfortunately, the second volume in the series suffers from a disjointed storyline that places too much of an emphasis on the pasts of its characters. Kurtis J. Wiebe bites off more than he can chew trying to juggle the main plot with complex character origins. If he had chosen to focus on one over the other, the story likely would have come together more cohesively.
Arguably the weakest aspect of the story is its antagonist. The main villain is dull, uninteresting, and hardly present. On a scale of bank robber to intergalactic overlord, this villain rates as an irate Donald Duck having a bad Monday morning. In a 136-page graphic novel, this mundane malefactor has the gall to show up for only 13 pages. Worse still, the fearsome squid demons he summons are about as frightening as a plate of calamari.
In the end, Rat Queens: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth is a fun but unmemorable read that will lead to you forgetting everything you read within an hour.
