By Jonathan Edwards

Okay, so, I honestly kind of forgot this book existed. It goes without saying that that's not great and doesn't bode well for the first issue's ability to leave a lasting impression. Although, when I did see this second issue listed on the spreadsheet, and took the second to register and remember it, I wasn't opposed to checking it out. If anything, I was actually interested to see what this issue did and, hopefully, how it was improved from the previous one. And then, as I started reading, something that probably should've occurred to me last time (but didn't) clicked, and I grew somewhat concerned. See, The Once and Future Queen is branded as a "retelling of Arthurian Legend." However, Arthurian Legend is comprised of a whole lot of material, and this is a 5-issue limited series. It's always possible that the creators are planning successive limited series to follow this one, but that doesn't really stop me from wondering if we're really getting what it says on the tin. And unfortunately, The Once and Future Queen #2 only reinforced this concern.

By Jonathan Edwards

I'm all for stories and utilize and/or reinvent folklore, legends, mythology. etc in a modern context. So when I was reading Dark Horse's description for The Once and Future Queen, it seemed right up my alley. As such, I called the book for review as far in advance as possibly I could. And when I eventually called Royal City by Jeff Lemire as well, I was kind of expecting this to be a highlight week for me in terms of reviews. That is, I was ready to say very good things about multiple books. You'll have to go read my review of Royal City to see how that one turned out (spoiler: it was pretty good). But here, The Once and Future Queen unfortunately ends up kind of stumbling through its first installment.