Rat Queens is such a fun series. Every time I get an issue of the Rat Queens I just devour that book and then in a few minutes after I am done I am left wanting more issues. So far, Rat Queens has been my favorite comic series of the year. And Issue eight of the Queens is my favorite so far from the series. My reason, well, it is because this issue is a Violet heavy issue and out of all the Queens Violet is my favorite. I love her character, she is strong, bold, and an ass kicking Dwarf warrior that doesn’t take crap from no one. Issue eight takes us through Violet’s backstory, we see Violet prepping herself for the yearly show that the Dwarves have in which the contest shows off each of the clans armors and their fighting skills. Violet dreads this show, not because of the combat, but because she mainly is the model for all of her fathers crafted armors. Violet is finally ready, and she is greeted by her mother. Her mother gives her a quick once over to make sure everything is alright before she heads off to her father. Her father goes over what will happen in these years event with Violet and her brother Barrie. He lets each of them know that Clan Meldhammer won’t have a representatives due to an illness and that they may not even be represented. Violet offers to fight in their representation, but her father refuses to have her fight.
The tournament begins and all the clans are represented. As they go through all the members, suddenly, clan Meldhammer had a fighter and get this, she is a female fighter. Violet is taken by this and turns away from the events and rushes down to the competitors; Violet starts asking a barrage of question to the mysterious warrior. She asked her who she is and why is she representing the Clan Meldhammer and why she has rats on her armor. The unknown warrior explains to her why she is competing and explains the meaning of her rats. She then asks her one final question and is regarding her face. For Dwarf women it is tradition to have their beards and Violet asked her why she didn’t have her. The unknown warrior basically gave her an explanation that traditions sometimes need to be broken. This left Violet amazed, and in love with this unknown warrior.
This issue of Rat Queen is probably my personal favorite of the run. Like I said before, Violet is my favorite character and I liked that they spent some time fleshing out her origin and it gives a better picture as to why she left the kingdom to become a Rat Queen. Granted it felt a little bit like Brave for a minute, but I like that Wiebe didn’t go full-blown Brave on it and he gave the story a different. Also, I liked Violets interaction with her mother. Their relationship felt true to any Mother-Daughter relationship but I liked their interaction even more when we get closer to the ending of the issue it was touching and cool.
The art in Rat Queens, is just awesome. There isn’t much more I can say about the art at this point since it is always consistently great looking and bright. Overall, Rat Queens #8 is a great origin story to one of the baddest Rat Queens of the group. Fans will appreciate this issue for what it reveals.
Score: 5/5
Writer: Kurtis J. Weibe Artists: Roc Upchurch Publisher: Image Comics Price: $3.50 Release Date: 10/01/14 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital