A review by heresthepencil
The Once and Future Queen by Adam P. Knave, Dj Kirkbride
3.0
I received a galley from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
2.5 ☆
I'm always weak for the Arthurian myth & here not only do we get that, but our protagonist is a girl! Queen Rani Arturus is biracial American, too (British-Indian) and sapphic. It doesn't really get much better than that, right? Not for me, at least; that was definitely enough to make me want to read this comic book.
The story starts with Rani & her parents flying to UK for a chess competition which Rani unfortunately fails. But she finds Excalibur instead so I guess it's not a completely wasted trip. From the very first page, the tale is very fast-paced. Especially in the first two issues, we're fed so! much! information! It's like the authors want us to know everything all at once - granted, it happens like that for the characters, too. That's not necessarily a bad thing but what it means in this particular case, is that there isn't a single arc that gets properly fleshed out. Idea gets introduced after an idea and before we get used to one, we already have to deal with three more. It gets really confusing at times & kinda makes the reader tired. Plus, it also makes it way harder to actually care about the characters...
Basically what we get from The Once and Future Queen is a story packed with Great Ideas. I mean, the modern setting alone already makes things interesting & then on top of that, the ruler being a teenage girl is enough to make a cool retelling all on its own! But there are so many ideas. So many. There are just not enough pages in the book to give justice to all of them and I really wish it could slow down a bit, let us appreciate the things we were given. As it stands, we're just kind of left with this feeling of wasted potential.
2.5 ☆
I'm always weak for the Arthurian myth & here not only do we get that, but our protagonist is a girl! Queen Rani Arturus is biracial American, too (British-Indian) and sapphic. It doesn't really get much better than that, right? Not for me, at least; that was definitely enough to make me want to read this comic book.
The story starts with Rani & her parents flying to UK for a chess competition which Rani unfortunately fails. But she finds Excalibur instead so I guess it's not a completely wasted trip. From the very first page, the tale is very fast-paced. Especially in the first two issues, we're fed so! much! information! It's like the authors want us to know everything all at once - granted, it happens like that for the characters, too. That's not necessarily a bad thing but what it means in this particular case, is that there isn't a single arc that gets properly fleshed out. Idea gets introduced after an idea and before we get used to one, we already have to deal with three more. It gets really confusing at times & kinda makes the reader tired. Plus, it also makes it way harder to actually care about the characters...
Basically what we get from The Once and Future Queen is a story packed with Great Ideas. I mean, the modern setting alone already makes things interesting & then on top of that, the ruler being a teenage girl is enough to make a cool retelling all on its own! But there are so many ideas. So many. There are just not enough pages in the book to give justice to all of them and I really wish it could slow down a bit, let us appreciate the things we were given. As it stands, we're just kind of left with this feeling of wasted potential.