Fantasy comics have long had a strong representation in the
graphic fiction market, but so many of the standard tropes have not evolved,
but have stagnated, bringing the genre to a standstill while comics of other
genres are advancing all around them.
One of these problematic areas is fantasy comics’ depiction of
women. Far too often, women are only
appearing in comics as bar maids falling out of their blouses, damsels in distress,
or for no real reason other than to pose suggestively while wearing the bear
minimum of clothes. Or, on the rare
occasion that a woman held the role of protagonist, you frequently get
something along the lines of Marvel’s Red
Sonja, which was more about underwear-sized armor rather than a strong
female protagonist. Recent years have
seen some growth here, in comics such as Dynamite’s Red Sonja, where we finally see a smart, capable female warrior in
a series with depth. With Gail Simone currently
doing the writing, this likely will only get better, both in representation and
story quality.
A new series that is running along with this is Rat Queens, from writer Kurtis J. Wiebe
and artist Roc Upchurch. Rat Queens features a group of five
women who like to drink, get in trouble, and make money, all of which
frequently seem to involve quests. The
first collection, Sass and Sorcery,
introduces the readers to all of the cast, from a magic-using Cthulhu worshiper
to a dwarf warrior, and gets the adventure of with a bang as the Rat Queens
struggle to find who is trying to kill them.
Full of humor and adventure, Rat
Queens will appeal to general fantasy readers, as well as fans of
team-oriented books with plenty of witty banter.
Rat Queens should
prove to be a popular new fantasy series, and is exactly what the genre needs:
a funny, well-told action epic that isn’t afraid to be all about women.
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