Rat Queens, Vol. 8: The God Dilemma

Rat Queens (Collected Volumes) #8

by Ryan Ferrier, Priscilla Petraites (Artist), Marco Lesko (Artist)

While Hannah ventures down a dangerous path of black magic, peace in Palisade is interrupted when a monstrous titan pulls the Rat Queens back into action one last time!

Collects RAT QUEENS #21-25

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Adult

136 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2021

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rat Queens drunkenly stumbles into another hiatus as the second writer and fourth and fifth (? sixth and seventh?) artists feebly wrap up their run with unreadable dreck and the egregious inability to draw Betty.

But the trainwreck ain't over yet, folks! An ad in the back says the original author, Kurtis J. Wiebe, is re-teaming with the controversial first artist, Roc Upchurch, to produce an original graphic novel with the definitive conclusion later this year. Hoo boy.

[Zedsdead · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love the attitude. Seriously, it's still sometimes laugh out loud funny. But I loathe the nonsensical plot. The writers have lost their way.

I guess the gods are gone and bad actors jubilantly fill the void. Evil Hannah is still eviling somewhere off in the background. Please just go back to partying and fighting trolls, that was fun.

Plot points:
--Hannah gets a new fuckbuddy, an anthropomorphic frog who turns into a naked guy with good "cum gutters". [Dear Diary, today I learned a new word!]
--When an unmoving giant appears in a Palisade wheatfield, the Queens crawl inside its mouth and kill a psychic worm parasite. The giant continues to just stand there so I have no idea what was accomplished.
--Palisade is overrun by werewolves. (Braga: "Moonhounds. Werewolves aren't real. Don't be nuts.") Sorry, Braga, 'moonhounds'. The Queens have to turn everyone back into whatever they were before being bitten by werew---um moonhounds.
--The Queens all get the sniffles, which somehow leads them to a subterranean mushroom world ruled by an angry goddess intent on reclaiming the outer world. Dee offers herself as sacrifice [record skips] hooray the Queens are all safe up top again. I have no idea what happened to end this issue. It's like some pages were torn out.
--The Queens are magically sucked into a world that remakes itself (labyrinth, circus, giant bottle??) every time Braga reads from a book. Evil Hannah appears and does a vaudeville song-and-dance routine with a hat and cane. She challenges Good Hannah to a fight [record skips] it's several decades later and Good Hannah is taking the elderly Queens home. ???

I don't understand this series anymore.

[Ashley Howland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I miss the old Rat Queens :/

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a random filler volume this was decent and fairly entertaining, but as the [supposed] end of the entire series it was a huge letdown. I was enjoying it well enough most of the way through but once I realized it was actually the series finale the last volume felt very anticlimactic with how the final battle basically happened off screen and all, although I guess it was so they could leave it open for a possible 9th volume in the future but still pretty watered down compared to the early volumes.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't normally write reviews but I can't not say something here. A lot of this is going to echo what other reviews have said.

The art is terrible. The worst Rat Queens art by a long shot. Betty in particular looks like some sort of weird gremlin creature, not the smidgen we know and love.

The story is all over the place, it feels like pages are missing at times, and half of the issues feel disconnected from the rest of the arc (particularly the werewolves issue and the underground city issue). It's just not good at all.

There are also so many inconsistencies. Smidgens are now smidgeons, Maddie is now short for Maddison rather than Madeline, and the Queens' eye colours don't match the earlier volumes.

The series hasn't been as good since the writer change, and since Violet left the Rat Queens. I just hope they can pull it back for a decent finale.

[Benji Glaab · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 despite being forewarned this was still a let down. Glad I completed the series, but this is the definition of wasted potential. Probably won't pick up another Ratqueen book even if it reboots at some point

[Anniken Haga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, wow. This was a mess. This whole book felt like a filler, which is fine every now and again, but it feels like all the last albums have been fillers. Like they don't know where they're going at all!
And yet another artist takes up the mantle, and this one was just as messy as the writing. Honestly, I kept skipping ahead because I couldn't stand the artstyle. It was glaring.
I think this is where the series is losing me as a reader. I'm not 100% sure, because it said in the back that they're going to end the series soon, maybe the next album, so I MAY buy that just to wrap up the series, but I honestly don't know.

[Beck · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - this should never have been published.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bunch of random filler. Bad art and writing as well. Supposed to be one more so yea... we'll see how that goes.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

I reread the series to get ready for this finale - I maybe shouldn't have - it just served to show me how bad this one really is. I hated the art and there's no delving into what's actually happening in the world - we're in the void, Dee's the god who got us there, the last god, and Hannah's got an evil-her who's been universe-hopping for thousands of years - this is an incredible story idea, why isn't it being used? Two stars for the idea, 0 stars for the execution of the idea.

[Václav · Rating 2 out of 5]

(3,2 of 5 for this weird jigsaw experience)
This volume consists of the story following the previous volume, then two separate adventures of "saving Palisade" because void and then two issues long wrap of Rat Queens and Evil Hannah story. Yep, the result felt very unsatisfying. Especially when the new artist "Moritat" jumped in. It got new stylization from 2nd issue, which is kind of the same and different at the same moment (except Betty, which turned into some weird goblin, and Hannah getting almost rabbit ears in some images...). This weird style is like the new Archie with some manga emotional faces here and there and with the "story is all over the place" feeling, this volume is rather disappointing.

[Dain Bedford-Pugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean...I still love the characters. But I think that’s me holding onto how they were in earlier volumes. The creative team for the last couple of volumes really don’t seem to be able to do much with the wonderful Rat Queens. In this volume in particular, the plot really kind of just stumbles around, while loosely sticking to the whole Evil Hannah, Dee-as-a-god thing without really doing much at all. Hannah is the only one who gets some kind of arc here, while the others are really secondary characters. In earlier stories there was a much better balance.

As for the art, I have to echo what others have said about inconsistency, and how Bettie in particular is quite poorly drawn. The team really is lacking something without Vi and Orc Dave as well.

I still enjoyed moments and it still has laugh-out-loud dialogue. I just really want something that serves the characters and their world better. Here’s hoping for one decent final outing for the Rat Queens.

[chvang · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went in wondering if the series was worth continuing. It's not. Don't read this. Bad and incoherent story. Great art, though.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss Violet :((

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the one hand, I know what’s going on with this series. Switching from one writer and then in the “future” back to another writer and having jammed so many different artists into the fold makes for a wildly inconsistent product, and unfortunately Ferrier merely treads water with the narrative in this piece. By the end, I’m not sure it clearly causes any meaningful change for any of the characters except one might be replaced (maybe? Unclear because the climax happens off panel) with a doppelgänger. I really, almost intensely, hated the art in the middle three issues, which took cartoony to an extreme. I have to say, I miss the art from the beginning even if the guy making it is an abuser. He sucks shit, but could they find no one to produce not identical but somewhat similar art? Stylized but realistic? Really not sure I’ll come back for whatever is next with this series, which is a major bummer given how long I waited to jump on board (maybe I’m part of the problem, but hey, me checking out library editions doesn’t make a declining story click either).

[Courtney Kruzan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay none of this was truly great. BUT somehow I still mostly loved it. I think I'm just sentimental. As soon as we had that abrupt switch of art (which I hated) I thought I'd give it a 2 stars but I managed to move past the terribly inconsistent art and here we are.

[Zoe]

This was... Glaringly bad. 😐 What a fucking disappointment for what was my favorite series. Why did Betty look like that? Why did all the queens have ridiculously male gazey butt cracks and spread their legs ludicrously every time they sat down?

[Haley]

The series went off the rails when they switched creative teams, & the art is just kinda bad.

[Pam Case · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the worst of any of the volumes. Total male gaze, shallow story. Completely ignores the lively banter and character development of earlier volumes.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

ughhhhhhhhh.....i LOVE this series but this wasn't that good. HATED the new art style. also i miss violet and I'm sick of evil hannah.

[Z książką po mojemu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Niestety to był bardzo rozczarowujący tom. Kolejny. Widać, że nie ma tutaj już kompletnie pomysłu na tę historię i na postaci, które zostały wykreowane. Od jakiegoś czasu każdy tom był zlepkiem randomowych wydarzeń, które w ogóle się ze sobą nie łączą, a główny wątek toczy się bardziej w tle niż na pierwszym planie. Tomy popadły już w pewien schemat, który z czasem się po prostu znudził i wypalił. Królowe napotykają kolejne zagrożenie dla Palisady, albo samych siebie, zwalczają je i wracają do swojej codzienności. Nasze Królowe Szczurów są wręcz nietykalne i zawsze wyjdą z opresji cało. A nawet gdy nam się wydaje, że tym razem wykorzystały całe szczęście, ponownie zwyciężają. Gdy nie ma pomysłu na poprowadzenie fabuły kończy się ona wybuchem lub inną eksplozją i nasze Królowe wracają jak gdyby nic, wspominając co się wydarzyło i ciesząc się z wygranego starcia. Ten ostatani tom choć finałowy, kompletnie nie wydaje się taki być. Odnoszę wrażenie, że kontynuacja cyklu została po prostu porzucona, ostatanie tomy napisane na siłę, bo widać było, że z każdym tomem zainteresowanie tą historią drastycznie maleje. Pierwsze dwa tomy były bardzo dobre, a kolejne... mogły by nigdy nie powstać i wszyscy by się z tym pogodzili.

[Bekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the definition of a story with great ideas, but the execution is lacking. There's so much that was skipped over in favour of short one shots, which could have been a whole separate volume instead of taking up space here. Also the artist, and therefore the artwork has been changed so it doesn't look the same either, which is a shame.
And to top it off, I've just found out that the original team is coming back for volume 9, which includes the original artist who is not a person I want to support, so I guess I'll be leaving this series here.
It's a shame, as I generally love and adore this series, but this volume was lacking a lot, and with the team change being what it is, I won't be coming back to continue it.
TW for blood, gore, murder, alcohol, alcohol addiction, nudity, depictions of male genitalia, sex, vomiting, illness, violence, swearing (including the C word).

[Tamara Morrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars for this volume
3 star for the whole series
I really loved the characters especially at the beginning of the series but through out the volumes the direction of the story i found got lost.
this last volume tried to finish up stores line started in the last few volumes and tried to finish the series in a nice place.

However, I feel like this issue wasn't necessary and the series should have ended with the last volume, when Violet gave a perfect good bye telling the new generation to make their own adventures.

[Xan Rooyen]

This was honestly a little disappointing. There were times I flipped back sure I had missed pages because the jumps in the story were rather hard to follow. I'm not sure why some important plot points happened off-page and then were only alluded to, while whole panels were dedicated to what at times felt like filler. Some odd choices were made here and unfortunately undermined the impact of what should've been a major redemption arc.

I think there's supposed to be another volume or stand-alone final graphic novel coming but after this, I'm calling it quits with this series.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those musical episodes they squeeze into tv shows that go on forever? Just to lighten up the mood a little, you know? Buffy had one, Scrubs, Ally McBeal, and even Supernatural managed one. That's what this feels like (there is even an actual musical number).
However, this is a comic book.
It doesn't hit like any musical episode I've ever watched.
Because there is no music.
There is only silence.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, this was... not good. The plots jumped all over the place. Positively stuffed with deus ex machina, although the gods went away so was it just whackjob-ideas ex machina? And the art was, well, 'random' is the best word I can use here. (Could someone look up what Betty used to look like, please?)

At the end, they state that the series will be wrapped up in one final graphic novel. I look forward to it, hopeful that they bring back the fun and joy of Rat Queens for one last ride... instead of whatever this was trying to be.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is hit-and-miss. The writing is crass as ever, with glimmers of humor amidst a still messy storyline. There are some nice flourishes as the current arc of the series comes to a close, but the series has never regained the magic that made it stand out at the beginning.

[Damian Herde · Rating 2 out of 5]

The previous volume gave hope that the series had found a return to form. But no. This volume again switches artists and styles, and it’s just disappointing.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can I give this zero stars? Okay apparently not.

It was only bcause I wanted to see how badly it flopped the ending that I kept reading after the last volume, like watching a train wreck.

Was not disappointed in that regard, because this volume is bad in almost every way imaginable. Seriously, people were still buying this?

As a masterclass in how not to write anything, this might win? As an example of some of the worst art in comic book history? Definitely a contender.

And it's weird because I look at those first two volumes and they were so good, so... how did it end up like this? Did they get red-pilled? Who knows, and frankly, who cares anymore.

[Nicole Heckel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like it I'm glad it's over