Writer: Adam P. Knave, D.J. Kirkbride
Artist: Nick Brokenshire
Colorist: Nick Brokenshire
Cover Artist: Nick Brokenshire
$3.99
Dark Horse Comics

Over the centuries, we have experienced many different retellings of the Arthurian myths, and comics have had no shortage of them. The Once and Future Queen is another entry that tackles it from a female perspective.

The story tells us about how Rani Arturus, a 19 year old chess prodigy, travels to England to take part in a chess tournament that she is expected to win. After she gets distracted, she loses and as she goes off to ponder her loss, she stumbles on to something bigger: the Excalibur sword. Curiosity invites her to pull the sword from the stone and her life, of course, changes as she is called upon to fulfill a prophecy

While I did enjoy how this story was presented by Knave (there is a pun if there ever is one!) and Kirkbridge, the dialogue was a bit hokey at times, but not enough to detract me from the book. So far the story does contain a diverse amount of characters as well, but I am wondering if the writers will be able to stay on top of this to tell the story, or if it will get in the way of it. I also enjoyed how some of the classic characters were introduced as well as how Excalibur was explained. Thus, so far it’s a decent start.

Nick Brokenshire’s art is playful and upbeat. Every other page changes color to set the tone for what is happening in the book and it’s really allows the reader to appreciate how his work flows well with the story. The character expressions are fun as well, and his art is what saves this book from being a drab retelling.

The biggest minus, however, is of course the $3.99 price tag to get into this book. Time will tell if this book will be worth a monthly purchase or a wait for the trade to appear.

3.5 Knights of the Round out of 5