Graphic Novel: The Once And Future Queen

The Once and Future Queen
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Rani Arturus is a chess prodigy with no plans to be a leader of any sort, let alone QUEEN. After she pulls the legendary sword Excalibur from the stone...well, no backsies. Now she must form a new round table made of friends and family to protect the Earth from an invasion of Fae, who'd like a new planet to call their own. It's magic, romance, adventure, and excitement as old myths reveal themselves to be fake, and new ones cause trouble for everyone!

You guys know I love King Arthur, I rewatch Merlin religiously, and if it has King Arthur in it or anything to do with him...then I'll read it. I'm a sucker for anything King Arthur related, so of course I had to pick this up! I mean it's King Arthur reimagined as a multi-ethnic teen girl in the modern day....sign me up! 

The Once and Future Queen is fast paced from the start, and there's no faffing about as the action kicks off straight away. Our setting is Portland and the UK, and our MC is an LGBT WoC, she's also super relatable. Like she has the kind of reaction to everything that any of us would have and I was really rooting for her, she's a brilliant MC! 

The rest of the cast of characters are just as brilliant as Rani is, Gwen is a hilarious badass. Lance is also hilarious and a genius at making things. Merlin is......Merlin. Morgana cracked me up way too much for a villain, she went from all evil Fae to author on a deadline in like 0.3 seconds. "Be gone. Deadlines" I genuinely cracked up. Even the parents are pretty funny too, rather than the annoying ones usually present in this kind of story. It was nice to see them included! 

Our entire cast of characters are diverse both in ethnicity and in LGBTQ representation, which you know...was really nice to see in a comic! I wasn't entirely expecting it either so it was a nice surprise for me to read about! I love how everything has been adapted and changed to fit the modern setting. Yes it's in the modern world, but there's still plenty of magic and fun. 

Along with Rani coming to terms with who she is and what her power is, and the team you know....teaming up. There's the two factions within the Fae, both wanting to take over the world and Rani and co are the ones that need to stop it. Of course Morgana is our villain, because who else would be?! 

The art is fun, the Fae drawn incredibly creepy and sometimes just plain gross. The Fae world is a lot brighter, with more colours than the occasionally drab and dark real world, but the colour combinations in the Fae world are occasionally kind of eye watering. 

I'm really impressed with the story so far, and we cover a lot of ground with getting to know the characters, seeing relationships and plot develop all in just this one volume. I'm excited for more to come, and this is a brilliant start to the series I have to say!