{"id":26333,"date":"2022-08-13T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T08:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26333"},"modified":"2022-08-12T17:33:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T17:33:19","slug":"the-once-and-future-queen-volume-1-opening-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/08\/13\/the-once-and-future-queen-volume-1-opening-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"The Once and Future Queen volume 1: Opening Moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Adam P. Knave & D. J. Kirkbride<\/strong>, Nick Brokenshire<\/strong>, Frank Cvetkovic<\/strong> & various (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-50670-250-6 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-793-7<\/p>\n

Critics and creative writing lecturers would have you believe all of drama can be reduced to Seven Basic Plots, and all else is mere garnish. Having, in my far-too-long and not-quite-sedentary-enough life, been both (teacher and critic, not edible decoration), I can only say \u201cI can neither deny nor confirm\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

What does happen – a lot! – is that vastly popular and memorable myths, stories and legends are continually reinterpreted and remodelled for new generations. Go reread or see Gilgamesh<\/strong>, Beowulf<\/strong> and Person of Interest<\/strong> or the biblical story of David<\/strong>, Cinderella<\/strong>, Jayne Eyre, Tiger! Tiger!\/The Stars My Destination<\/strong> or Slumdog Millionaire<\/strong>\u2026 then go play some more on your own. We have pressing business here\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the most comforting and potent of these recurring themes is that of a great king or hero waiting to return and redeem us. We probably see it most often in riffs on King Arthur, which are everywhere. If you like such works as Alan Garner\u2019s Brisingamen<\/strong> trilogy (The<\/strong> Weirdstone of Brisingamen<\/strong>, The Moon of<\/strong> Gomrath<\/strong> and Boneland<\/strong>). newspaper strip Buck Rogers<\/strong>, TV\u2019s Adam Adamant<\/strong> and even Camelot 3000<\/strong>, you\u2019ll probably also love this wry, witty and sublimely inclusive spin on the old standard.<\/p>\n

Crafted by writers Adam P. Knave & D. J. Kirkbride and illustrated by Nick Brokenshire (the team behind the magical Amelia Cole<\/strong> adventures), The Once and Future Queen<\/strong> features a mixed race (multi-ethnic?), bisexual (or is it non-binary?) girl revealed as destiny\u2019s child and rightful sovereign of England as well as foreordained saviour of the world. No pressure, then\u2026<\/p>\n

It begins in Portland Oregon, where youthful chess prodigy Rani Arturus<\/em> is panicking over her imminent flight to Cornwall for an important tournament. For her dad William<\/em>, it\u2019s a trip to the \u201cold country\u201d and mum Durga<\/em> is American by way of India, so it counts as her and her daughter\u2019s roots, too. Rani has no idea how incredibly accurate and life-changing that assessment is\u2026<\/p>\n

The tournament is a disaster. All her planning and strategizing go out the window when Rani is distracted by – and fatally attracted to – a pretty blonde girl in the audience. It\u2019s not just her clearly reciprocated attentions: the chess master is convinced she somehow knows her \u2026<\/p>\n

Rani doesn\u2019t make it past the first round, and ashamed and furious at the waste of time, money, failure and her own previously unsuspected feelings, walks a scenic Cornish clifftop when a misstep sends her over the edge and into a hidden cave\u2026<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the clifftop she just disastrously vacated, the subject of Rani\u2019s ruminations is absentmindedly tracing her footsteps. Gwen <\/em>was irresistibly fascinated by the American contestant, but is used to having instant crushes on girls by now. What is new is how familiar this one seemed, so when she spots the object of her desires entering a cave with glowing light coming from it, she follows\u2026<\/p>\n

Rani is beguiled. The cave is an obvious tourist trap and contains a sword stuck in a stone anvil, but she finds herself compelled to tug on it anyhow. As Gwen watches, a flash of light transforms the American into an armoured vision and an old geezer in a space suit appears\u2026<\/p>\n

Merlin<\/em> is time adrift and pretty confusing, but adamantly insists Rani is the long-awaited \u201cArthur foretold\u201d: the Once and Future Queen (Ruler?) destined to unite the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just in time too, as long-exiled magical monster race the Fae<\/em> are running out of room and resources and are ready eager to return and conquer Earth\u2026<\/p>\n

Rani is not convinced. She knows all the stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table<\/em>, and knows what a hero should be. However, according to the wizard, lots of things got lost in translation and that guy was simply a well-meaning fraud: a place holder dragged in to cope with a momentary crisis in lieu of the big event kicking off just about now\u2026<\/p>\n

Gwen has already impetuously left for Portland by the time Rani\u2019s incredulous parents are brought up to speed and when the girls finally meet in a park, they head for a diner to get to know each other, only to discover their server Lance<\/em> went to school with Rani and, like Gwen, is also part of the magic revival. In a corner booth sits world-renowned and beloved fantasy author Morgan Pari<\/em>: also a key actor in the replaying saga, but before the celebrity-struck kids can get near her, a squad of War Fae materialise and savage battle for Earth is joined\u2026<\/p>\n

Merlin\u2019s magic has made Excalibur and Rani\u2019s armour instantly accessible and also imparts warrior skills to the Queen. Shockingly, the same is true for Gwen and Lance who at last realise they are physical echoes of past legendary beings too\u2026<\/p>\n

Having survived their trials by combat, the heroes reborn are whisked away by Merlin who tells them the true story of the human history and the war against the\u00a0 malign King in Shadow<\/em> to prepare them for the forthcoming greatest fight in human history\u2026<\/p>\n

Sadly, as they train and repeatedly skirmish with the Fae, what\u2019s also inescapably repeating is the romantic triangle that destroyed the Camelot they all draw their preconceptions from\u2026<\/p>\n

Not all is written in stone. As the heroes move their already-targeted loved ones to a safe space, and strategize their next moves, a key component of the Fae army goes off-script, splitting the enemy\u2019s forces and resolve, but also sparking a brutal, highly public clash that serves to put blinkered humanity on terrified high alert\u2026<\/p>\n

Now, with everything to play for, the endgame has become utterly new territory and all the reborn champions can do is ready themselves for anything\u2026<\/p>\n

To Be Continued\u2026<\/p>\n

Fast-paced, action-packed, bright, breezy and slyly funny, The Once and Future Queen: Opening Moves<\/strong> is a delight to read, with this opening chapter augmented by extras including a design sketchbook with commentary from all concerned; cover concept roughs; selections from the minicomic used to pitch the series to Dark Horse; colour palette roughs and an alternate ending. If you\u2019re in the mood for something familiar that enticingly fresh and new, your quest ends and begins here\u2026
\nThe Once and Future Queen\u2122 & \u00a9 2017 Adam P. Knave, D. J. Kirkbride & Nick Brokenshire. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam P. Knave & D. J. Kirkbride, Nick Brokenshire, Frank Cvetkovic & various (Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-1-50670-250-6 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-793-7 Critics and creative writing lecturers would have you believe all of drama can be reduced to Seven Basic Plots, and all else is mere garnish. Having, in my far-too-long and not-quite-sedentary-enough life, been … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Once and Future Queen volume 1: Opening Moves”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,102,125,215,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fantasy","category-humour","category-lgbtqia","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6QJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26336,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333\/revisions\/26336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}