Rayna: The Bastard Queen #3 is a comic written by Ryan Cummins with art by Stan Yak and colors by DC Alonso. Rayna comes face-to-face with her past as she searches for the truth. This is a supernatural fantasy comic that has a good bit of drama, some horror, and very graphic violence. The leading lady for this tale is Rayna, she is a powerful witch who is also a member of the mercenary group her father leads. She is on a quest of vengeance against other witches as they destroyed her village when she was younger. The story begins where the last one left off with the group heading towards where the witch resides. As they near the lone cabin this group argues over whether or not to continue as they feel the evil and make startling discoveries. The violence here involves gruesome attacks with dismemberment and plenty of blood. The pacing here is steady with a Viking-ish horror vibe. There are intense moments here due to violence, danger, and revelations. The dialogue here is mostly modern with decent back-and-forth. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting finale with heavy violence, horrific developments, and tragic revelations all wrapped up into what should be considered a satisfying conclusion.
The art here is very detailed with sketch-like roughness and heavy shading. The color range consists of mostly darks with burst of red, orange, and green. This takes place in a forest at night with most of the light provided by the moon. There are many different shots and angle of the woods that give us a well-rounded view of things. The backgrounds tend to show the surroundings more often than not but there can occasionally solid or gradient colors. The expression level here is very high as these characters don’t hide their feelings. The main emotions are fear, anger, terror, rage, and straight up sadness. The faces have a good amount of detail and show the different expressions very well. The mystical effects are neon-ish green and look like fire. The violence involves axes, swords, and hands as well as magic. Things get very bloody and gory with gruesome attacks leading to dismemberment and more. The action scenes come in bursts, flow well, and have a good amount of panels.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural fantasy stories that star a young troubled woman and Viking-like fighters with drama, horror, and graphic violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Rayna! Don’t listen to the voices! It’s a trick!”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skeletalpress-comics/rayna-the-bastard-queen-1-3/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 31
Violent Pages: 10, for 32% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 5
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 4
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
