Rachel Bellwoar reviews The Forgotten Queen #3…
While she hasn’t been able to shake the label “witch,” yet, The Forgotten Queen #3 is more concerned with Vexana’s immortality, and what that does to her perception of time. Every series will tell you something different about witches – what they look like, how their magic works – but immortals have to live forever. That’s it. What Vexana doesn’t know is why she’s immortal, or where her power over people’s bloodlust comes from. That lack of clarity means she can be thrown curveballs, like Khutulun’s rejection, which in itself is a curveball but, more specifically, how she’s able to resist her bloodlust with Unity’s help. Vexana didn’t know that was possible and for a character who claims 700 years “[isn’t] that long,” that’s a major blind spot.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this series has been realizing Vexana still has a lot to learn about herself. What Vexana doesn’t get enough credit for (and this goes for Khutulun calling her views dated) is asking questions. “You’re never too old to learn new things,” takes on a whole meaning with her, but she’s not against change – it just happens at a rate that’s relative to her life span (aka too slow for mortals).
That’s why this miniseries is such a gift. Restricted to somebody else’s time line, you’re not going to see past the violence that surrounds Vexana but writer, Tini Howard, is writing on Vexana’s time (or at least as close as you can get with four issues). That means seeing Vexana as a person and not a tool, which is an annoyingly popular assessment. Here is a woman who can drive men to kill each other and people keep making plans for her without asking.
That’s what makes the present-day storyline interesting, too. Each issue we’ve watched Vexana pal around with warlords but what the crew of the Lohengrin offers is a different kind of audience – one where she announces she’s going to tell a story when Oyuunchimeg tries to commit her to another war.
What connection, besides familial, does this researcher have to war? That’s a question for the final issue. One that probably won’t be answered in that issue, though, is what went wrong with the love charm Vexana got from the witch. I can’t imagine Unity got in the way of that, too, but its failure could’ve used a better explanation. Khutulun makes reference to the fact that it wouldn’t, and couldn’t, be real love, and maybe Vexana didn’t want that, but the other possibility is the charm didn’t work, and that’s a big difference.
A new location means a new color palette from Ulises Arreola. What I like about this one is a lot of the scenes are set at night, yet everything is as visible as the daytime. Another neat thing letterer, Jeff Powell, does this issue is make the SFX for the flies too loud on purpose. Nothing beats Khutulun having to talk peace while swiping at flies drawn to the bodies Vexana’s left in her wake. They become this elephant in the room that I wish the issue held off on addressing instead of acknowledging them.
Amilcar Pinna’s art continues to make you feel like you’re getting to know the real Vexana – the one who plays with her love charm when Khutulun asks, “Why did you come back?” and gives readers a Fleabag look towards the end of the issue. Pinna’s interpretation of the newest warlord (he’s named in the solicitation text but I’m going to stay quiet) is regally cool (and a little Freddie Mercury-ish?). What I will say about him is he’s no stranger to historical revisions and while on the one hand he fits right into the immortality theme, he almost has too much baggage, which in this iteration comes from crossing paths with Vexana.
I’m not sure what an end to this series looks like but if it’s anything like the beginning and middle it’s going to leave a mark.
Rating: 7/10
Rachel Bellwoar
