Review: ‘Arcana Royale’ #3 Deals More Mysteries As It Shuffles Towards The End

Welcome to the table,

Have you ever had one of those days where you are brooding in your home, and then you are tumbling through time and space or some other form of celestial nonsense?

No? Just me then? Well, me and Hudson, the protagonist from Arcana Royale, Cullen Bunn and A.C. Zamudio‘s card slinging strange fiction story from Dark Horse Comics. Let’s get into it.

Picking up after the events of the last issue, Hudson, our protagonist and, for all intents and purposes, troubled and nihilistic card player, is meeting with a team of other humans. They’re discussing the events of the mystical card tournament known as the Arcana Royale.

Hudson and the group discuss not telling her that there are cosmic existential consequences if she cheats. That’s something that, by the very nature of the tournament, she is doing by discussing it with non-players.

Soon after the exchange, Hudson finds herself lost in cosmic time and space, a void of color and stars that resembles some of the wildest pages from a Steve Ditko Doctor Strange book.

Hudson lands in a celestial cathedral, and we get to see a few of the various haunts and horrors from Cullen’s other stories popping up in the background. It’s a delightful little call out that collectors will want to be sure they scoop up to add to their collections.

The card game kicks off in the celestial cathedral, and everyone at the tables seems confident, which is necessary when you are playing with Fate itself.

Arcana Royale does a fantastic job of lulling the reader into a false sense of security, all the while telling us through dialogue that everything is not okay and danger is lurking everywhere, all the time, for all eternity.

Hudson’s past keeps bleeding into the story in visual flashbacks. We still do not have the whole story, but there is enough to go on in this issue that some action she took caused her maternal figure to lose their life. This seemingly is the core of why she is even playing this game, as all threads are coming together in a knotwork that leads through a labyrinth of story layers and will, as the next issue is the last of this projected run, deliver us to some kind of calamitous conclusion.

Arcana Royale lives in that space where I really enjoy weird fiction stories to dwell. It gives just enough to keep you aware of motivation and plot points and a wealth of glimpses at the larger, stranger world, but it never actually tells the reader everything that is going on. It just leaves us guessing and questioning what strange happenings will come next. In traditional Cullen Bunn fashion, he leverages his understanding of the human condition with his ability to weave worlds that captivate and deliver another delightful descent into the weird and strange.

Until next time, I will put it here because we like to include it on everything I cover that Cullen writes. The man is one of my oldest and dearest friends. I trust him with my life and the lives of those I care most about. I would roll through hell with him without a second thought. I will still call him out on things if he delivers a story that does not meet the wildly high bar he has set for himself. More than anyone, save himself I am his harshest critic because I expect his best every time… as soon as he drops the ball, I will let you know. I just honestly don’t see it happening any time soon… if ever.