Victory Harben: Warriors of Zandar is a comic with story by Christopher Paul Carey & Mike Wolfer with art by Alessandro Ranaldi and colors by Arthur Hesli. Victory Harben finds herself in the middle of a conflict between the Ki-Vaas and the Keelars. This is a science fiction comic with supernatural elements and drama along with plenty of violence. The leading lady is Victory Harben, she is a very intelligent young woman from Earth whose interstellar travel has led her to a new planet with strange creatures. Victory is able to analyze situations quickly which allows her to adapt and make move quickly. Also playing a lead role here is Tii-Laa, she is a Ki-Vaa woman with great combat skills and no time for nonsense. There ladies will come across other important people on this journey from warriors to royalty. The story begins with Victory coming across a group of Keelars gathering things while Ki-Vaa corpses lie nearby. She runs trh group after which Tii-Laa appears on the scene and starts to attack Victory. This takes place on the planet Zandar which is similar to Earth in some ways. The violence here can be brutal with some heavy hits, a decent amount of blood, and light gore. The pacing here is overall between slow and steady with an adventurous tone. The intensity here comes from violence, danger, and tense situations. The dialogue is mostly conversational with a good amount of narration from Victory. The talking style is a bit upper class with some big words on occasion. There are several word-heavy pages and plenty of thick text bubbles and blocks. This is an exciting issue that stars two powerful women who work together and separately in pursuit of a noble goal.
The art here is very detailed with a bit of smoothness and drawn in a modern style with significant shading. The color range here is very wide and somewhat exotic though blue and orange are the most prominent hues. The scenery here is rocky at first with touches of greenery and pools of water before launching into a full-on jungle complete with winding trees, vines, and leafy plants. The primary location is the Keelar city of Kosaba; many areas here are visited from the palace to the dungeon to shadier places. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings but on rare occasion it’ll just be a gradient color. The expression level here is a bit above average as most characters here give us a range of looks. The main emotion here is rage and anger with some inquisitive and studious looks from Victory. The faces here have a good amount of detail with a bit of smoothness; pretty much every look comes across clearly. Some of the animals here look similar to what you might see on Earth but with a few differences in color and build. The violence here is primarily physical with some classic weapons coming into play like spears; Victory wields a special “Uncertainty Gun”. There is a decent amount of blood shown and a few gruesome attacks leading to light gore. The action scenes can be lengthy with a good amount of panels and an overall smooth flow.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like science fiction stories with supernatural and dramatic elements with a lady-led cast and a high amount of violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, light gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Your words have no meaning to me.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/erburroughs/victory-harbentm-the-complete-graphic-novel-adventures/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 80
Violent Pages: 29, for 36% 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 – 5
“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 – 3
“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.”
