Bandits of Batavia #1 is a comic written by Bryan Valenza and Henry Barajas with art by Ario Murti and colors by Bryan Valenza. Pitung battles evil men and organizations using stealth combat. This is a supernatural comic taking place in Indonesia with heavy violence and disruptive drama. The main man for this tale is Pitung, he is very skilled fighter in both hand-to-hand and armed combat. He wears a black bull mask when he goes on his covert operations, leading to his moniker “Blackbull”. The leading lady here is Ayesha, she is also a skilled combatant and her father Naipin runs the local Pencak Silat dojo. There are many other notable characters from the shady boss Mr. Lim to the dojo student Frans. This story begins with Pitung traveling along rooftops at the docks moving towards a tavern. Upon reaching the tavern he attacks the guard outside and after entering he begins to brawl with some of the criminal patrons while others make a run for it. This comic takes place in the late 1800’s in the city of Batavia(now Jakarta), Indonesia. The action here is very physical and bloody with gruesome attacks leading to heavy gore. The pacing here is steady overall and the tone is mysterious and can be exotic depending on your background. There are many intense moments here and they are usually due to violence and danger but sometimes they are drama-based. The dialogue is mostly conversational but we do get a decent bit of narration from Pitung. The talking style isn’t modern but it doesn’t go too far back. There are some phrases and words in Indonesian here. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a debut issue that introduces us to a large, violent world with strong characters who are working to change it in many different ways, for better or worse.
The art here is a drawn in a detailed, modern style with a heavy focus on lighting and shading. The color palette here has large amount of browns and reds, similar to a Western. But there are some splashes of blue, green, and pink. For scenery we have tropical forests, the sea, and dirt roads. This story moves from location to location frequently, visiting places like: the docks, a dojo, a tavern, the town center, and a warehouse. The backgrounds for these different places usually show the surroundings both near and far but occasionally it’ll be an action line filled gradient. The expression level here is around average as the main characters like to maintain a stoic, hard look and sometimes they are wearing a mask. The main emotions are anger and fear with some sadness and shock. The faces have a high amount of detail and show the different expressions with great clarity. The violence here is delivered via blades, fires, explosions, and guns, as well as outright physicality. There are many gruesome, stomach-turning attacks that lead to heavy gore and large amounts of blood. The action scenes come in bursts of varying length and have a high amount of panels which causes everything to flow smoothly.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural stories set in late 1800’s Indonesia starring a sizable cast with a high amount of violence and gore as well as significant drama then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore, light nudity.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“…I will let you die with dignity.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beyondtopia/bandits-of-batavia-1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 32
Violent Pages: 13, for 41% 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 – 4
“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 – 3
“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 – 2
“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.”
