Barbaric Volume 1: Murderable Offenses is a comic written by Michael Moreci with art by Nathan Gooden and colors by Addison Duke. A barbarian with a talking axe is forced to use his talents for good. This is a supernatural fantasy comic that has a good amount of drama, a bit of comedy, and gratuitous, graphic violence. The main man is Owen, he is a barbarian who loves killing but he has been cursed to only kill evil as well as help those who need it. Being a barbarian with a high level of notoriety, he of course hates this. The leading lady here is a witch with powerful necromancy abilities named Soren. The axe is the third member of this team and acts as the voice of morality when it comes to knowing which people are evil and can be killed. The story begins with Owen in an arena full of spectators where he is being forced to fight three men. Owen tells the man running this operation that he can only kill evil people so the man tells him the crimes of these men. After a quick convo with his axe, Owen gets to work. This takes place in a fantasy with the classic hallmarks like goblins, witches, dragons, and fantastical creatures. The violence here is very gruesome, drenched in blood, and features the goriest of gore. The pacing here fluctuates from steady to fast depending on how much action we’re seeing. This has that combat-heavy, sword-and-sorcery tone like Red Sonja and Conan. There are many intense moments as a result of violence, danger, and rough moments. The dialogue is bit modern and very conversational with a large amount of back-and-forth. There are some occasional thick text bubbles but no word-heavy pages. This is an exciting comic with a unique premise that overwhelmingly focuses on violence and carnage but still has an interesting story you’ll enjoy following.
The art here is drawn in a modern style but is reminiscent of older comics in the sword-and-sorcery genre. The detailing is high overall and the color range is pretty wide with a lot of pink, orange, and red. Most of the scenery here is mountainous and rocky though there are some forests and grassy places. The initial location is an outdoor arena but it goes all over from a ship at sea to a boisterous pub to even an abbey. The backgrounds tend to show the surroundings of these areas well but on occasion it’ll just be a gradient color. The expression level here is very high as the looks are just as important as their words. The main emotion is unsurprisingly anger but there is a good deal of shock with some fear and sadness. The faces are very detailed from scars to wrinkles and just about every expression comes across clearly. Mystical effects have a neon glow to them which results in them standing out most times they appear. The violence here is usually delivered via the axe but swords and magic feature significantly as well. There is a lot of dismemberment and a very large amount of blood and gore here. The action scenes here tend to flow very well and usually have a high amount of panels.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural fantasy stories that star a very angry man, his talking axe, and a magic-using woman while featuring drama, a bit of comedy, and an extremely large amount of graphic violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore, nudity, sexual situations.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Don’t make me ask the same question twice.”
Purchase Link: https://vaultcomics.com/products/barbaric-vol1#variant=Hardcover%20+%20eBook
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 91
Violent Pages: 31, for 34% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 1, for 1% 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 – 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 – 4
“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.”
