Vanya: The Lost Warrior #1 is a comic written by Mike Tener with illustrations by JC Fabul & Zoran Jovicic and colors by Bran Magnaye. Vanya is sent to the past as part of her test to become an Astral Guard. This is a futuristic science fiction comic that has survival elements, strong violence, and a bit of mystery. The leading lady here is Vanya Tepanov, she is skilled in combat and has been sent to live in a harsh environment in hopes of becoming an Astral Guard. This story begins eight months into Vanya’s twelve-month stint in the past with her being awoken by the sound of trumpets. While watching this caravan travel she is ambushed by a tiger-like beast that has been following her for days. They battle for a bit but she manages to get away. Vanya is from the year 2288 but she has been sent back to prehistoric times where dinosaurs are prevalent and clothing only covers the necessary. The violence here is bloody, gruesome, and gory. The pacing is a mix of fast and steady with the tone of something from Edgar Rice Burroughs. There are many violently intense moments. The dialogue is more narrative than conversational as Vanya spends most of this alone so she thinks to herself. There aren’t any word heavy pages here. This is a compelling debut issue where we’ll follow a capable woman as she fights to survive in a very dangerous world.
The art here is detailed and drawn in a way that is reminiscent of fantasy comics from the 70’s, just a bit more cleaned up. The color palette features a lot of brown, green, and gray as this story takes place almost entirely outdoors in nature. Vanya does a lot of moving from thick jungles with winding trees to mountains with precarious cliffs to rushing rivers with waterfalls. The backgrounds more often than not show the greenery and gray in the immediate surroundings but on occasion it’ll just be a gradient color that matches. The expression level here is above-average as Vanya does a good job of reacting to what goes on. Emotions we’ll see here include fear, shock, confusion, annoyance, pain, and happiness. The faces have a decent to good amount of details and the different expressions will usually come across well. The violence is delivered via knives, spears, and bow & arrows. There is a significant amount of blood with gruesome attacks that lead to heavy gore. The action scenes come in multi-page bursts with a generally smooth flow. Most characters here are wearing limited clothing that reveals a lot of skin.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like futuristic science fiction stories that star a woman in prehistoric times trying to survive and that features strong violence and heavy gore then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness, nudity, sexual scenes.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“You can only trust yourself. Do you understand?”
Physical Link: https://badbugmidnight.com/products/renegades-vanya-the-lost-warrior-1-mild-dressed?variant=47041564639453
Digital Link: https://badbugmidnight.com/products/vanya-the-lost-warrior-1-digital?variant=46851938844893
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/badbugmedia/vanya-the-lost-warrior-1-an-erotic-prehistoric-adventure/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24
Violent Pages: 3, for 13% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 9, for 38% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“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 – 4
“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 – 2
“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.”
