Victory Harben: Ghosts of Omos is a comic with story by Christopher Paul Carey & Mike Wolfer with art by Alessandro Ranaldi and colors by Arthur Hesli. Victory Harden and Tii-Laa explore forbidden areas while searching for answers. This is a science fiction comic focused on exploration with some violence and stars two women. The first lady we see is Victory Harben who is from Earth but is currently stuck on Zandar and looking for a way off. She is very intelligent with the ability to analyze situations quickly which helps her adapt. With her is Tii-Laa, she is a member of the Ki-Vaas with the official title of Zo-Vaa, which means protector. She is a skilled combatant and very strong with some other special abilities. The story begins with Victory recounting to Tii-Laa exactly how she landed on Zandar to begin with. After reminiscing on Victory’s first few miserable days these ladies are interrupted by the official protector of the tribe Kva-Zoh. His brings to light some life-altering information. The planet of Zandar looks similar enough to Earth to feel familiar with a few noticeable differences. The violence here is hard-hitting with some blood and gore. The pacing here is slower-than-average overall with an adventurous tone. There are many intense moments due to violence, danger, and the unknown. The dialogue is dang near all conversational with big words and concepts occasionally used. The characters generally speak in slightly upper class sort of way. This is an exciting sequel issue that has as many interesting story moments as the first while starring the same strong characters. After the main comic concludes there is a seven page comic strip-style story about Hucklebuck battling Keelars.
The art here has a high amount of detail with smoothness and is drawn in a modern style with some thick lines and decent shading. The color range here is wide with a good variety per page. Most of this story takes place outdoors so the scenery plays a huge role. Things start off in a muddy swamp but other locations are visited from a thick jungle to a mountainous area split by a lake to some thick forests. The backgrounds usually show the surrounds like distant trees but on rare occasion it’ll be a gradient color with optional action lines. The expression level here is a bit above-average though Tii-Laa is much more stoic than Victory. The main emotion here is shock and awe with some anger, happiness, and sadness, along with plenty of fear. The faces are smoothly detailed with eyes being the strongest feature and they show the different expressions clearly. The animals here look like more dangerous versions of what we might see on Earth. The violence here is physical and involves weapons such as spears or Victory’s “Uncertainty Gun”. There is a decent amount of blood here as well as some heavy gore. There are many action scenes of varying length that are spread throughout this comic with a good amount of panels and a smooth flow.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like science fiction stories with adventurous exploration that star a couple of women and features violence and danger with some drama then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“What do you say we at least have a peek, huh?”
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): 75
Violent Pages: 29, for 39% 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.”
