Heat Seeker: A Gun Honey Series #1 Review

 

Writer: Charles Ardai

Penciller: Ace Continuado

Inker: Jose Zapata

Colorist: Asifur Rahman

Letterer: David Leach

Cover Artists: Argerm; Bill Sienkiewicz; Ace Continuado; Claudia Caranfa; Ang Hor Kheng;

Publisher: Titan

Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 5, 2023

 

Marked for death, Joanna Tan and Brook Barrow travel to New York. They hope her friend Dahlia Racers can help shake intelligence agents off their trail. But can a former magician's assistant make them disappear? Let’s burn into Heat Seeker #1 and find out!

 

Story

Dahlia deals with lies and deception. The hotter people are, the more they need her help. Deceiving power brokers and paid assassins isn't easy. The high prices Dahlia commands give her the tools she needs to fool the most jaded killers.

 

 

 

While this is a humdinger of a story, I initially found events hard to follow. A beautiful redhead saves a magician. Joanna and Brook visit Dahlia. She gives them extreme makeovers. Then she and her assistant dress up as them. The people who want Joanna and Brook dead hire a woman to kill them. The identity swaps and inadequate introductions confused me. I still don't understand how the magician's rescue relates to the rest of the issue. Still, something kept drawing me back to Heat Seeker #1. Thus, three days—and several attempts later—I finally wrote this review.

 

It would have been easier to review another comic. Yet it reminds me of stories I love, such as the Mission Impossible movies and the TV series Bosch. While I've never read Gun Honey, Heat Seeker #1 feels like a natural successor to Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero's Modesty Blaise comics, which I discovered through Titan Books' oversize trade paperbacks.

 

 

Art

Heat Seeker #1 boasts strong portrayals of characters, and page layouts are dynamic. I especially like the page when Dahlia confronts assassins in Vicente Boracchio’s theater, chats with the hired killers, shoots Vinnie, and blows up the theater. Amid these panels, a stylish Dahlia pops into the foreground, pointing her gun at the reader. Vehicles and buildings invoke realism, with equal attention paid to interiors. The Mature art reveals a woman unashamed of her body without portraying sex, excessive swearing, or glorifying violence.

 

Full spectrum color gives Heat Seeker #1 a cinematic appeal. Skin tones, clothing, and interiors have richness and depth. New York City's bustling streets shine with vitality. The Las Vegas Strip glows with color while quiet solemnity bespells the surrounding desert. The first page could have been less steeped in gray as Dahlia prepares to save Vincente. Her motorcycle scenes look hyper-real. But while the story and art confounded me, the coloring only made me applaud.

 

 

Heat Seeker #1 uses small uppercase letters and an appealing font style. The narrative appears in colored boxes, while dialogue materializes in white balloons. Sound effects explode like Vicente's theater hurtling colored words toward you. Had the creators conjured up better time/space markers, I wouldn't have been so mystified by how all the moving pieces fit together.

 

Final Thoughts

Heat Seeker #1 may confuse Gun Honey virgins, but this appealing, high-octane espionage thriller will pull a rabbit out of the hat for Mission Impossible and Modesty Blaise fans.

 

Rating 7.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.