Writer: Charles Ardai
Penciller: Ace Continuado
Inker: Juan Castro
Colorist: Asifur Rahman
Letterer: David Leach
Cover Artist: Kendrick Lim, Jay Ferguson, Ace Continuado, Cosplay, Bräo, Cosplay, Ivan Talavera, Cedric Poulat, Tiago Da Silva, Marco Turini & John Gallagher
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: 3.99
Release Date: January 15, 2025
Arturo Durenbrad ordered Evie Parker to bring Rosaline Priess to her Condottieri employers in Naples. Instead, Evie shot her partner, stole a car, and took Rosaline to Innsbruck, Austria. Evie knows that her leader will send more mercenaries after her. Can Dahlia Racers help Evie and Rosaline escape the Condottieri? Let’s pull on our fire-retardant clothing, burn into Heat Seeker: Combustion #3, and find out!
Story
Arturo Durenbrad tried to snatch Rosaline on the ski slopes above an Italian convent and deliver her to his client. Instead, Evie turned on him and helped Rosaline escape. Unlike Dahlia Racers, Durenbrad knows what's at stake. Dr Priess implanted a deadly biological agent in his twelve-year-old daughter. He may not be a hero, but Durenbrad wants to extract the ticking timebomb from civilization and put Rosaline into safe hands.
In Heat Seeker: Combustion #3, Dahlia Racers ripped Rosaline Priess away from her home in Venice. Dahlia consigned the girl to a life of prayer and solitude behind the Habit. The woman Dahlia Racers claimed was her enemy befriended Rosaline. Still, Dahlia impressed the girl. So when she envisions life on the run, Rosaline returns to Dahlia Racers for help evading Durenbrad. But Rosaline must pay a price to ensure Dahlia's aid.
Charles Ardai packs his story with twists and turns. The action and developments in Heat Seeker: Combustion #3 come thick and fast as the ladies and Cesar try to elude Durenbrad’s clutches. Ardai leavens the serious tone with humor, lighthearted remarks, and pop culture references. The latter comes from Evie, who proves a fervent Star Wars and Marvel geek.
The welcome humor assuages the heartache Evie endures. Comics provided solace during her troubled youth. Evie adopted another last name rather than acknowledge her parentage and found a new family among the Condottieri. While a question mark hangs over Evie's past, she wishes no harm to her former comrades. But when they come after Rosaline, Evie deploys skills that Dahlia Racers and (the Gun Honey) Joanna Tan would envy.
Art
Ace Continuado and Juan Castro suggest what’s at stake as ceiling panels seemingly radiate from Durenbrad while he briefs his troops in a warehouse. When Dahlia greets Evie and Rosaline with her hands on her hips, Evie places her hands on Rosaline's shoulders. After the women face off, Evie’s payment evokes Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's Kick-Ass series. Dahlia alters Evie and Rosaline's appearance. Then, the two head to the train station. Mercenaries in suits stand between the women and the departure gate. So, Evie and Rosaline shelter in a Laufhaus, taking comfort in a room rather than the arms of a willing prostitute.
“Feels weird, doesn’t it?” Rosaline’s question echoes through Heat Seeker: Combustion #3, as the women and Cesar adopt disguises. Dahlia Racers' disguises are unsettling because they make you realize you cannot trust your senses. Asifur Rahman amps up the tension of Dahlia's Identity Theft duplicity by lavishing a loaded palette on interiors and confrontations. As day ebbs in Innsbruck, the red and green neon lights in the Laufhaus lobby cast their Christmas Bloody Christmas glow on Edie’s taught encounter with her former teammates. When the cloudy sky invades the entry hall of a Glatz-Strausse apartment building, Durenbrad braves a realm of reflections and illusions cast in blue, white, and gray.
As Charles Ardai leaves readers with plenty to muse about in his complex and fast-paced plot, David Leach launches black uppercase words into white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. Sound effects help us hear gunfire, explosions, and a woman's willingness to be a high-kicking Hit-Girl. Rest assured: it's Clobberin’ Time in Heat Seeker: Combustion #3. Thanks to Titan Comics and Hard Case Crime for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Dahlia Racers and Cesar believed their difficulties were over when they brought Rosaline to the Italian convent. Instead, they race across Europe and risk their lives to prevent a girl from being deployed as a Human bomb by scientists. Heat Seeker: Combustion #3 speaks to our responsibilities to medical research, each other, and the planet upon which we precariously perch.
Rating 9.4/10
For more covers and a look inside see my preview of Heat Seeker: Combustion #3.
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