Gun Honey Doubles Down #1: On To Russia

Gun Honey Doubles Down #1 contains explicit content.

The best-at what-she-does weapons expert Joanna Tan takes a turn as James-Bond-like spy in Gun Honey Doubles Down #1. This latest Gun Honey series begins with no ties to the previous entries making it an easy entry point for new readers.

Gun Honey Doubles Down #1 takes advantage of current events to bring back a classic Cold War style spy story. Joanna follows her quarry into Russia, a country that allows the story to take place in a variety of settings and potentially a wide range of enemies.

Joanna’s internal monologue drives the story in Gun Honey Doubles Down #1. Ardai writes her with a strong voice, assertive and direct. There is definite cynicism here as well which is reminiscent of hardboiled fiction. This being a Hard Case Crime title, that isn’t surprising.

This internal monologue also gets the story moving quickly. This is not an in media res situation, but the issue begins with urgency and tension. That urgency and tension never lets up, in large part because of Joanna’s internal monologue. There are some ebbs and flows, but the story never really slows down. It’s well paced, driving quickly toward the ending.

There is limited character development for Joanna. Her internal monologue goes more to plot that character, and there are very limited flashbacks to events prior to Joanna’s mission. The one thing that Ardai does establish is Joanna’s motive which goes not just to self protection but protecting a girlfriend from deadly retaliation by her targets.

Ang Hor Kheng returns for Gun Honey Doubles Down. The characters are expressive, especially Joanna. Much of this comes from her eyes. Ang’s line work on female characters’ faces is minimal–he doesn’t accentuate features for them the same way he does for male characters. Despite that, Joanna conveys a considerable emotional range. This is very effective for her role as a spy in the story where she has to play different roles with characters. Additional shading for facial features on Joanna often comes in the form of patches of lines to imply shadows. Surprisingly, these patches of shading are less effective than the minimalist approach.

The action sequences are very dynamic. Ang has an excellent grasp on physicality resulting in energetic poses in melee combat and other close quarters action. With so much of the misuse focused on Joanna’s mission as opposed to slower beats such as simple conversation, The success of Ang’s art is paramount. He absolutely lives up to that need. Indeed, just as Ardai’s script keeps the issue moving at a good clip, so too does Ang’s art make it a tense page turner.

Rahman’s color scheme here is rich, leaning toward more vivid than not. The coloring is not overwhelming, but it is rich with contrast. Rahman uses just enough subtlety in response to implied light sources and shadow to add a sense of depth, but the coloring is not especially layered. It’s the contrasting color choices that provide the greatest sense of dimension.

Leach uses a soft blue for the caption boxes containing Joanna’s monologue. It’s just distinct enough relative to the rest of the issue’s coloring to make them stand out but not so contrasting that the captions are distracting.