Heat Seeker Exposed: Dahlia on Defense

Heat Seeker: Exposed contains adult content.

The woman who can make anyone disappear, Dahlia Racers, is forced to hide herself in Heat Seeker: Exposed. This series sets the Heat Seeker story convention on its head as both Dahlia and several of her clients are exposed to the world. The series’ chief antagonist is guerilla reporter Jaqc McGee who isn’t above twisting the truth if it gets her website more clicks. In an interesting bit of irony, Dahlia–an expert in the art of deception–isn’t initially able to anticipate Jacq’s questionable tactics. Between that and former clients who would rather silence her than risk being exposed by Jaqc, Dahlia spends most of the series on the defensive and behind the eight ball. It’s not until the final pages that Dahlia is able to turn the tables. This is a new way to look at the character after she spent so much of the previous two series in control.

Dahlia’s character is further developed by the connective tissue between this series and previous one. Heat Seeker: Exposed is by no means a sequel to Heat Seeker: Combustion, but Ardai carries over Dahlia’s romantic relationships with girlfriend Evie and “adoptive” daughter Rosalie. These connections add character oriented stakes that weren’t present in the first two series. Indeed, the plot here is fairly simple and easy to follow which proves to be an improvement over the previous Heat Seeker series.

Jaqc McGee is an antagonist that speaks to modern day concerns. Ardai at first sets her up as a guerilla reporter who, while manipulative for a point of view, has a basic honesty at work. That changes over the course of the series as the “news” Jaqc presents is geared entirely toward driving an audience to her site. As Heat Seeker: Exposed goes on, the truth of what Jaqc does becomes downright disturbing. Jaqc is a fictional representation of the problem with the news media today–the willingness to distort the truth to fit a narrative that gets clicks and views. This connection to the real world makes Jaqc the best Heat Seeker antagonist so far.

This series still shares the conventions of the previous Heat Seeker entries. Dahlia’s limited internal monologue still harkens back to the classic moral ambiguity prevalent in private eye fiction and specifically the hard boiled sub genre. In fact, the nature of Heat Seeker: Exposed’s story results in a greater amount of that internal monologue than Ardai has delivered in the previous series. This Heat Seeker series also continues to use sexuality in its storytelling. Unlike the previous series, though, there aren’t moments of pure titillation. In fact, nudity is a critical storytelling component at one point in the series.

Heat Seeker: Exposed features a lot of action adventure sequences. It rivals if not surpasses anything in the previous Heat Seeker series. Continuado is no stranger to action, but he gets to show that off a lot here. The action sequences work especially well with how Continuado treats the female characters.

The various Heat Seeker series have a predominantly female cast, and one of the most important parts of that fact is how the women are presented. This is something Continuado succeeded at in previous series and continues to do so here. Dahlia, McGee, and the ancillary characters aren’t depicted in near impossible to achieve super hero poses. But they are constantly depicted in strong poses that suggest action.

Rahman’s color palette is unexpectedly vibrant in Heat Seeker: Exposed. The previous series featured a more restrained palette–not faded but not at all bright. This is an interesting change for the series’ style. But at the same time, it works well with Castro’s inking style which employs somewhat thicker lines. The added contrast of color makes the thicker linework feel organic.

Leach does a very good job keeping dialogue bubbles and caption boxes out of the way of Continuado’s action. There are not a lot of text heavy moments in Heat Seeker: Exposed, but the ones that are here are handled well. Additionally, the plain white text Leach uses for sound effects makes them standout while never detracting from the art and coloring around them.