From Russia With Loathing: Reviewing ‘Blood Honey: Double Down’ #4

Like any good espionage thriller, there’s a good deal of globe-trotting, and so once again we catch up with Joanna Tan in the frosty climes of Karelia, Russia — found at the Finnish/Russian border —  where Tan goes undercover once again to try and find the real Vulpina, in Blood Honey: Double Down #4. Although, to call it undercover, wherein most of the issue Tan is stark naked, is something of a misnomer. As with previous issues, it doesn’t take long for our hero to fight her way out of a difficult situation, but this time it’s against a female foe who is physically her superior with her rippling muscles and intimidating height. 

Writer Charles Ardai once more delivers a highly sensual — i.e. it does not shy away from nudity — tense and action-packed. Artist Ang Hoo Keng’s realistic, detailed artwork and colourist Asifur Rahman contrast the white icy plains of Karelia with warm woody browns and tanned flesh against a twilight sky of burnished reds, oranges and yellows. For a comic set against a Russian winter, it’s certainly quite colourful, albeit somewhat subdued. But it makes for the perfect mise-en-scene against which the battling female warriors fight it out. 

Each issue of this series delivers. A new location, kick-ass hand-to-hand combat and exquisite art. And the odd twist too that leads us neatly into the series finale next issue. 

Blood Honey: Double Down #4 is out now from Hard Case Crime/Titan Comics