Well The Double Life of Miranda Turner #6 definitely cranks things up a bit. I kept expecting for it to end just before the reveal, but it went there. I won’t spoil it because why bother, but the issue was definitely a good one for anyone that’s been following the series. Portal and Miranda have patched things up and Portal begins to open up to her. Apparently her Grandfather was “The Cat” two versions ago and fought in the Vietnam War. While the story definitely adds to the lore of the character of The Cat and to the overall feeling of history of the world there is one part that had me go huh? At the end Portal says that basically they don’t know how he died, but she talks about him meeting his mortal enemy in battle during the war. It just seemed like a strange detail to know, but then I felt dumb for nitpicking it because the story is very cartoonish in which we know more than the characters because it’s fun and keeps us involved in the world.
Without saying too much there’s a new threat revealed and it looks to be a pretty big deal for the series and not easily resolved like the previous story points. I will say that the character has a great name, it could be because I’ve been playing a lot of Dead or Alive 5 lately, but I couldn’t believe that no one had used the name previously. I also enjoyed their line of “dead cat, copycat” as its sing-songy nature was very villainous and made me smile.
Our creators continue to create a world that feels alive. It’s as if they’re creating a golden age superhero book in the modern age which is commendable because so many others have tried and failed. I mean really fucking failed to the point that I usually steer clear of anything that’s promoted as such. Let’s just say there’s a line of books right now that I am not reading. But here it has a classic feel thanks to Jamie S. Rich’s overall writing style, but rather than feeling forced it just has a flair of the old with the new. It feels like an afternoon cartoon, but one that I can still enjoy rather than wonder why the hell I ever watched it *cough Bonkers cough*.
The art really does seem to improve and be more at home in the medium. The Vietnam War scenes had a great presentation (I know that’s strange to say about war). The use of shadowing to lead into a reveal was spot on and gave tension. Before it felt like a webcomic trying to be a comic, but now it’s the perfect blend of a cartoon and comic book. I really dug it and this is definitely the best illustrated issue of the series thus far.
Now this issue picks up right after the last one, but there’s enough of a recap for you to get the idea of what’s happened in the story so if you don’t want to pick up the other five issues for only five bucks then you can start here. I wouldn’t recommend it because while you’re getting the best issue thus far in the series you’re just cheating yourself out of a great experience. Check the series out and stop waiting for it to be picked up for print already.
Score: 5/5
The Double Life of Miranda Turner #6 Writer: Jamie S. Rich Artist: George Kambadais Publisher: MonkeyBrain Comics Price: $0.99 Release Date: 3/4/15 Format: Ongoing; Digital