Miss Mina and the Midnight Guardians: The Legend of the Golden Jaguar Part One is a comic written by David Hedgecock with art by The Xong Brothers, Krishna & Balram Banerjee. Mina Murray and her crew battle against the large and varied forces of Dracula. This is a supernatural science fiction comic with drama, combat on the high seas, steampunk elements, and a cast of mainly women. The leading lady here is Mina Murray, she is a skilled fighter and leader who goes on expeditions around the world with her crew. The first member of her team that we see is Mamta Rai, she has four arms, red eyes, and is furry, with some(or all) of these physical changes being the result of a curse. There is also a man named Fritz Fry who appears to be an engineer/scientist of some sort. We’ll meet some other past and present members of the crew as the story goes on. This tale begins with Mina and friends battling the Black Bags in Phildelphia, these are somewhat vampiric creatures that burst when punctured. Seeing these creatures in America raises some questions so Mina and Mamta head to New York to get answers. This takes place in the 1800’s in a world where history for the most part aligns with what’s happened in real life with the added supernatural elements of creatures such as vampires. The violence here is bloody and gory as body parts can get separated and some attacks can be gruesome. The pacing here is steady and the tone is swashbuckling with the slight feel of a period piece. There are intense moments here, all because of violence and danger. The dialogue is conversational with good back-and-forth and an older style of talking. The narration is provided by Fritz Fry and it pops up quite a bit, but not too much. There aren’t any word-heavy pages but a couple get close. This is an exciting debut issue that drops us right into the action while giving us an intriguing story and a cast of fascinating, varied characters. There is a bonus story here that takes place in Alexandria, Egypt and it is about the creator of the steam engine.

            The art here is drawn in a very detailed modern style with well done lighting and shading. The color range here is vast and realistic with a great variety on each page. For scenery we have the multicolored sky and the open ocean along with the Amazon rainforest. There isn’t a main location but most of this takes place on ships both in the air and on the water. All these different places are full of things to look at from the masts and engines to the mountains and trees. The backgrounds do a great job of consistently showing these varied surroundings. The expression level here is very high as the different looks come across strongly. Anger and determination are the main emotions seen with happiness, shock, fear, and confusion being prominent as well. The faces have a high amount of detail, especially in the eyes and mouth, and this leads to very clear expressions at nearly all times. The violence is delivered with different weapons such as swords, crossbows, pickaxes, and even bare hands. There is a large amount of blood(mostly green) and more than a few gruesome attacks that lead to some gory results. The action scenes are lengthy and feature a high amount of panels overall which helps it all move smoothly. Every woman here is curvy with large breasts and most of them wear tight and/or revealing outfits.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural science fiction stories that star mostly women and feature a lot of violence with steampunk elements vampires, and drama then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Sounds like you’ve brought the house down once again.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1346975852/miss-mina-and-the-midnight-guardians/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 35

Violent Pages: 20, for 57% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 3% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”