9/15/14 - Sex, Vol. 2 - Supercool (Image)

Stop laughing, son. 

No, really. Stop !@#$ing laughing, right the !@#$ now. Don't make me come over there and beat you over the !@#$ head with an unexpurgated copy of the Kama Sutra until your brains splatter all over your lap. 

(They will, too. This think weighs a !@#$ing ton. I use it to prop open my bedroom door.)

Why? Because sex is no laughing matter, son. I firmly encourage my Agents to have full and fulfilling sex lives, even if I have to nudge them towards happiness with a double-barreled shotgun, a few shots of something !@#$ high-proof, and all the god!@#$ hints in the world. Like "Charley in the Vehicle Depot wants to bang you like the world's about to end. Go buy him a !@#$ing drink, you !@#$ moron."

(Just call me the three-fisted Hookup Fairy, son. I've been !@#$ing called worse.)

"No, really. She likes you. Call or I shoot."

But yes, I like sex. I like it a lot. Especially at La Casa Del SPYGOD, where it's going on practically all the time. I !@#$ing thank God on a daily basis that my boyfriend's a !@#$ing cyborg or we'd both be in the hospital by now. And probably being !@#$ing videotaped by those weirdos they have doing after-hours nurse rounds, no doubt.

So when I !@#$ing heard there was a comic based on the sex life of supers? And it was called Sex, just so you had no doubt what the !@#$ was going on? Well, !@#$, son, you know I had to get my hands on that. After all, I figured that, even if it sucked !@#$ing !@#$, it'd at least be an interesting diversion.

Thankfully (and pardon the !@#$ pun) Sex does not !@#$ing suck. In fact, it's one of the better !@#$ mature supers titles I've been reading over the last year -- taking over from such notable, bygone works as The Boys, Ex Machina, and The Authority, and worthy of reading alongside such ongoing concerns as Sex Criminals and Empowered.

At its bare essentials (*cough* sorry), Sex is about Simon Cooke -- billionaire owner of a massively-profitable company -- who also happens to have been a hero called the Armored Saint, quite a few years ago. He got the !@#$ out of the supers racket for various reasons, leaving behind a questionable mentor, an over-eager sidekick, and any number of serious villains who are still out there, causing !@#$. And while he has no !@#$ing interest in getting back into costume, the business he left unfinished in Saturn City still wants to get into his business, if you know what I mean.

Ain't that the !@#$ing truth, son.

(And, yes, as you might guess by the title of the comic, part of his deal is really needing to get !@#$ing laid, good and hard.)

So now we're up to volume two -- Supercool -- in which the plot continues to !@#$ing thick. His former sidekick's making some serious moves to try and fight crime in the city, with or without him, and his former arch-villainess is dealing with problems with her escort service. And his super-smart executive assistant's maybe one or two steps away from finding out his secret, all the while making some of her own...

Meanwhile, down in the villains' lair, the Old Man is getting nasty with his attempts to figure it all out -- leading him to engage in some rather anal methods of getting information from his fellow supercriminals.

And if you think that's bad, imagine what's going on off-panel.

This leaves the poor Prank Addict in a bad way, as you might !@#$ing expect, but this man is clearly never down for the count. And as for those !@#$ Alpha Twins, well, let's just say we find out more about them, and some of it's downright dirty in more ways than one...

What, you expect me to give away all the plot? !@#$ you, son. Read the !@#$ book. !@#$, for that matter, pick it up every month, because this one's a keeper. Let me tell you why, SPYGOD Style. 

1) The Story

As you read Sex, you might get the idea that this is someone's more !@#$ing mature take on a certain other urban vigilante, and that maybe this is what they imagine goes on in a certain other crime-ridden city when the !@#$ lights go down and the costumes come the !@#$ off.

Not that you have to !@#$ing imagine, these days...

Well, you could be forgiven that, because that is how this comes across at times. But the thing is, they make it !@#$ing work. Under Joe Casey's well-considered pen, Sex avoids becoming a simple parody, and acts as both critique of the superhero genre as well as a good superhero story in its own !@#$ right. Even in those issues where it seems like nothing is happening, there's a whole lot of !@#$ going down, and some of the little things you miss early on snowball into some really !@#$ing epic mind!@#$s, further down the road.

(And the tribute to a certain cult movie in this collection is... well, you just have to see it to believe it.)

2) The Art

So if there's a lot of !@#$ing going on, how do they go about showing it off? Pretty !@#$ well, if you ask me.

The interior line art (mostly by Piotr Kowalski) is done in a very realistic manner, without a lot of posing and crazy stylized bull!@#$. This makes it feel very down-to-earth, in spite of its exotic (and, yes, !@#$ing erotic) subject matter, and grounds the series in a world we can believe in, most of the time.

However, that's what makes Sex's use of color so !@#$ interesting. They have a lot of fun with the coloring, here, which adds more than a little expressionism to the mix. I particularly like how they use colors to indicate emphasized words in the text, which may be some kind of code I haven't !@#$ing picked up on, yet, or is just a more interesting way to handle it other than bold.

And speaking of bold...

3) The Sex

Yes, son, there's a lot, and I mean a lot, of !@#$ing going on in this story.

Hot sex, tepid sex. Good sex, bad sex. Lovely sex, punishment sex. Sex for pleasure and reward, sex for pain and revenge. Stumbling in the dark sex, groovy hate !@#$s, deal making sex, deal breaking sex... sex sex sex, !@#$ing !@#$ing !@#$ing, and almost all of it as !@#$ing explicit as you can make it, whether it's beautiful, ugly, kind, or brutal, and whether you feel glad or ashamed for being aroused.

The kids call this "subtle." It doesn't happen often.

And, unlike other stories where they tried to make sex a major part of the plot and, frankly, failed to make it rise (*cough*) beyond mere gratuitousness (Codename: Knockout, I'm looking at you, here),  Sex succeeds in depicting its namesake because it's not mere titillation, nor fan service. As I see it, the nudity, sex, and its various consequences are both action and language -- happening alongside the plot as well as because of it. Call it 'symbolism,' if you want to get all !@#$ing arty on me (and duck being !@#$ing shot for it) but the flesh-on-flesh in this title is what makes it all hold together that much better -- elevating Sex from merely being a !@#$ excellent critique of the genre, and making it just that much more pointed of a work.

And I know you might think someone owes me the mother of all handjobs for that line, son, but it happens to be true. Pick up both trade paperbacks and tell me otherwise -- I !@#$ing dare you.

SPYGOD's Verdict: Three thumbs up for an excellent meditation on lapsed superheroism and its many consequences, coupled with the best extended, non-gratuitous uses of sexual (mis)conduct I've ever read in a superhero comic. Not for the faint of heart, but those who want to see an honest look at what happens when the lights go down in Saturn City should make this a monthly read.

Sex Vol. 2 - Supercool - Get the trade paperback at your local comic store!