I’m pretty lucky when it comes to spoilers. I’ve somehow managed to cultivate a group of online friends who are very spoiler-sensitive, so rarely does anyone randomly ruin my favorite comic or TV show. I still haven’t seen the finale to Breaking Bad, and I still don’t know anything about it.
This is important when it comes to Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s new comic Sex Criminals. Going into this one blind is, without question, the best way to experience it. If you know nothing but the title and the creative team – which is how I walked into it – the experience of having each little bit of the bulky opening issue’s story revealed without any foreknowledge is astounding. Which makes this review somewhat hard to write if I am to keep it spoiler-free (which I will). So, I’ll tread gingerly around story elements in the book and just stick to my opinions and my experience with it.
I love Matt Fraction’s work, for the most part. I love Casanova, his run on The Mighty Thor is stellar, Hawkeye is amazing, and Five Fists of Science is a must-read (but only if you like good comic books). Which is why I was disappointed when I read the first two issues of his other new Image book, Satellite Sam, and found it unapproachable and (for me) kind of boring.
So, after being stung, I was pretty wary going into Sex Criminals. Fraction is normally a writer whose work I’ll try out sight unseen (which is why I read Satellite Sam), but that experience gave me pause. Not enough to not try out his new book, mind you, but enough to make me reign in my expectations some.
This, combined with my complete lack of knowledge of the premise, made for one of the best comic book reading experiences I’ve had in a very long time. The premise of Sex Criminals – which I won’t reveal here in the hopes you can walk in un-spoiled – is simple and fun, and very adult. The combination of Fraction’s elegant and poignant writing and Zdarsky’s colorful and nearly-cartoony art-style make for a book that’s as funny as it is intriguing.
My only warning is that – as the name implies – it contains quite a bit of explicit content. So, if you’re not comfortable with the sexytimes, you might not enjoy this one.
I had a blast with the first issue of Sex Criminals. The hook is perfectly paced, the cliffhanger hangs at just the right point, and I am fully invested in Suzanne. Go check it out as soon as you can, try to walk into it with as little information as possible, and I think you’ll be as pleasantly surprised by it as I was.
