Joe Casey and Image Comics spent plenty of time using the old adage “sex sells” to, well, sell “Sex”. Turns out they weren’t kidding around.
Written by Joe Casey
Illustrated by Piotr KowalskiFIRST ISSUE – COLLECTOR’S ITEM! Finally, a good reason for you come in the comic book store — to buy SEX! Simon Cooke has retired from his own “alternative lifestyle” and returned to the city he’d previously sworn to protect. Now he’s just another average citizen — or is he? The term “adult” has never been so appropriate as it is when it applies to SEX.
Simon Cooke is the owner and chief operator of a lucrative company in Saturn City. That “alternative lifestyle” mentioned in the solicitation was as costumed protector of Saturn City. This is obviously not new territory for a superhero book. This is Batman or Iron Man or the ‘New 52’ Green Arrow. Cooke is fiscally irresponsible, and generally unreliable with regards to anything in the “real” business world. The set-up is a play on these classic character archetypes with a closer look at how this man adjusts to being emotionally, sexually, and experientially stunted. Unfortunately, issue #1 is short on that in favor of exposition and a lot of characters sitting around talking about themselves to tell us who they are. “Sex” #1 feels too obligated to establish the world and the details of the characters without yet delving into what makes them tick. By the end of one issue, these are names and faces, but not really humans with personalities yet. We’re told that Simon Cooke is ill-equipped for a normal life, but we’re not shown much of that.
Fortunately, “Sex” gets more interesting when it finally gets around to exploring its premise. Frank Miller once said that costumed people fighting were sometimes stand-ins for sex scenes. What happens when you don’t have that stand-in anymore? “Sex” means to find that out and it isn’t afraid to go there. Casey’s greatest trait is his ability to be uninhibited in his approach to a concept. When Joe Casey gets into the concept of sex, that’s when he shows us his best stuff. It’s what we’re buying the book for. Perhaps Casey felt that world-building right up front in issue #1 was necessary, but it doesn’t make it any more interesting. The startling contrast from dry exposition to the book getting down and dirty is certainly felt, but again, doesn’t make the first half of the issue a better read. Casey definitely has something more going on than just a porno book here, but right now that’s easily the most satisfying part.
And all those satisfying moments of the narrative are nicely executed through the heavy-lifting of Piotr Kowalski’s pencils. Kowalski is a relatively little-known name in the comics industry, but that won’t be true for long. His character work is strong and his ability to maneuver the characters through the world is more advanced than his experience would lead you to believe. Kowalski proves to be a perfect match for the content in the area that looks to matter most. His style is unmistakably European, along with a keen sense for nouveau discotheque setting and fashion. You can feel a Manara influence in the posing of the art, but the style is all Kowalski’s own. His work on these scenes never veers toward sterile or, in the other direction, repellant. Rather, his erotica is absolutely magnetic and creates a hypnotic rhythm that the narrative lacks in other places. This is comic books, after all, and there’s nothing wrong with the art taking the book over and dominating the flow. In fact, in the its very best moments, “Sex” seems to be more about creating a certain rhythm or a sense of voyeurism, rather than the actual content of the story. Unfortunately, these moments are all too few in issue #1.
“Sex” really straddles that line between a buy and a browse. There’s a lot of provocative stuff going on and there are hints in there that this book very well could transcend its shock value. Getting past the shock value is going to be a tough hill to climb though, if the narrative falls into being as dry as much of this book was. If you really dig erotica, this isn’t really that. There’s a lot more plot going on. But the erotic is clearly going to be a major player in this title, so that plot needs to up pace if it’s going to catch up to the sex. After all, no one wants to watch the parts where the guy is delivering the pizza or explaining how he’s going to fix the cable. Still, with art this good and a willingness to push buttons (even for an Image book), there’s reason to at least keep “Sex” on the radar.
Final Verdict: 6.9 – Browse, but not just the sexy parts, you hooligans.
P.S. Okay, the score looks like I’m joking, but that’s what I actually felt was right.
