Bonus Review: Dan Grote on Sex Criminals Vol.2

Sex Criminals Vol. 2

Words by Matt Fraction

Art by Chip Zdarsky

Suzie and Jon’s new-relationship honeymoon is over.

After the rush of discovering they can both use sex to stop time and then using that power to rob banks wears off, the two protagonists of Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s Sex Criminals settle into the same trappings of habit and resentment that lead to the demise of many couples. They fight and end up “taking a break.” Suzie even goes so far as to ask her substitute gynecologist, Robert Rainbow (great name) out for coffee. Then they fight some more and end up having makeup sex and getting back together.

All the while, the Sex Police are watching.

“Kegelface,” “the Bus Driver” and “the Ninja,” who it should be noted are not actual police, are keeping tabs on everybody with sex-related powers. They have extensive files on Jon, Suzie and everyone else (yes, there are others) who has powers that manifest upon climaxing. They also flat-out demolish Suzie’s library right in front of her, escalating things considerably. As ever, the true enemy of Sex Criminals is sexual repression, as demonstrated by Kegelface’s … um … kegelface.

Their war with the Sex Police aside, Suzie and Jon have real-people problems. Suzie feels bloated and unattractive after going back on birth control pills. Jon has “brain stuff” – ADHD, OCD, paranoia, stress shingles, whatever it is that compels him to poop in his boss’ potted plant – for which he hasn’t taken medication in a while because he feels it dulls his senses (and turns him into a penisless ghost). During the course of the trade, he ends up switching therapists to an abrasive, existentialist, bearded gentleman he met in a mall food court who looks suspiciously like Fraction. (Those Fraction-De Connicks have a habit of being drawn into their own books: Fraction’s wife, Kelly Sue, is the template for a sadistic, mind-screwing, pink hologram in her Image series Bitch Planet.)

Multiple people get to tell their side of the story in this volume, to the point where the reader has to sort through four color-coded narration boxes in one panel. Far from being messy, though, it allows greater insight into more characters. I loved the flashback sequence for Robert Rainbow in issue #8, especially the fact that the hottest woman he’d ever known – his older brother’s high school girlfriend – was a pink-haired tribute to the be-Mohawk-ed Storm of the ’80s X-Men comics.

Among those addressing the camera is Suzie and Jon’s first ally against the Sex Police, stripper-turned-porn star-turned multi-Ph.D. Jazmine St. Cocaine (aka Rae Anne Toots, aka Dr. Ana Kincaid). St. Cocaine is the first to reveal a new set of powers: She can astral-project upon climaxing, like a sexual Charles Xavier getting ready to fight the Shadow King.

Much as the Sex Police would like, the protagonists aren’t keeping their abilities a secret from everyone. Suzie, in a moment of reconciliation, tells her best friend, Rachelle, what she can do. Rachelle responds by telling Suzie about a time she queefed so hard her bedsheets rippled, which is probably the best reaction to a reveal of superpowers since Ultimate Peter Parker revealed himself as Ultimate Spider-Man to Ultimate Mary Jane.

One of the things I like about this book is that while it’s about sex, the central characters aren’t Amanda Conner pinups. Jon is Frankenstein’s Monster tall and has a big nose. Suzie is short and a little thick with thick, frizzy hair. If anything, their “real” body types make them more of an adorable couple worth rooting for.

Favorite Easter egg: In issue 9, three stores are lined up across the street from Suzie’s library. A sign on the right says “Fashion? Turn to the left.” A sign on the left says “Fashion? Turn to the right.” In between: “Oooo Fashion!” If you’re not a sucker for David Bowie-based sight gags, then I don’t want to know you.

Second-favorite Easter egg: In the same issue, Jazmine St. Cocaine’s first porno is titled The Lick-ed and the Divine, a spoof of the Image series The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie.

Dan Grote’s new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He has been writing for The Matt Signal since 2014. He and Matt have been friends since the days when making it to issue 25 guaranteed you a foil cover.

I’ve Got the Runs: The Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja, et al, issues 1-16

Over the past decade, Marvel’s done some of its best work with non-marquee characters, guys like Hawkeye, Daredevil, She-Hulk and the new Ms. Marvel. One could argue that trend started with the Immortal Iron Fist, which paired Captain America writer Ed Brubaker with a pre-#Hawkguy Matt Fraction and David Aja to expand the world(s) of Danny Rand, bagging two Eisner awards (best new series, best writer for Brubaker) along the way. The story they tell operates on a grand scale, spanning history and dimensions, but still feels self-contained, as it avoids the rest of the Marvel Universe at large. Which would make it the perfect story to crib from when it comes time to do that promised Netflix series.

Iron Fist – a rich, white guy who knows kung-fu – is very much a product of the period in which he was created. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane introduced the character in Marvel Premiere #15 in 1974, back when Marvel experimented with a slew of ’sploitation heroes, from the black street-fightin’ man (Luke Cage) to the violent antihero (the Punisher) to the Bruce Lee rip-off (Shang-Chi) to the zombie Six Million Dollar Man (Deathlok).

There’s more than a bit of Bruce Wayne in Iron Fist’s origin, too. His parents die in front of him, he trains with a secret society of martial artists and he returns to his hometown after years away to take over the family business while busting heads in secret. But instead of training an endless string of boys wonder, he aligns himself with friends and partners Cage, part-time lover Misty Knight and Colleen Wing (who once dated Cyclops for some reason). I’m a sucker for a strong superhero friendship, and Rand and Cage’s is as strong as any you’ll read in comics.

The series starts following the events of Civil War and a Brubaker-penned Daredevil arc in which Rand posed as the blind, red-clad superhero while Matt Murdock was in prison. Rand and Cage were among the anti-registration heroes, but the book largely avoids common post-CW tactics as a guest appearance by the Mighty Avengers or a lecture by Iron Man. There is a mildly touched-on subplot about the fact that Knight and Wing are working for the pro-registration side under the Heroes for Hire name, but it doesn’t get a lot of ink.

 Brubaker and Fraction go a long way to expanding the Iron Fist mythos. Just like Asgard is one of the Nine Realms, the mystical city of K’un-Lun is revealed to be one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, each of which has their own Immortal Weapon, or Iron Fist equivalent. And every 88 years, the cities align and their chosen warriors fight for bragging rights and access to Earth. The other Immortal Weapons are Fat Cobra, a sumo wrestler; Dog Brother No. 1, who employs wolves; the Bride of Nine Spiders, easily the creepiest one; the Prince of Orphans, who can turn into a green mist; Davos the Steel Serpent/Phoenix, a classic Fist villain who is the son of Rand’s trainer, Lei Kung the Thunderer; and Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter, who uses fan blades to cut off Davos’ hand in battle only to watch it grow back and be defeated. P.S. If anyone wanted to make a Street Fighter or Tekken-style arcade fighter based on the Immortal Weapons, I would totally buy it.

The book also details the history of the Iron Fist name, placing those who have defeated Shou Lao the Undying from the time of Genghis Khan to the Old West to World War I. These other Fists teach us new moves such as self-healing, channeling one’s chi through bullets or arrows, or just flat-out ripping off Obi-Wan’s Jedi mind trick.

Most importantly, we meet Rand’s opium-addled predecessor, Orson Randall, who is still living after more than a century and shares with Rand the Book of the Iron Fist, which reveals fun facts, such as that every other Iron Fist besides Randall died at the age of 33 … and guess who’s got a birthday coming up!

 Randall wore the green-and-yellow during the dawn of the 20^th century and World War I, leading to stories that mix Victorian and noir sensibilities. Orson’s father, Phineas Randall, who dabbled in “hypothetical science” and dressed like a steampunk Snidely Whiplash, crashed his airship in K’un-Lun and demanded the city’s doctors aid his pregnant wife. Orson is raised in K’un-Lun – like Danny – trains under Lei Kung to become the Iron Fist – like Danny – returns to Earth to play hero using his family’s fortune – like Danny – and does his fighting alongside a pack of friends and fellow travelers – like Danny. And just as Randall is mysteriously still alive in the present, he appears to have also extended the lives of his friends and puts them all up in the same nursing home, where they live like the grandparents from Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Orson’s story is told in nonlinear flashbacks, a little bit at a time each issue. We get glimpses of his birth, his training in K’un-L’un, his travels on Earth, his struggles with addiction and his father-figure relationship with Wendell Rand, Danny’s father, whose own ultimately failed quest to become the Iron Fist is also told in flashback.

The series drips with “sins of the father”-Type stuff, between Wendell and Danny Rand, Orson and Wendell, Phineas Randall and Orson, Lei Kung and Davos, and Orson and the daughter he sired in K’un-L’un. Over the course of Team Bru-Frac’s run, Danny faces enemies from within and without K’un-Lun, some of whom become allies, such as the Immortal Weapons, others of whom are Hydra and are fun to punch. Among the run’s big bads is a Chinese businessman named Xao who wishes to steal Rand tech to create a maglev train built only to ram explosives into the heart of K’un-Lun. To that end, Xao joins forces with Davos, employs Hydra and kidnaps the mother of Jeryn Hogarth, Rand’s chief financial officer.

 The art of The Immortal Iron Fist is very much Aja’s audition for Hawkeye. Aja excels at drawing superheroes who look less like ’roided-out beasts and more like really athletic regular folk, and if nothing else Rand and Barton are both blond, white guys. But while Hawkeye is an exercise in minimalism, purple color schemes and hip layouts, Fist let Aja do fun things like draw scads of Hydra agents and unique martial arts characters – bigger threats than Hawkeye’s “Tracksuit Draculas,” certainly. Meanwhile, artist Travel Foreman illustrated many of the scenes involving previous Iron Fists, drawing ancient Mongol hordes and Hong Kong pirates with distorted faces and bad teeth.

Sadly, the team didn’t stick around for the entire series. Brubaker left after issue 14, followed by Fraction and Aja after issue 16. Duane Swierczynski (Cable) penned the rest of the series through issue 27, with Foreman sticking around on art. The Immortal Weapons got their own miniseries after The Immortal Iron Fist ended, written by Swierczynski and Jason Aaron (Wolverine & the X-Men, Amazing X-Men) and drawn by Foreman.

Immortal Iron Fist is available in two “The Complete Collection” trades. Vol. 1 contains the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja stuff, while Vol. 2 covers Swierczynski’s run.

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.

Recommended Reading for 3/29: Hawkeye

If you had told me last year that I would be writing a recommendation for a book featuring Hawkeye, Marvel Comics avenging archer, I would have given you an incredulous look. Sure, Brian Michael Bendis had done some decent things with him in New Avengers, but my first and main exposure to Hawkeye was during the period when he was with Mockingbird a lot, and to a DC fan felt like a poor man's Green Arrow (who is often a poor man's Batman). But I had heard such good things about this series, and the last time Matt Fraction and David Aja worked together they had done an amazing job on Immortal Iron Fist, so I thought I'd try it out. And boy am I glad I did.

Hawkeye isn't a traditional superhero comic. Like Immortal Iron Fist was really a martial arts comic, Hawkeye is a crime comic. Sure, there are supervillains, but they seem to be street level villains, or at least non-powered ones, and Hawkeye is fighting them on his terms. The first issue is a street story, where Hawkeye is trying to get a bunch of Russian crooks to stop trying to force the people in a building they have bought, one where Hawkeye keeps an apartment, out on the street. Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor really don't fight a bunch of Russian mobsters in track suits who call them, "Bro," throughout the story.

Matt Fraction's writing has a wicked sense of humor. Clint Barton, Hawkeye, is the kind of guy who has a wiseass comment for every situation. He disarms his foes and his friends with them. There's a long line of heroes who do this, from Marvel's own Spider-Man, to wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden, to Vlad Taltos, Steven Brust's wizard/assassin. The stories are narrated by Barton, so it helps being in the heroes head to really get his irreverance.

What it feels to me Fraction is doing is really taking Hawkeye and turning him into a classic hardluck pulp hero when he's no with the Avengers. The series opens with Hawkeye taking a plunge out of a window and breaking enough bones to leave him in the hospital for six weeks. Over the course of the first trade's worth of issues, Hawkeye is mugged, shot, hit on the head with a bottle, and knocked out. Sure, superheroes usually take a beating, but rarely as constantly, and in such an embarrassing manner for them. The narrative of each issue actually has the repeated phrase, "Okay... This looks bad." This is not the heroic mantra of a hero; it's nobody's, "With great power comes great responsibility." This is something you'd expect to hear from Sam Spade, or a similar character in a noir as the mobster he's been tailing leads him down a blind alley and is waiting with a gun to rub him out for good. It's humanizing, and makes Hawkeye a more endearing character than simply the archer who never misses and makes smartmouth comments at Captain America.

So far, the supporting cast for Hawkeye seems to be made up of one character: Marvel's other Hawkeye, Young Avenger Kate Bishop. And let me say, that while she may be a member of the Avengers junior team, she sure doesn't act like it; she's a full fledged superhero, and woe unto Clint Barton if he should forget it. Kate is nobody's sidekick, but she is willing to be Clint's partner and be mentored by him. It's clear right from the get go that Clint respects Kate, both her mind and her skill with a bow. And she saves Clint as much (if not a little more) than he does her. The strength of their relationship is part of what drives the book, and giving someone Clint can trade zingers with one to one is an excellent choice by Fraction. Clint is still the senior partner, though, and Kate is still learning, but Clint is never the overbearing mentor, like Batman is to Robin. He tries to get Kate to learn, and doesn't scold when she disobeys orders, mostly because he knows in her place he would have done the same thing.

Fraction's particular use of Marvel's established supervillains is something I enjoyed a lot in the first volume of the series. Over the course of five issues, Hawkeye finds a way to royally tick off both the Kingpin and Madame Masque, neither of whom are people you want to be on the wrong side of. But its issue two that really impressed me, where Hawkeye runs afoul of the Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime. Evil circus is kind of an old trope, and there have been attempts to make Ringmaster and his crew edgy and modern before, and they usually fall flat. Fraction doesn't try to change the Circus, but first he plays with the modern circus atmosphere by cleverly changing the Ringmaster's schtick into a more Cirque du Soliel thing,and then he ties in Hawkeye's own background: Hawkeye was raised in a circus, trained by the man who would become the villain Swordsman. And with one of Swordsman's other students in Ringmaster's crew, the adventure had a more personal twist to it. Fraction finds a way to make what could have been the same old Ringmaster story much more interesting with just a couple nice additions.

David Aja's art perfectly suits the kind of stories that Fraction is telling in this book. His style falls in that same gritty family as guys like Michael Lark, Steve Epting, and Butch Guice, all artists who have worked on some of Marvel's more non-traditional superhero books in recent years. It has a gritty look, very much at home on the streets of New York or Madripoor. And while the idea of both being clean and gritty seems oxymoronic, Aja's style is. His line work is distinct and his continuity if marvelous, while still maintaining the street feel of the book. It seems like in between each Aja drawn arc, there will be one drawn by another artist, and that line up is equally impressive. The first two parter was by Javier Pulido, known for his beautiful work on Human Target and Daredevil, and the forthcoming arc is by Francesco Francavilla, whose Black Beetle is the best pure neo-pulp on the stands right now.

Hawkeye was definitely the sleeper hit of last year, and I'm glad it was a hit. A strong, character driven half super hero/half crime title is something that speaks to me. After only one trade, I've come to appreciate both Hawkeyes on an entirely new level, and I'm looking forward to reading more with them. I also think that this would be a great book to crossover with James Asmus's equally crime flavored Gambit. I can see a Gambit and Howkeye in the Big Easy story, where the run across ladies and thieves. Two more unlikely titles I can't think of, but there's something about it that I think wold work. Fortunately, for all his problems in the book, things don't look bad for the future of Hawkeye.

The first trade of Hawkeye, My Life as a Weapon, was released two weeks ago, containing issues 1-5 and an issue of Young Avengers Presents where the two Hawkeyes first met. The books is released monthly through Marvel, with its second trade to be released in May.