COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews Sex Criminals #4

Writer: Matt Fraction

Artist: Chip Zdarsky

Publisher: Image Comics

Ok so what can I say about this issue that I have not said in any of my previous reviews of this book?

When a book is this fantastic and every single issue is pure gold it is hard to not sound redundant, but if I do just know that everything I have felt reading these issues (emotionally not the other felt……….sickos) is real.

Let’s start off with the opening Preembus of the issue. Needless to say I was rolling in stitches reading every line of it. Like a poem from olden days it goes stanza by stanza and man I think I would actually have loved poetry in school if it had talked about diddlin’ bits over and over. To open this issue with this was shear brilliance and if you weren’t tearing up from laughing so hard from that then you would be once you turned the page.

Suzie and John are caught!

Not in any awkward position mind you (keep your heads out of the gutter people) but caught during their attempt to rob the bank while in the quiet. This is interesting because our protagonists thought they were the only ones who could move after happy fun time was done. Well not so it would seem as they are cornered by three individuals who have come to stop them. Three quiet walking cops, well not exactly, one of them is actually a bus driver, who have come to put an end to their scheme.

From there we get the flashbacks to what brought them to this point which include a lot of phallic jokes, images of them completely rearranging a porn shop, back story on Suzie’s roommate and the three mystery persons finding out about them.

Let me tell you something in all seriousness. When you are reading a comic and you are looking at the panel and you see imagery of dildos that the tip looks like grumpy cat you just better hope you were not drinking milk because it would be on the other side of the room, and that is impressive as it would have come out your nose. I really want a director’s cut of this issue because I just want to see if these are things Fraction writes in or is it something Zdarsky just throws in when he is doing the art. I have to know whose idea it was to have Suzie dressed as the Hamburglar I am just saying.

This issue keeps the pacing of the first three in spectacular form; we know from the first three that there is no straight line in these stories. We get things from the past and the present all jumbled into one and in this instance it works. The plot was forwarded nicely as Fraction is giving you a little bit more each issue; he is not giving you everything and saying here you go. He is taking his time and honestly I am ok with that. The imagery alone would keep me coming back again and again (STOP THINKING I KNOW YOU ARE) to these issues and has me hook line and sinker.

The introduction of the so called “Sex Police” leads the tale into a much larger universe than what has been presented in the first three issues. Fraction and Zdarsky even go so far as to give us a look inside the day to day life of the main at this point antagonist was brilliant as it is the beginning of character development for her and in time we may find out she has a reason she is so cold about the main characters shenanigans. At the same time Fractions gives us a look at the inner workings of Johns plans and how he feels about them pulling off the heist as well as Suzie’s take on it. John talks about loss in recession and annual budgets of big banks makes the reader feel that this is not just someone who said lets rob a bank, it is someone who knows the inner workings and knows how to pull it off without anyone becoming overtly suspicious. This adds to the story in a good way and allows us a better insight into the two characters.

Once again we get pages of text messages that even though the texts are important to the character development, it’s hard to take it seriously sometimes when John is texting Suzie while popping a squat in a flower pot. We also get the “butt stuff” joke again in this issue and it leads me to wonder is this just a running joke or should we prepare ourselves for something in the future?

So with all of that, Sex Criminals continues to be one of the most fun and naughty good reads currently in circulation (good circulation, not bad…..no Viagra). The art is fantastic, the colors in the quiet are trippy and get even trippier when you smoke pot while in the quiet (I don’t recommend this). Everything about this issue and this series just hits the mark and for those Mature Readers out there I highly recommend sticking with it and picking it up.

So from Spin to all of you I give this issue a (Insert Sex Pun Here)

5 out of 5 nerds