Comic book reviews for Sex Criminals #7, Sex Criminals #8, and Sex Criminals #9 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Average rating: 4.3/5 stars
Sex Criminals #7 by Matt Fraction
Art: Chip Zdarsky
This issue made me feel this book was back in form, and it did a great job at balancing both Jon and Suzie as characters. Also, apparently, I’m a terrible person for not liking the last issues because clearly the letters show that it touched many men’s lives.
I’m really glad that Suzie makes up with Rachel. And they have an adult conversation about it, even in Suzie’s moment of weakness and eating a sidewalk muffin. (In college, my friends and I once witnessed the study body president pick up cookies he’d dropped on the cafeteria floor, and well, his nickname then included the words “floor cookies.”) So gross.
Yeah, birth control pills can totally fuck you up. And be just as gross as sidewalk muffins.
Rachel’s test to see if the Quiet was a real thing was perfect. (Same with the apartment’s man colors and worrying that Jon would freak out if Suzie starting changing things. In my experience, usually straight men have a lot of crappy clothes that someone needs to throw out (and probably also buy replacements for).)
Also Jon being completely oblivious to Rachel being in the room when he comes in to tell the story about breaking into Myrtle Spurge’s house (Kegelface!). Her dungeon was hilarious, especially that the keys hung on a key hook board labeled “mom.”
Jon’s face in the scene where he admits to grabbing everything he could from the file cabinet — knowing that Suzie would be impressed he wasn’t distracted by the dildos — was pretty amazing. And that he thinks he’s fucked up in doing so. Or at least really enraged Kegelface.
Sex Criminals #8 by Matt Fraction
Art: Chip Zdarsky
Finally more Suzie time! And of course, Robert Rainbow, her gynecologist, would be super attractive — and the substitute doctor — and she’d hit on him awkwardly.
I like this idea that comes forth from Suzie’s visit, but she doesn’t tie it directly to her superpowers: her perfect cervix. While she doesn’t even think it, you’d expect something “odd” from her checkup, and odd being perfect was the right tone.
Though usually, if you’re being a test subject for medical students to check out, you get some kind of compensation. I would not want that many people touching my cervix; I’m hella sensitive.
I also loved that Jon knew Robert and got pissed off because of their childhood experience. But then they are friends and there is love. And I like his new therapist. Though once again, I did feel like this was Matt Fraction’s life I was reading about.
Zdarsky brings in his usual background awesome with Salad Cake: the mall fast food chain where you get cake from salad or salad from cake. Brilliant.
Sex Criminals #9 by Matt Fraction
Art: Chip Zdarsky
Okay, Jazmine St. Cocaine, aka Dr. Ana Kincaid, may just be my all-time favorite character in this book. Mostly because how she’s introduced she seems like the least likely character to have all her shit together, but she does. I love that the adult film star is the one who is most together in life. (If she’s perhaps a bit crazy doing an academic pursuit of the Quiet.)
I also feel for Jazmine because my own story, at least the part about college and money, is basically my own story. Only my father told me to be a stripper, and that’s not the job you get when you live in Washington state. (Washington state doesn’t allow nudity and alcohol to mix, which surprisingly means that the strip clubs are more shady. Even if filled with people drinking their $10 sodas. Not that my father’s smart enough to know this; in his non-defense, he lives in Oregon, which Portland hosts some of the best strip clubs so… Though when I was in college, the Lusty Lady was still around, and if you had to take off your clothes for money somewhere, it would’ve been there.)
Suzie and Jon getting into a hurtful fight felt very right. Jon has been too messed up to display his feelings to Suzie, and Suzie had been walking on glass around him, trying to not make the situation even worse for him.
The poor demolished library!
Wow, Suzie and Jon make the worst plans together.
The WicDiv slashfic in porno version: wow. I mean, I wasn’t expecting that. I know, technically, it was foreshadowed in the letters sections, but seriously. I suppose what are friends for, but those who will let you publish porn about their characters. (And also those letter writers who were complaining there wasn’t enough porn…be careful what you wish for.)
Love that Jazmine gives up cocaine when she discovers her superpowers. Also, I adore how cranky professor Ana is and that she does live her dream of going to college — many colleges — and clearly doesn’t give a fuck.
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