It is hard to believe it, but this title that has little bit of action, a little bit of drama, and a whole lot of sex has now managed to hit its twelfth issue. That's a whole year of sex folks and what do we know so far… 1) Simon Cooke is a retired billionaire superhero, living in a crime infested Saturn City, looking to live his life and get his groove on using spandex and leather not for crime fighting, but for fun.
2) Without the Armored Saint (Cooke’s crime fighting name), a large vacuum for crime control has been going on between all the baddies with some old crazy "hangers on" floating around to add confusion to the mix.
3) There are some wanting to stop this crime growth, namely a dishwasher and former Armored Saint sidekick Keenan Wade who has begun his own personal crusade against evil, but without any superhero garb.
4). Saturn City itself is full of deviants and also hardworking people. Hell, there are even some hard working deviants here.
And finally 5), there is a lot of sex in Sex. Some of it is good. Some of it is not so good. And some of it is downright creepy (see how The Old Man rolls in this issue).
Everything has been mixed around in the review side of things. But if you can remove the sex parts, you begin to see that a pretty complex story is being worked out by writer Joe Casey. Yeah, a lot of this stuff is pretty provocative. But there is also a story being told. It just has a few more penis shots than your typical comic book. That is all.
Issue #12 is working several stories that may or may not meet once the end is reached. The first one deals with Kennan's attempt to enter into The Breaks, a ruthless street gang that appear to have some serious muscle (and one Skyscraper). The second deals with the Old Man and a rather intense enforcer working over The Prank Addict, trying to elicit some information from him. All I can say, is that they are thorough, and sick. Then we have the woes of Mr. Elliot Barnes, a manager for Cooke's company who is supposed to be settling in some executives from outside the country. Those execs like to live on the wild side however and they have engaged heavily in some of the more decadent things that Saturn City have to offer. Add some bookends of Cooke and club owner/pimp Annabelle Lagravenese having some work related troubles, and you have this issue in a nutshell.
Pioter Kowalski is back in full force here and his art is as good as it gets. Kowalski can cover bloody action and hardcore sex quite adeptly and he gets to do both here in Issue #12. What I like with his framing is how he portrays everyone with a real grainy look. These aren't beautiful people. They have flaws and most are drawn as such. It makes for a touch of realism that only enhances the comic overall.
Casey and Kowalski have won me over somewhere around Issue #9 or so. I am very curious to see where they are going to venture out and what exactly is going to happen to Saturn City once all these bad guys erupt in battle. It should be an interesting ride.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Joe Casey Artists: Morgan Jeske, Piotr Kowalski Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 3/26/14