The end is near… Your Major Spoilers review of Sex Criminals #29 from Image Comics awaits!
SEX CRIMINALS #29
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Chip Zdarsky
Colorist: Chip Zdarsky
Production: Erika Schnatz
Editor: Thomas K.
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 24, 2020
Previously in Sex Criminals: The end is near, but there’s still the matter of a power-mad time-manipulator to be addressed…
THE AFTERMATH
Last issue’s explosive confrontation between Badal and Suze has left everyone adrift, with a couple of important questions: First, what has happened to The Quiet? Our cast discovers one by one (with occasionally embarassing consequences) that they’re no longer able to stop time, perhaps forever. But the other question is a much more pressing one: Where is Jon? That has a much simpler answer. Jon is breaking everything in Kuber Badal’s house, one room at a time, only to find himself a bit shocked how much “everything” there is. Most of this issue is just Jon with sledgehammers, saws and implements of destruction, working his way from room to room of Badal’s mansion, while Suzie explains how it all happened. He smashes lights, destroys closets, even bends every individual tine of each piece of flatware, an impressive display of focus and mental illness in action, and after a while it becomes clear that Suzie isn’t just doing the standard third-person narrative. As the issue ends, Jon is in jail (explaining the flash-forwards) for 90 days for destruction of property, and Suzie is…
Well, that’s complicated.
A STRANGELY SWEET ISSUE
Befitting a book this unusual, this issue is really about seeing how hard jon will work for the woman he loves, even if its just an outpouring of destructive grief, but it’s a strangely sweet issue, as well. There are some clever moments (putting a bunch of expensive watches around the bottom of his shoes so he can stomp them all at once, writing “Stolen from a real @$$hole named Kuber Badal” in all the books because he can’t bring himself to burn or destroy them) that make me want to give him a hug, and the fact that it’s all driven by pain and loss makes it even harder. The art is incredible throughout the issue, with Zdarsky seemingly taking as much pride in drawing the carnage as Jon does in fenerating it, and a sequence of paint streaming down the stairs is just plain beautiful. For those keeping track of the larger plot, it’s also the issue that explains what happened to put our hero in prison, and perhaps the only story that ends with a man sadly masturbating in prison that doubles as a hopeful, even (you should excuse the expression) happy ending.
BOTTOM LINE: A REALLY GOOD ISSUE, BUT I WOULDN’T MAKE IT YOUR FIRST
I have to admit, this isn’t where I imagined this story might go, but Sex Criminals #29 is much like real life in that the things that seemed necessary actually weren’t, and the eventual destination is actually better than what you might have predicted, earning a well-deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars overall. There are only a couple of issues left, and while I’m sad to see the book go, I’m glad that it’s kept up its run of both quality and complete unpredictability to the end. And besides, now we can wait for the TV adaptation and see how in the world they make this whole thing work and whether anyone will actually be able to air it, so the fun doesn’t stop here!
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SEX CRIMINALS #29
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Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.