Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction

Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick

by Matt Fraction

“Great fun!” - The MiamiHerald
Named one of Time Magazine's top 10graphic novels for 2013!
Suzie's just a regular gal with an irregulargift: when she has sex, she stops time. One day she meets Jon and it turns outhe has the same ability. And sooner or later they get around to using theirgifts to do what we'd ALL do: rob a couple banks.
A bawdy and brazen sex comedy for comics beginshere, by Matt Fraction (Satellite Sam, Hawkeye) and Chip Zdarsky(Prison Funnies, Monster Cops).
"On the surface, this is ahilarious story of two people, Suzanne and Jon, with the power to stop timeafter they orgasm, and then rob banks while (almost) everyone else is frozen intime, which is an amazingly original idea. But underneath that, this is a storyof the beginning of a relationship: its exciting newness, its terrifyingpossibilities, its ups and downs, its secrets and understandings, and, ofcourse, its sex." - PW

Reviewed by celinenyx on

1 of 5 stars

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Summary: When Suzie has an orgasm, she stops time. This made having sex a rather lonely affair, until she met Jon, who has the same ability.

What I liked:
- Although this book is about sex, and it has plenty of sex scenes, it was never pornographic
- There is plenty of naked body, but they all looked anatomically correct. No legs that go on forever and ever in Sex Criminals
- I can wholeheartedly say that I've never read anything like it

What I didn't like:
- The art looks so smudgy and ugly and cartoonish and blah. I didn't like it at all. It was almost like reading a Garfield cartoon without the cat
- Y'know, you kind of assume this is going to be about sex. It's in the title, it's in the description, it's in the cover. But I felt like there should be a warning that this comic has no other subject than sex. The story has the main characters meeting and having sex. Then we learn about how Suzie masturbates for the first time. And how she had to jump through ten hoops to get the sex talk. And then it's about Jon masturbating for the first time. And him looking for porn. And more fapping. And then sex jokes. And then they have sex again
- When Suzie likes someone, she expresses this by saying "This guy. This fucking guy." Later in the story we have countless variations of this theme including "This kid. This fucking kid. This fucking place."
- Constant breaking of fourth wall. The main character basically narrates the story and it's terribly obnoxious
- The story seemed to be so sex-positive, but when the best friend comes into play, our main character tells us with a smile: "She'll call me a slut later and make fun of me but really she's jealous. Basically, there's no one left in our circle or our circle's circle that hasn't at least fingerblasted her, so." So not only does your friend call you a slut, basically you're saying that's nonsense because she's a slut. Fantastic
- The best friend has no other role than being jealous and calling the cops on her friend without saying anything. She's only there to provide conflict
- My favourite is when Suzie says to her mom that she has sex questions. Mom's answer is "Great. Now I'm raising a whore." Now, I get that sex isn't a topic that is openly discussed in plenty of families. However, when your 12-year-old daughter says she has sex questions, wouldn't your first question be something along the lines of "Why? Did anyone ask you to have sex? Did anyone hurt you?" instead of assuming you're raising a whore?

Verdict: This book is about sex, sex, sex, sex, with sex jokes and a sex police thrown in. Only recommended for people who grew up in a sexually repressed society and if you don't mind slut-shaming

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 9 January, 2015: Finished reading
  • 9 January, 2015: Reviewed