After taking a brief hiatus, Sex Criminals is back with its sixth issue, the start of a new story for Jon and Suzie. For those who are only reading Sex Criminals for the humor, this issue will be a resounding disappointment. It lacks much of the humor of the first five issues, with only some sparse meta humor that comes as a bi-product of having John narrate the whole issue, talking to the audience. So for those looking for penis jokes, this issue probably won’t do much for you. But for people who read Sex Criminals for more than just the jokes (and I hope that that’s everyone) this is actually a really, really solid issue. In fact, the lack of jokes makes complete sense, and is in keeping with the theme of this issue. Ever since the start, Sex Criminals has been a love story at its core, and now Matt Fraction is dealing with what happens after the “Honeymoon period,” when Jon and Suzie are no longer the lovebirds that they were earlier on in the series.
This is, in part, because of their run in with the sex police in the last issue of the series, but also because they’re being forced to deal with real life. They can’t solve their problems by freezing time and going on a bank heist anymore, because The Quiet is no longer safe for the two of them. And so they enter a more serious stage of their life, when the two of them think that everything is over. But, in reality, their story is far from over. At least, Jon’s story is far from over. Suzie kind of takes a backseat in this issue, as Jon deals with the fallout of their misadventures, and we get a look into his life. And man, what a messed up life it is. He has a lot of problems, stemming from a mix of his ADHD, ODD, and OCD. That’s a lot of disorders. The result is a paranoid, messed up Jon who can’t set things straight, and enters a state that seems like depression. Even in terms of the art, this is noticeable, as, in contrast with the rest of the world, he is drawn in black and white.
Even when things happen that should make him feel something, he remains emotionless. It’s kind of hard to read, seeing this character, who was once a wise cracking, funny man, reduced to a shell of his former self. As sad as it is, it also makes for some great character work. We’re seeing layers of Jon that we have never seen before, and that’s definitely a good thing, considering that the first arc was very much centered around Suzie, and fleshing out her character. But now that that’s done, it’s time for Jon to get fleshed out a little bit more as well. And, above all, that’s the purpose of this issue. Fraction takes this entire issue to bring Jon to a low point, beating him down completely, so that when he bounces back, he’ll be stronger than ever.
At the end of the day, Jon is actually a pretty good guy. He legitimately cares for Suzie, and so for every moment of his messed up life, there seems to be a great moment where we see him trying to be better, and bounce back from the funk that he’s trapped in for the majority of this issue. It’s a stellar character piece, and as a result, the ending of this particular issue is extraordinarily impactful, and its ramifications in future issues are undoubtedly going to make for some outstanding story telling.
But, for the time being, that story doesn’t exist. For everything this issue does well, it struggles to remain entirely engaging 100% of the time. It’s actually a rather slow paced issue, and even though it does wonders for Jon’s character, doesn’t move much forward in the plot department, at least until the cliffhanger ending. And that really weighs the issue down, in ways that this series has never been weighed down before. These are new problems for the series, as it has maintained a brisk pace in past issues. Of course, there’s no problem with slowing down a series for an issue or two, but the real problem in this issue is the lack of plot progression. It sets up future plots that definitely seem interesting and engaging, but this issue has none of that, and at times somehow manages to feel a little bit bland.
