Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction

Sex Criminals is a graphic novel that centres on Suzie and Jon and their ability to stop time after orgasm. After finding each other and coming to terms with the fact they both have this magical ability, they decide to put their power to good use. Rob banks.

Title: Sex Criminals

Author: Matt Fraction

Genre: Graphic Novel, Adult Fiction, 

Publisher: Image Comics

Publication Date: 1st May 2014

Pages: 128

Summery : Suzie’s just a regular gal with an irregular gift: when she has sex, she stops time. One day she meets Jon and it turns out he has the same ability. And sooner or later they get around to using their gifts to do what we’d ALL do: rob a couple banks.

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting going in to Sex Criminals, as usual I had absolutely no idea what it was about nor did I want to know. I’d heard numerous times that it is an incredible and unique series so I thought I’d give it a try. Overall it was an enjoyable and very fast read with many good points about it. However it certainly won’t be making it on to my top five graphic novels list any time soon.

Firstly I’d like to say that the story was in fact very interesting and unique. I’ve never read anything of the sort and I found it to be captivating. The whole idea that these two people could stop time by taking part in such an intimate act was quite astounding when you read further in. Jon and Suzie’s characters start to work well together the further you get in to the novel and you start to see them as a team instead of two individuals. They share this power and in turn they share the responsibility of their criminal acts. I think the most enjoyable part of this novel was definitely the characters.

In the realm of comics Sex Criminals was a very believable and exciting story. There was the perfect balance of action and normality for me. This is partly due to the fact Suzie and Jon are engaging in such a natural human act I think.

The artwork is stunning for this graphic novel. I particularly like the image on the cover which has a very 1960’s pin-up feel to it. Whereas I found the artwork in this graphic novel to be quite beautiful (the scenes where they were in ‘The Quiet’ as Suzie calls it were washed with an aura that made it feel like the world had actually stopped) I also found the lay out and some of the images to be confusing. The story skipped quite a lot between scenes past and present and that sometimes became difficult to follow. Overall I got the general idea of the story and it wasn’t a huge issue.

As the title suggests, there are a lot of adult themes within Sex Criminals and I’d strictly say that it was only readable for a more mature reader. The whole novel is focused around sex and as you can imagine there were some graphic drawings that definitely are not suitable for people underage.

I did enjoy this novel and the few bad points that I have to say about it will not stop me moving on to Two Worlds One Cop that was released earlier this year. I’m far too invested in Jon and Suzie now to give up on the (incredibly frustrating) cliff hanger Sex Criminals was left on!