The downside to the afterglow.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley, Sara Beattie
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
While half of the XXX-plorers search for the big-balled seer whose orgasm could power their teleporter forever, Chris and Omar must seduce the malevolent warlord of planet Dry Reef in time for the livestream. But are they ready to trade the hottest tag-team in the universe for the fate of a world? Plus, the secret origin of Team Money Shot comes to a close!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Money Shot has definitely been a lot of fun in its opening issues as it looks to navigate the tricky area of actual sex and nudity in comics. Tim Seeley and Sara Beattie are handling it pretty well compared to what I thought it might be, figuring tame expectations, but while they’re not reaching what Little Annie Fanny did in the pages of Playboy, they’re hitting some sweet spots here. The story is still a little convoluted as it moves back and forth in time, which I hope we’re done with soon, but it’s succeeding well with Rebekah Isaac’s artwork as she’s doing a great job of just capturing the range of emotions involved in sex, but particularly the joy and real pleasure of it all.
The flashback side to this issue is where most of the good stuff happens, both in terms of sex and characterization. We don’t actually get to see any form of the sex here but we have the five-member team coming together in different two-person configurations so they all sleep with each other so as to be more comfortable when filming and with whatever else is out there in the galaxy. This is a delight just in seeing the reactions, some of the reveals, and some good cuddle time as well. It’ll likely simply reinforce your interest in particular characters because it’s just an expansion on their personalities as we know them, but it does deliver beautifully in showing how close these people can become because of this sharing – even when it doesn’t go well. There’s some good nuance here and I really loved how it played out and wished there was more hands-on material for it to see more of their dynamics together.
Unfortunately, the other half of the book is a bit weaker. The mission they’ve ended up on hasn’t gone too well and the two ostensible leads for the series are separated from the rest of the group. While the trio are sitting in the prison getting a bit of a history lesson, we see how Chris and Omar have to handle the warlord beauty. We don’t get a ton of it but it looks and plays out sensually, which is nice, and comes after a little naked awkward time between the two humans. But the book also throws us into a weird area that I’m not quite sure is going to go well overall as after they consumate a very good time, the warlord is basically powered-up in a huge way and is able to deal with some of the problem population. Is this a situation where a good time powers up the warlord into a massively powerful danger? That’s not good.
In Summary:
With Money Shot getting “renewed” for a second series, I’m definitely glad I took the chance on this book. I’m not looking for sex in all of my comics by any means but having some that are more up front with it and play with it in some new and interesting ways are welcome. Seeley and Beattie are giving us two different storylines at the moment with one of them working better than the other but they do complement each other pretty well. Isaacs’ artwork is a blast though as I love her designs for all the characters, human in particular, and getting to see all the pairings and the kinds of reactions she provides them with from the script made for a fantastic read. I can’t wait for more and to see how this comes together as it progresses.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: December 18th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
