Things just keep getting worse for this group.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley, Sara Beattie
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
Enter the Planet Cockaigne (a real name from history that we totally didn’t make up)! The XXXplorers arrive in a world of pleasure and leisure where scientists are superstars. The only problem is… they’ve been forced to bring along moron and POTUS Luke Kirk! How long until he says or does something really terrible?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The further the series goes along the more problems it runs into for the characters to solve, though Tim Seeley and Sara Beattie run with the idea of them falling into solutions pretty well. The series has had some creative problems and worked some amusing solutions and things are looking dire here once again after some positive time. Thankfully, even when it’s at its darkest, Rebekah Isaacs does a great job of bringing it to life considering how wacky and crazy some of the situations and aliens are like. That really works well to create something that feels unique and has truly set its own tone so that it really hits a sweet spot that feels original in a full sense.
With the gang on Cockaigne, the opening actually plays to a twisted version of our reality as the news follows what people think of the President as he’s off with the XXX-Plorers and getting into sexual shenanigans with aliens, his version of giving it back to them. The religious couple that use is just so blunt and obvious, and way too real, that it reminds me of the real world too much and does go on a bit longer than it should. But it drives home the point of what the President’s support is like on Earth and why he’s going to screw his way across the galaxy. Such is what happens along the way in this issue as he gest to step up with the science magistrate of Cockaigne that will give the team the device they need to power their missions for a long time. Of course, things go badly off-page between them which now means our team is being hunted through the final pages.
The XXX-Plorers crew themselves aren’t pleased by the President’s presence in any of this with how he acts and handles himself and it’s just causing friction, especially with the aliens they deal with. Especially since they have their own internal issues to deal with as the relationship dynamic between Chris, Bree, and Omar is a mess. Thankfully, it is solved relatively easily so that they can enjoy their time on this world and hope for the acquisition of the power device they need. It’s nice seeing them get this kind of downtime off-world but it comes with a parallel story showing the Covalence pair that are gearing up to go hunting the President and eliminating him and the Money Shot program itself because of the problems it’s going to cause the galaxy at large. There are a lot of things going on here and it’s building up pretty well.
In Summary:
Money Shot continues to be a fun series even if I do keep saying I wish there were more sexual shenanigans in it. We get the teases of it this time around and some nice affection but I’ll always want a bit more. What we do get is a lot of fun with the events that unfold here even if everything with the president reminds me too much of reality and I’m really trying to escape from that in my comics. But there’s a lot of really good material beyond that which reads well and looks great, making for an enjoyable issue that sets us up for some big events to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: September 16th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99