“Oh, Great. Eugenics-loving space knights.”
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley, Sara Beattie
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
Pursued by pissed off (but very sexy) Space Knights, the XXX-plorers and President Kirk must unite with their own assassins to film a scene…or they’ll be trapped on a very bad planet forever! Plus! Who are the rulers of the universe known as “The Bulbs?”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Money Shot has put our characters in a tough spot to be sure and it’s amusing to see them continuing to essentially fail upwards, partly thanks to their terrible President. Seeley and Beattie have had fun with this arc overall but it’s been one that even as much fun as I have with a lot of it has been a struggle considering the real world. Parodies of leaders are regular things but the world has changed a bit in a way that I don’t think this should be done. That said, it works well enough here and we get it presented well thanks to Rebekah Isaacs. She gets to work with some fun new beings at the end and a welcome place of emptiness that looks great, especially with the colors, that allows for at least one somewhat “normal” sequence of nookie.
With Dien Pide’s material serving as bookends here, the beginning part has him getting into the building where the ‘Shot team and the Covalencefolks are hiding out in trying to figure out a way off-world since they’re either broke or don’t have the gear. Dine makes it clear that he’s the only one that can get into the building since it was designed with his genetics in mind but even his own people are rolling their eyes in his phallic magical chainsaw that appears at his crotch that lets him screw his way in quite literally. This leads to the chase that takes them to a few places as they want to stop them from reporting to the Bulbs that they have a weapon that will take on the Covalence and that can’t happen. The back pages for them are short and sweet but it’s good to see them on the trail and handling space well.
That leaves the rest of the book with our crew, which includes President Kirk, along with the Covalence folks, the doc, and Sinch. They’re fully aware they need to get back to the Covalence to report on what’s going on and they need the Money Shot crew to do it. That has them landing on some largely water-based world where in order to go the rest of the distance they need to put on a show. This lets the doc and Sinch finally have some time together but it’s all wrapped up in some romantic entanglements and done using Kirk’s imagery in order to drive the viewership and payments. While this borders on some uncomfortable material for some when it comes to knocking boots, it’s a fun sequence with a knowing wink while playing out with some delightful dialogue from the regular ‘Shot crew. Of course, that it lands them in front of the supreme beings of the Covalence at the end is just a weird bonus – not one I’d want to do with Kirk in tow, though!
In Summary:
Money Shot has a lot going for it and this is definitely a fun issue overall with what it does. There are a lot of moving parts to it but it handles it all very well and cleanly so that it’s fun and flows well. The fun with Dine is the kind of ridiculousness that I can laugh with and there’s plenty to enjoy in seeing our two Covalence folks deal with the situation and finally connect in a meaningful way. The material with Kirk proper just doesn’t work for me though because it’s being such an obvious parody of something that has only become more dangerous in the real world that the humanization of the comic character is incredibly problematic. In general, I’m not a fan of real-world politicians being used in comics and feel the same with the obvious parodies and the like but this is just a whole other level of problematic. That’s my burden to bear though and the series is very much worth sticking with even with Kirk in this, though hopefully not as a permanent addition.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: October 7th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
