Sex, Book Two: Supercool

Sex #v2

by Joe Casey, Piotr Kowalski (Artist)

Collects SEX #9-14. IT'S THE SECOND ROUND OF SEX IN BOOK FORM, BABY! Now that the full-blown ten-year superhero orgy is over, life in Saturn City is getting even more complicated. And not only for the newly- "normalized" Simon Cooke; everyone seems to have their own kink to deal with. Just remember: morality may be subjective, but SEX is still great!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Sexuality, Fantasy, Erotica, Adult Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Librarian note: there is more than one author with this name

Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite among others. As part of the comics creator group Man of Action Studios, Casey is one of the creators of the animated series Ben 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Casey

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the comic books Sex #9-14 which cover the content of volume 2 of Sex. We get to see more of Cooke's backstory as well as Keenan's. The Alpha twins continue doing thing their way regardless of the victims they create, and indeed the sensibilities of us readers! Keenan has a mission... deep undercover. And someone or someones are making moves against crime lord, The Old Man.

Despite the highly graphic nature of the book it all feels pertinent and essential to the developing stories. This series continues to use innovative story telling, with non-linear plotting, lots of mystery and very little superhero-ing in a superheroic reality, all in all making it a good read! 8 out of 12, Four Stars sees an improvident on the first volume now we know the characters and have a stronger sense of Saturn City.

2017 and 2015 read

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Requisite "fluffer" (is THAT the correct term now? haha-hahaha!) volume. (Meaning: all fluff.) I was pretty sad to realize that this is NOT a trilogy (I nabbed all three volumes at my local library!), that this is not a full circle of a solid tale. No, of course not. So I guess the whole thing will become enlarged (zoink!)... and that's ok. I wonder when our protagonist will become the superhero he was destined to be. Ok, actually not really. But its okay that instead of the "Finding Me" tale, we get some Hieronymus Bosch-y panorama of nastiness. An updated pornucopia of violence and flesh, I will obvi read the third one. Though the orgy scene in the first one still takes the cake for most audacious pictorial.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing sophomore slump for Joe Casey's graphic novel Sex. The second volume doesn't live up to the multi-layered complexities of the first one and doesn't even seem to have much in the way of plot either and the sex scenes themselves feel completely arbitrary. There's still some good content in there but it needs more focus as far as I'm concerned. But then this collection is two issues smaller than volume one so maybe volume three will be the comeback of the year.

[Robert Timmons · Rating 1 out of 5]

The second volume of Joe Carey's series was disappointing. While the plot is good, the crude art is too much and the story doesn't hold it up. One star only ⭐️

[Alex Sarll]

Nearly a decade since I read the first volume of this, but having ended up with the lot in a bundle, I figured I might as well have another go; after all, Casey has usually been an interesting if deeply inconsistent writer, and I've enjoyed Kowalski's art on other projects since, even stuff like the Bloodborne comic which held no intrinsic interest for me. Here, though...I'm still not seeing much beyond 'what if we could show Batman's dick?', a question which DC already answered themselves in the interim during the brief rise and spectacularly rapid fall of their Black Label imprint. Nor is that the only time that a comic called Sex nevertheless manages to feel quaintly dated. There's one subplot which kicks off with a client complaining to the madam (herself the former Catwoman analogue, if I was following correctly, which I couldn't guarantee I was) that he paid to see a lesbian show, not girls throwing up on each other, and it kicks off a detective story about what's up with the girl medically, whereas read now I'd been expecting her to say that she just thought that was what guys were into these days.

Although for all that times have changed, I still don't get the coloured highlighting of odd words in the speech bubbles, which is presumably intended for a more nuanced form of emphasis than simple bold or whatever, but if that is the case, does so in a code I remain unable to crack.

[Dogfood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Der zweite Band mäandert genau so weiter wie der erste Band. Es gibt keinen Plot sondern nur mikrokleine Fortschreibungen der Protagonisten wie zum Beispiel der Kontext zwischen Batman-wannabe Simon Cooke und dem Sidekick Keenan.

Grosso modo säuft aber auch dieser Band in kompletter Belanglosigkeit ab. Ich mich an einige Sequenzen erinnern, aber ich kann sie keinem Band zuordnen -- wie denn auch, wenn die Bände aus einer kontextlosen Aneinanderreihung von Sequenzen bestehen, die man eben so gut auch in einer anderen Reihenfolge zusammenstellen könnte.

Am Ende von Band 2 war ich genauso ratlos wie nach Band 1: inhaltlich ein absolutes Nichts. Eine Richtung ist nicht zu erkennen. Es wird durch das Leben der Protagonisten flaniert, ohne jeden Mehrwert -- gleiches gilt wieder für die sinnlos eingestreuten Sexszenen.

Weil ich so neugierig war, habe ich mich im Anschluss durch den letzten Band 6 durchgekämpft. Offiziell hatte Autor Joe Casey nach dem Heft 34 keinen Nerv mehr auf die monatliche Erscheinungsweise und dem damit verbundenen Terminstress. Die Erscheinungsweise in einzelne Hefte wurden aufgegeben. Stattdessen wurden die folgenden 128 Seiten gleich als Tradepaperback herausgegeben. Das war im Frühjahr 2019 und bis Ende 2022 ist kein weiteres Material angekündigt. Die Story scheint also nicht mehr zu Ende geführt zu werden.

In Band 6 gab es einige neue Protagonisten und ein großes Illuminatentreffen in den österreichischen Alpen, aber ansonsten auch dort keinen roten Faden oder einen Hauch von Story.

Ich glaube, die mantraartige Wiederholung in den Rezensionen von „slow burning“ oder “slowly peeling back the onion“ ist nichts anderes, als das Einreden, dass hinter der Serie Substanz wäre. Nach mehr als 500 Seiten muss ich attestieren: ich habe sie nicht gefunden.

Immerhin hat es beim Zeichner Piotr Kowalski Fortschritte gegeben: sein Zeichnungen sind in Band 6 deutlich souveräner als im ersten Band. Er hat sich sichtlich eingegroovt. Nur wozu er sich eingegroovt hat … wir werden es nie erfahren.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is getting more and more fun, with plenty of serious stuff happening, while some characters receive the short end of the stick. Look at Warren and his club of horny old women, the Old Man's torturer gimp or the Japanese orgy gone wrong. Things are getting more interesting in Simon's company and also on the street where crime gangs are aiming for a war.

Keenan was the youngest member in the team run by Quinn which included Simon. His meeting with Simon reveals the tension between them from when they went their separate ways, a feeling they likely won't get over any time soon. Keenan goes forward with his initation into the Breaks while Simon deals with a business issue involving the Japanese and their rivals from the US Defence Department.

Annabelle is dealing with the backlash from Sheila's vomiting on a client due to her pregnancy with Prank Addict, a guy who fought Simon in the old days. Prank Addict is being raped by the Old Man's gimp for information on a mysterious name, Viz Ibn Zyad, until he escapes. The Alpha Brothers plan to challenge the Old Man and gain control of his territory.

Warren's situation is by far the funniest. After the service he rendered in the last volume to get invited to the Saturnalia, he has basically become the sex toy for a club of old ladies. And he claims he is enjoying it.

The Japanese Kansei company, led by Tanaka and his aide Inoue, are welcomed by Barnes, a financial officer in Simon's company who is told to provide them with every ammenity. Imagine his surprise when he finds that all the hookers hired by Tanaka were killed by his security detail. He provoked the hookers by slapping one of them around, so the others clawed him to death. Now Simon must cover things up to avoid a scandal and smooth things over with Kansei.

[Ange Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 1 was already kind of all over the place, but this volume makes even less sense. Even though i enjoy the separate "scenes", dig the art and love all the sex😁, there is a lack of coherence throughout the whole story, which makes it difficult to follow. It does not leave me curious about what's next to come whatsoever. At moments I wished the two criminal master mind brothers were the main characters instead of this boring, whiney, retired super hero, of whom we still know fuck all after two whole books.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, this second tpb is better. I think I can see some growth with this one. I do wonder how much meat can be put onto the bones of a retired superhero with sex being the hook instead.

In some ways, it still feels like a superhero book that will fall into cheesy rise of the villain and rise of the hero but hopefully the writing of this so far is a red herring. There seems to be possible ways out of these tropes that feels more 'adult' and nuanced.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still no reason for this title to be called SEX. All the sexy scenes look like they are traced from porn mags. The main character is a bore. In this world, anal sex is the most degrating thing that can happen to you. Yawn. However, what's happening with Keenan and Warren are interesting.

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess we have superheroes saving the city and having sex. There were some cool action scenes, but, again, I’m just going by the pictures in all this as there was too much text at such a small size. Wish some scenes weren’t so bloody. An okay read

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

much stronger outing than the first book, perhaps because the characters and universe are feeling more established

[Miles Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting world that's been built here. I'm waiting to see what this is all building up to. Art and story continue to be interesting and worth reading.

[Albert Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

After really enjoying the first volume, I continued with volume two of Sex - which follows the life of a retired superhero now rediscovering the joys of a "normal" life.

While I didn't enjoy the story as much as I did in book one as it doesn't progress as much - this volume concentrates on filling readers up on a bit of the backstory of the characters using flashbacks as a narrative device. On one hand, the dark pictures and the depiction of the inner life of the hero are excellent, some of the graphic scenes aren't that easy to look at and can also be downright gross. Nonetheless - the characters are interesting enough and there are enough inventive ideas to keep me reading.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it is true that Casey doesn't live up the multi-layered complexities of the first book in its mani character, Casey also actually expands the universe from the relatively unlikable Cooke. One would not actually want a whole another of the limbo that Cooke was in as Casey did not make Cooke a particularly likable character. There is no hook, but the tropes are still being deconstructed. The sex in this volume is more contextual and less titillating, although a real flippant use of male-on-male rape mars it. The character arcs here do seem enlarging and slowing down the plot can be frustrating, but I actually think it is a good sign for the problems of the first volume.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has the pleasant good looks and interesting character of its predecessor ... but it just doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I couldn't tell you what the plot of this volume was, because there really wasn't one. Sure, a few things happen and are dealt with, but it didn't feel like there was any cohesion or any bigger picture.

Maybe if I reread this and volume I back-to-back I'll get more out of it, but for now my reaction is, "Eh?"

[Bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

One could argue that it is a rambling mess, but IMHO that's part of the charm of this series. Joe Casey even points this out in an answer to a letter published in issue 14: that he himself has no plan (unlike his other series, The Bounce) and that he lets the characters dictate the flow of the story. Works for me.

[Derek Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sex" walks the line of previous Casey work like Wildcats 3.0 but, obviously, with a more adult tone. Reads like a cross between Astro City and Watchmen. Nice to have a regular Casey book available since "Godland" finished.

[Clint · Rating 2 out of 5]

It would be nice if one of these characters or plot lines could get past their first act. Casey drives me crazy by creating compelling worlds and characters... and letting them linger. See also: The Intimates. See also: Manifest Eternity.

[Corto Maltese · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sex is a nice touch, but can't hide the fact that this book is still short on plot, even if it improved a little bit in that department since Vol 1.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting concepts let down by the main character who is utterly boring which is a shame as there is a huge amount of potential here.

[Mujahid Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for adult reader types that enjoy erotic animation or late night adult swim...this series should become a real cartoon series on cartoon network or HBO would be dope...

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok. I feel like the story was set up a little more but not too much has gone on yet to tell where things are going. Hopefully there will be more progression in the next volume.

[Mao · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing happening. The pace is excruciatingly slow and there is not plot to follow.

[TJ Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy on character development and world building for future story-lines.