Comic Review: Money Shot #4

Money Shot #4

Vault Comics

Writers: Tim Seeley & Sarah Beattie

Art: Rebekah Isaacs & Kurt Michael Russell

Yet another chapter of Vault Comics‘ Money Shot has just been released and it remains, easily, one of the most original and interesting comic books out right now.

In this issue, we go back to Earth a little to see how the gang’s adventures are being broadcast to the public. It’s easy to notice that the viewers at home have no idea of how serious the XXX-Plorers’s adventures have gotten since the first video was transmitted. Warlord Priest Daughir has achieved sovereignty after using the power of the Podna Megra to obliterate the rebel army and deprive Christine and Omar, captive by Daughir, of any hope of escaping. Except, maybe, for a clever intervention from Doug, Annie, Brie and the Bokai Elder who have not yet given up.

Seeley and Beattie’s partnership has come as a beautiful surprise ever since the first issue and it just keeps delivering. Whenever the narrative starts to take a more serious tone some joke or sexual element comes up. The genius of it is that it doesn’t obscure any of the other comic’s aspects. In fact, it mixes up perfectly just like any other kind of element would since, well, it’s just sex. This is something this title has done incredibly well since the start, and it is talking about porn and sex normally, without treating it with secrecy or immaturity at all.

Isaacs’ drawings and character designs continue to amaze this reviewer as she mixes an Orca whale with a wolf and puts a squid-like creature, such as Warlord Priest Daughir, in a suit of armor made of what certainly are bones of another species in the same planet. Not only that, but she succeeds at making the move in the characters extremely clear in a huge variety of ways, making me giggle as I go back and take the genius in. Russell’s coloring complements said genius equally with a consistent palette for the planet and its backgrounds and many different colors for the wide range of lighting and shade that the comic brings up along its way.

Once I dove into Money Shot I was expecting a light sci-fi set up with a lot of sex jokes and a plot focusing on comedy. Instead, I got a gripping plot about scientists doing what it takes to keep their research going, and exploring a fascinating theme in an extraordinary way! I love Money Shot and I could not recommend it enough to any comic book reader out there.