Review: Husbands

Husbands is what comic-book adaptations of TV shows can aspire to be when the change of medium is taken into account: stories that could only be told in comics, whether because of the format or simply for monetary reasons.
Started as an online TV series made of very short episodes, Husbands¹ is the story of Cheeks and Brady, two gay men, one rather flamboyant and one jock, newly dating, who get married while being drunk but decide to stick with it, for reasons both good (they like each other) and bad (gay men divorcing would damage the fight for equality, they think). Creator Brad Bell, who plays Cheeks, works with writer Jane Espenson (Buffy, Once Upon A Time) to create a mix of silliness and real-life issues, through the narrative tradition of the odd couple.

The Husbands² graphic novel, written by Bell and Espenson, is an equally fun romp through various comics genres, highlighting issues Cheeks and Brady must face. The conceit is that one of the wedding presents they receive is a magical book that propels them into fictional worlds where their relationship is tested in various ways.

Opening the wedding presents (art by Ron Chan)

Gay boys in Archie's world (art by Tania Del Rio)

Alien love (art by Ben Dewey)

Drawn by Ron Chan, Natalie Nourigat, M.S. Corley, Ben Dewey and Tania del Rio, the six chapters are a 1930s superhero/supervillain story (Brady is Light Fantastic, Cheeks is The Darkness—saving the world will require a collaboration between the two enemies), a fairytale (Cheeks is a peasant rescued by prince Brady—but the peasant can fend for himself, thank you very much), a Holmesian murder mystery (Cheeks is the detective, Brady his manly but apparently dim acolyte—though one shouldn’t judge on appearance), a science-fiction caper (Cheeks is a green alien, Brady a soldier in a war against machines—communications between the two will prove essential), an Archie Comics homage (Cheeks and Brady are a high-school couple being manipulated by another boy) and finally, a secret agent action story, where the two men are agents who must trust each other to complete their mission.

The Prince and the Pauper (art by Natalie Nourigat)

As you can see, Bell and Espenson know their comics and their genres. The stories are playful tributes to all those genres, using their settings and trappings while gently subverting them–which is exactly what the web-series has been doing with the married life comedies it plays with, as well as with the more serious genre and role expectations of our societies. Cheeks and Brady are characters built on stereotypes, who overthrow the clichés attached to their one-word definitions (“queen”, “jock”…) with humor and self-awareness. Even when the subversion is not especially subtle, there’s a warmth and wit to the characters and the writing, both in the web-series and in these comics, that engages the audience in a big way.

The artists in those six stories also play with audience expectations and genre tropes, especially Tania Del Rio, who ostensibly mimics the classic Archie Comics aesthetics. The art throughout the book is solid, and I must say I was seriously charmed by Natalie Nourigat’s work on the fairytale segment, which breathed happiness (and sexyness).

I can’t say I’m often convinced by comics inspired by TV series or films, but having the original creators drive this adaptation certainly made it work. The fact that, as usual, publisher Dark Horse produced a good-looking hardcover filled with bonuses (development art and text, an introduction by Neil Gaiman and an afterword by Russell T. Davies) makes the whole package even more attractive.