Review: Spandex #4

In the fourth issue of Spandex, Martin Eden shakes things up. A lot.
The baddie team of all-lesbian Les Girlz is on the move, and our heroes are targeted one by one, in a violent and effective way.

Glitter and Neon in a bar

Eden contrasts that violence with two sequences of more-or-less everyday life. One is with two gay guys, namely, Glitter and Neon, who’ve become friends and are on a bar crawl, while the still-acclimating Neon (he’s that Japanese guy the team met during their fight with the Pink Ninjas) reflects on the loss of his partner and his still deep feelings for him. Eden peppers his bar scenery with mainstream superheroes, a nice touch of humor in an issue that’s anything but funny. The other calm sequence is between a gay guy and a lesbian, but with a twist. Prowler and Indigo slept together once in a previous issue, and Indigo drops a big bomb: she’s pregnant, when they took every precaution. How is that possible? Well, Martin Eden is obviously a devious bastard, and I say that in the best possible way. Just expect the unexpected.

A nice piece of storytelling

It seems to me this issue is also an exercise in balanced storytelling: the reader is presented with pages which are as varied visually as anything I’ve seen, with layouts and color schemes making for a very satisfying reading. Take for example the bar scenes, drawn with almost static layouts and bright colors, and contrast them with either the opening fight scene of the return of the 50-foot lesbian (yay, she’s back!) and its cinematic, wide panels, or with the blue (well, indigo) colored scene between Prowler and Indigo. Color-coded scenes are nothing new in comics, but here, it’s used effectively and only as one of the parameters used by the artist.

This issue of Spandex shows again that Martin Eden is not going for a comfortable, predictable feel for his comic, and I’m grateful for that.

As usual, you can buy a copy (paper or PDF) of this comic from the author.