Just over a year ago, I read and reviewed Matt Fraction’s Sex Criminals, which felt weird to read and even weirder to publicly acknowledge having read. I got why it received the acclaim that it did but didn’t really like it.

This Image comics Humble Bundle that I’ve been working my way through included the entire run of Sex Criminals, which I don’t intend to reread, but I am trying to read basically everything else in the bundle, including other series that it feels weird to read and even weirder to publicly acknowledge reading. I’ve been oblique in referencing that so far, but it’s hard to avoid with this review.

Growing up Mormon, my basic heuristic for sexual content in media was that it was bad and that I generally shouldn’t consume that kind of media. As I rethink my general post-Mormonism worldview, reading series like this is a way of rethinking how I feel about sexual content in media. On one hand, I think my previous heuristic was unhelpful and overly naïve; on the other, I think having some kind of heuristic is helpful and that there are kinds of sexual content that I’m not cool with in media.

This series boils down to “Batman with the serial numbers filed off and replaced with lots of nudity,” so it certainly provides opportunities to figure out what lines I’m willing to draw. Sometimes, I feel like it’s right on the edge of one of those lines, and there are other times that I’d say it crosses one.

That said, despite a certain level of base level discomfort—and some genuine complaints that aren’t out of knee-jerk prudishness—this is kind of a good series? The core concept (a recently retired Batman analogue is struggling to adjust to his new life, including relationships) is really interesting, the art and lettering stand out, and I find myself wanting to see how things play out.

This is too long of a review for me to get into my complaints, too, but I’m going to keep reading and see how it goes.

• The Summer of Hard
• Joe Casey
• Piotr Kowalski
• Sex