Comic Book Review: Money Shot (2019)

Publisher: Vault Comics

Writer: Sarah Beattie, Tim Seeley

Artist: Rebekah Isaacs

Status: Ongoing

Issues: 5

Even as I write these first couple of words, I find myself chuckling at the absurd premise of the comic I am about to review. Money Shot is brought to us by the good people at Vault Comics and sets the stage with a background that feels like it was taken straight from a South Park episode. Supposedly, in the year 2027, aliens visited the planet Earth with the hopes of extending an invitation to join a kind of United Nations for galaxies and planets. But once seeing how behind the human race was, both technologically and morally, the offer was withdrawn, and the Earth was forced to live in isolation from a vibrant galactic community. Five years on and the poor economic conditions of America heavily stunt the ability to fund innovative scientific projects or any attempt whatsoever to bridge the gap between Earth and a vast universe.

Suffering from the galactic FOMO the worst is an ambitious young scientist by the name of Christine Ocampo, a physicist tired of writing long grant proposals that fall on deaf ears, and desperate to find some way of funding her team's efforts to gain knowledge from the galaxy that turned away from them so long ago. Her light bulb moment comes during a casual masturbation session, where she stumbles upon the comments section of a porn site, and a realization strikes her hard, and that realization is that people are bored to death of the adult content currently on hand and that for a fee, her team can provide steamy content of the intergalactic persuasion.

With the help of the citizens of the worldwide web, Christine realizes that crowdfunding is far more attainable and straightforward process than government funding and she progresses to pitch her crazy idea of becoming galactic porn stars to her co-workers, convincing them that not only will they make a good deal of money, but also set themselves up to make potential, game-changing breakthroughs in their respective fields. Although the group has their trepidations, they decide the opportunity to explore different planets and universes cannot be passed up, and agree to become the XXX-Plorers. The team, including Christine, consists of physicist Dr. Bree Wander, Epidemiologist, Dr. Annie Leong, Astrophysicist, Dr. Omar Steinberg, and finally, Biochemist, Dr. Doug Koch.

With everyone in agreement, the members receive their education in all things porn and are even given a timetable requiring them to have sexual relations with each other to remove any hang-ups. With all the equipment and necessary knowledge, the group takes off to discover new life forms, and have sex with them. The short series focuses on one particular trip where the adventurers attempt to find an ancient master of a tantric meditation technique that gives an orgasm that produces a valuable kind of energy that could be useful to Earth. However, a ruthless warlord who entertains the masses with gladiatorial deathmatches stands in the way of a straightforward mission. The team must use their respective talents to navigate this new world, entertain their online audience, and find the alien guru.

Money Shot is a ludicrous comic from start to finish, and yet, there's something incredibly sophisticated and serious about its concept and execution. While it feels like no part of it is taken seriously, what is portrayed is very serious subject matter. Human sex, with all of its complexities, is laid bare, so to speak, in a surprisingly poignant and thought-provoking way. The sex doesn't feel shameful, or all the way embarrassing, but is demonstrated as the means in which special connections are made.

There's real depth within some of the characters that are well captured within a short time, and it successfully illustrates a lot of the beauty and awkwardness that comes with lovemaking that feels all too familiar for anyone who picks this series up. I enjoyed the clever writing that certainly made for a good laugh, and all of this was complimented with sharp lines and bright coloring that created a happy and warm tone to the story.

The entire comic feels like the typical plot to a porno, what with the scientists that don't fit the typical archetypes, to the aliens that happen to have the necessary hardware for sex with these strange human visitors, but Money Shot still delivers more than just ridiculous smut and sex humor, promising more development of the relationships of the characters that have a great deal of potential. While the subject matter may still be taboo for some, I assure readers that Money Shot is mature, playful and deep, without losing its sense of humor, and has something more to say than meets the eye.

Definitely deserving of a higher rating than this :).