The Fix #2 (Comic Book Review)
Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, Astonishing Ant Man) and Steve Lieber (Whiteout, Quantum and Woody Must Die) first teamed up back in 2013 with the sleeper hit The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, a book that had a good run but was sadly cancelled after 17 great issues. Superior Foes focused on some of the Z-list villains that plagued Spider-Man on a regular basis and showed us exactly why their plans never really worked out, while providing some great laughs at the same time. Thankfully the creators have teamed up once more for another hilarious look at criminals who are very bad at crime with The Fix.
In many ways The Fix feels like a spiritual successor to Superior Foes, but without the limitations of writing for a publisher like Marvel. With The Fix being published by Image Comics, Spencer and Lieber now have free reign to make their new book as raunchy and bizarre as they like. And they don’t waste the opportunity either.
The first issue of The Fix introduced our “heroes” (I use the term very loosely) and established them as crooked cops who are equally as bad at stopping crime as they are at committing it. At the end of the issue they are given a nearly impossible task which they are told must be completed under the threat of bodily harm to some very sensitive places, and in issue #2 we get to see them prepare their plan to accomplish said task. Again, they are not good at what they do and there are many laughs to be had watching them try.
Nick Spencer’s writing is quite good, and though the book is very dialogue heavy, the laughs are so frequent that it never feels like too much. Much of the story is driven forward by the inner monologue of the main character, Roy, and Spencer does a great job of capturing just how deliriously egotistical Roy is and how he is able to utilize his misplaced overconfidence into manipulating his friends and coworkers. The writing on this book nets a 5 out of 5.
Steve Lieber’s traditional style of art works perfectly for this story, with Hawaiian shirts and old Cadillacs giving the book a very 70’s buddy cop movie feel. I was first introduced to Lieber through Greg Rucka’s 1998 comic debut, Whiteout, and while his art works exceptionally well in a gritty crime story like that, he excels at drawing moments of comedic gold such as you will find in The Fix. Overall the art is a hilarious 5 out of 5.
The Fix is truly one of, if not the best comedy books being put out right now and thankfully it is still so early in its run that jumping on at this point is very easy. It gets my full recommendation and a perfect 5 out of 5 stars.
