Spandex

http://spandexcomic.wordpress.com/

Spandex are an all-gay superhero group who live in Brighton. Martin Eden, Spandex’s creator, has published four issues so far, and they can either be bought separately or in a collector’s pack of four that comes complete with a free Pink
Ninja Attack badge.

It’s quite hard to see who Spandex is aimed at though. There’s a child-like approach to the presentation of the whole package with strong flat colour and clearly delineated outlines, free badges, as mentioned above, and fairly standard superhero fare, tinged with a Days of Future Past/Misfits dystopian schtick that draws out a slightly darker feel to the content than the art style suggests.

The covers are reminiscent of Paul Grist, but the interior art is scrappier and though bold, lacks some technical finesse. That said there are some very effective layouts and quite often the page design as a whole lifts the lumpier details of the panel’s interiors.

Storywise Spandex fight villains, shag people and do the other stuff super people do – but they do it in Brighton and are called things like Prowler, Butch, Glitter and Bimbo. Which is entertaining for a moment – a 50 foot KD Lang t-shirt sporting lesbian looming over a rebuilt West Pier is certainly diverting, a there’s a smattering of well pitched queeny banter – but sadly the novelty of place and setting wares off quickly.

Ideally this would be mitigated by the other main feature of the series – loads of soap opera – people lose lovers, get betrayed, question their sexuality – but it’s all centered around characters that aren’t rounded out enough for the reader to care.

Spandex is a comic that I was predisposed to like, but its writing let it down, along with some of the lazier bits of art. The conceit – Brighton’s own superhero soap opera – is fine – but the characters require depth to make this work and their one dimensionality – the French girl, the butch one, the tranny etc – undermined what I’d hoped would be an enjoyable series.