Martin Eden is a tease.
When he released the first issue of his colourful, camp gay superheroes comic Spandex, he warned us we'd have to wait quite some time before we saw them again. Then something unexpected happened. Something really quite wonderful. The kind of thing your average small press creator can only dream of. The world went Spandex crazy. It began with a simple press release... and before he knew it Martin was being interviewed by newspapers, websites, TV and radio shows all around the world. Spandex wasn't strictly the world's first gay superhero comic, but it may well have been the first to market itself as such, and that was just the kind of hook journos love. That said, the success of Spandex isn't merely down to novelty value and smart advertising - none of that would matter if the comic wasn't also loads of fun... and fortunately, that's exactly what it is.
So here we have issue 2, much earlier than planned, and even more fun than the first one. Yes, there are pink ninjas. Yes, there's camp humour, bitchiness and sarcasm. Yes, this is a mature readers book, so you do get to see in cartoon detail the problems caused by excitement to the male member when dressed in skintight spandex. But there's also a depth of characterisation that will be familiar to readers of Martin's other classic superhero comic, The O Men, and there's the beginnings of some sneaky plot machinations that bode very well for the future. Plus Martin's art looks better than ever in dayglo colour. I really hope the success he's enjoyed so far is just the beginning.
Find out more about Spandex and order your own copy here.
