|
|
|
American Virgin #16-17
“Around the World” Parts 2-3 of 5
Book Released: 8 Aug 2007
Posted 14 Aug 2007
Writer: Steven T. Seagle
Artist: Becky Cloonan
Artist: Celia Calle, cover
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Ink: Jimm Rugg
Colors: Brian Miller
Publisher: Vertigo Comics
3.50 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by J. W. DeBolt Jr.
|
|
Adam Chamberlain vowed to remain chaste until marriage to his chosen mate Cassie. [Check
here for a review of issue #1.] They were to marry in mere weeks, and Adam& rsquo;s self-control was in a titanic struggle with his libido. When Cassie died, he had to reconsider his decision and the way he formulated his principles. Did he have to die a virgin? Or was Cassie, perhaps, not really the chosen one? Going back over his reasoning process, he determines that Cassie was only one among a group of possible candidates for being his chosen one.
Ah, the convenience of necessity-based interpretations.
American Virgin
does seem to maintain its standard, even while Adam’s standards
keep getting redefined.
|
Now Adam is trying to spend time with Vanessa to determine if she is the chosen one. He travels with her to Rio De Janeiro, Kawasaki, and Bangkok. In Kawasaki, they and Vanessa’s former college roommate Tonya attend the Kawasaki Penis Festival. Adam is mortified by the displays and Tonya heartily explains the benefits of cultural differences between Japan and America. Apparently, Japanese youth are better adjusted, sexually, in part because of Japan’s openness toward sexuality (which contributes to one running theme in this series).
In the next issue, while in Bangkok, we see that Adam is still being haunted, or bothered, by the ghost of his girlfriend, former chosen one Cassie. Upon the advice of Adam’s sister Cyndi’s crossdressing girlfriend, Adam seeks out the “Sak Yant,” a ceremony or procedure where mystic tattoos allow the ghost that’s haunting you to get what it wants one last time before being forever banished. Cassie’s ghost isn’t happy with that and warns Adam again how far he’s strayed from the godly path. But Adam proceeds and he gets a two-fer: he experiences something for the first time that he didn’t think he would until much later and he learns something to assuage his guilt-ridden conscience. This knowledge may also reinforce his supposition that Cassie may not have been the chosen one in the first place.
Meanwhile, Cyndi is having issues with Mel, her female friend who dresses and acts like a man. Cyndi wants a relationship with a real man who can give her aught real men can. Mel reasons that he’s just like a man who’s been in an accident and been incapacitated. He’s no different; would she turn her back on a man she loved if that happened to him? This argument, strangely, gives her pause and she reconsiders. I don’t think it would work on many women, but Cyndi is in that teenage-rebel mixed-up stage, so anything could happen.
Though not my favorite series by far, American Virgin does seem to maintain its standard (even while Adam’s standards keep getting redefined). It doesn’t slam the chaste lifestyle outright and doesn’t ridicule it (though it was pretty hard on Adam’s parents, playing up the stereotype of corrupt and hypocritical evangelists which is far from true but is the preponderant cliche in entertainment media). And the series has not yet broken down to the point where Adam decides that hedonism and the way of the material world are the preferential paths to follow. I don’t know if it’s a matter of time before that happens, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does not. Will Adam join the bleeting herd? Will he reform his views to reflect his desires? Or will his role as America’s pre-eminent virgin prevail?
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
|
|
