By Keigen Rea — Welcome to Rereads, where I reread comics for a range of reasons, including: not “getting it” with previous reads, not liking it at all the first time, experience and time providing a different perspective on the work, forgetting what happened, or — quite frankly — any other reason I might come up with. The idea is simply to reread with purpose as opposed to comfort, to do a purposeful or critical read rather than one for enjoyment. Anyway, welcome back to Rereads!

This Rereads is about Casanova Vol, 1 Luxuria by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Bá, Chris Peters, and Dustin Harbin. I’m reading the version available on ComiXology Unlimited, although I a regular try to justify buying a print copy.

Why Casanova?

The answer is the same as why I choose Phonogram for this series, but I think it’s all heightened. I read Casanova way too early in my love of comics, and not much about it appealed to me. In general, the spy and espionage genres aren’t something I connect with, and that’s definitely a factor here. The only story I had read that Fraction had written was Hawkeye, and I hadn’t read anything by Bá yet. I was mostly into Big 2 house styles at the time. Everything about Casanova was overwhelming, and it was hard to really figure out what I thought of it.

Pre-Reread Thoughts

For one, I’ve consumed a lot more comics since my first read, particularly ones written by Fraction. I’m much better at understanding them, and I have much better taste in art, in my opinion, at least.

I also just don’t like Casanova Quinn, which I think is the point (like Kohl and Phonogram), and while it feels like a critique of James Bond, I’m not sure I really care. I think the biggest hurdle here for me will be figuring out how to get past the genre trappings of Casanova to enjoy the craft and weird multiversal nonsense, along with the art.

Even though I’m really fond of Fraction’s writing and Bá’s art, I’m going into this reread more pessimistic than the other Rereads I’ve done. I think I’ve made my peace with not liking it to some degree, so I’m going in expecting that it’ll match expectations, but even in that case, hopefully I’ll have more to say than, “spies (not s-ranked pies) are bad.”

This Reread lines up really nicely with what I’ve been reading and writing about elsewhere of late too. Two weeks ago I reviewed, November Book Three, last week Sex Criminals #69, and finally (for now, maybe), I have written this Rereads. In what’s maybe the most Matt Fraction thing, I’m actually writing this before I’ve read the Sex Criminals finale, but my review of the finale will come out first. Maybe all of this will help me like Casanova more? I guess I’ll see!

In preparation for this Rereads, I read Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1-3 & 5, and the article entitled ‘Living like a comic book: Casanova vol 1: Luxuria” by David Faust, at sequart.org, and Ritesh Babu’s recent two-part essay on (most of) Fraction’s current era of comics writing (part one and part two).

Casanova: Luxuria

I did not enjoy this comic much! But I will have fun writing about why!

For one, I realized (largely thanks to David Faust’s article) that my problem very much isn’t with Casanova Quinn, and in fact, I kind of enjoy him as a character, at least from about the mid-point onward. Casanova has a pretty good arc, actually, and I really like the idea that he goes from being someone who loses the only person he loves in the early pages of the book, to having a little slice of found family, while also warring with his father. It works, and it does hit some of my buttons, at least when it leans into it. When the story focuses on those aspects I can see it working for me, but oftentimes it holds those ideas at arms length in order to deliver an episodic caper, which is also fun if more forgettable for me. Either way, I do like Cass, or at least I can find his character and his actions entertaining, I just have a hard time getting joy from the story.

And largely, that’s just interest, but I particularly don’t enjoy the first two issues. The first mission does nothing to hook me, and the fact that I have to see it twice in 28 pages doesn’t do it any favors, while issue two feels like it changes direction one too many times. I think all of my problems with the book are really indemnified in the first two issues, which sets everything else up to be less than what it could have been.

That’s not a problem that I couldn’t otherwise overcome, especially when the rest of the series mostly works. Of course, that’s because there’s a bigger problem, which is that I couldn't find a way to make this story personal enough for me to invest in it.

The thing about Fraction’s writing to me is that, when I’m able to make it personal there’s nothing like it. I completely understand critics of his work like Sex Criminals and Hawkeye, but for me, those land in ways that other entertainment just doesn’t, and maybe even can’t. Even stuff like Jimmy Olsen, November, and FF are works that aren’t really in my comics reading, and that because they hit me just right. And Casanova doesn’t do that, even if it gets close toward the end.

With all that negativity out of the way, I am interested in a lot of what Casanova has to offer, particularly the way it plays with its genre and the way it informs, not just Fraction’s current work, but all of the work I’ve enjoyed from him.

First up is how this proves to be one of the smartest spy stories I’ve experienced (much of my thinking here is thanks to both Ritesh Babu and David Faust’s articles). Now, Fraction clearly has a love for genre fiction, but also has a distaste for the distasteful stuff within them. Faust’s article points out how Casanova doesn’t lean into those problems, and in fact subverts them, specifically with the savages who are secretly far more advanced than anyone (which in itself feels like a reference to Black Panther and/or Wakanda, which then cycles all the way back to being a problem when, in Casanova, a white man essentially founded the nation). Those subversions link Casanova, partially by way of Babu’s essays, to Fraction’s newer work, and that idea of cleaning up these genres he loves. But, while that two-part article covers three of Fraction’s newer works, I notice that it’s a recurring, maybe the recurring, theme throughout his work, in both simple and complex ways.

Take FF for example. Typically, the Fantastic Four are made up of a literal family, three of which are directly related, with Ben really being no less than a brother in effect. While that is played straight in the core book, FF is a complete inversion. The four acting superheroes of the run aren’t related, don’t even know each other well, and one was made up for the run. Even the genders of the team are inverted, with three women and a guy. From the ground up, it’s built to take this “normal” thing, and instead represent what’s closer to reality.

Look next at Sex Criminals. A very fair critique of the series is how truly vanilla it is, covering the same topics that were bravely covered by dramas in the ‘80s and sitcoms in the ‘90s. For all my love of it, Suzy is very much the goodiest of good girls while Jon gets to have actual problems and be neuro diverse. While that is true, I also think the very act of opening the book with a horny, sex positive woman who was once a horny confused teenager is an explicit subversion of the status quo. Even if Suzy’s character can and should be critiqued, her existence as a lead is something that defies what would typically be done in the genre. In the sitcom version of the book, Suzy would be a guy, and we know this because it’s just Saved by the Bell but with Zdasky drawing genitals.

What Casanova has shown me is that Fraction has always been interested in updating these genres that I love, and it’s likely one of the reasons he’s my favorite comics writer, even if I hadn’t realized it sooner.

And yet, I just don’t like this comic. It tries to make something out of a genre I generally dislike and it doesn’t work for me. Still, I think I’m going to read the rest of it. That’s where I come down on this series. I don’t like the story much, I like the art okay, but I’m interested in seeing where it goes and what my reaction to it will be. Hell, I’m still trying to justify buying the series in print.

That does it for this Rereads! Thanks for reading, and a heads up, this will be changing a bit for end of the year stuff. I’ll be using Rereads to highlight my favorite comics from this year, and my plan is that it’ll be weekly at least through December. I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to look, but I’ll figure it out before then, and hopefully you’ll check it out! Again, thanks for reading!

This Rereads is dedicated to the Philly bail fund (https://www.phillybailfund.org/donate). Being in jail for protesting and being poor feels extra awful with next week’s anxiety at our doorstep.

Keigen Rea just spent $50 on his cat, Chidi, because it makes him feel like he has control over his world. Find him on Twitter @prince_organa where he will be for the foreseeable future, even though he could be doing homework or work work.