Sexcastle

This latest effort by Starks (Boo! Halloween Stories) will have readers turning its pages faster than a lethal ex-con super-assassin can dispatch villains with a butterfly knife. That act also pretty much sums up this graphic novel, in which the eponymous hero, just released from prison after having served time for killing the vice president, trades in his assassination skills to work in a humble flower shop. His old foes should know better than to take him on again—but they try anyway. Enter a combination of bad guys and worse guys, all dead set on taking out the hero, only to find out that it’s a futile task. The pace of the narrative, inspired by the often ferocious momentum of ’80s action movies, is fast and furious. Sexcastle doesn’t look like much of an assassin—more like a hippie with an eye patch—but during the action sequences Starks draws him as having speed to rival the Flash and knife skills that would humble an Iron Chef. All in all, Starks’s forceful line work, intense close-ups, and breakneck pacing make Sexcastle entertaining in the most lethal way. (Mar.)