Crave is a new comic series that explores desire, what people are willing to do to meet those urges, and how much control people might give up to get what they want.
We meet David, who hasn't used the app yet, but is seeing the results that it's bringing for others and is starting to become tempted by it. David receives a sexy picture of Alexandria, a girl he's always wanted to date, via the app with the question of if he wants to see more. This comes at the same time that David is having a bit of an argument with his girlfriend, who has ignored his wishes and has arranged for him to travel home with her to meet her family. Perhaps in part spurred on by the app, David dumps her.
His roommate, Albert, gives into the app, telling it that he's always wanted to hook up with one of the prettiest girls in there, a girl that would normally be out of his league. The app tells him to immediately leave the room, to go to a specific lift, and get inside. Following the instructions, Albert finds himself in the lift with the focus of his desires, just as the lift breaks down. It appears that the app is more than just a hook-up device, a way of horny teens finding each other so that they can bang. The app knew where to send Albert, it knew where the girl he liked was, and it either knew the lift would break, or caused it.
The hints that there's something more sinister at work are emphasised when their roommate, Saito, has to leave the campus. The small note he left them, a post-it with the words 'Whatever you do DON'T USE the "Crave" app!!' written on it falls to the ground, unnoticed by the others.
Crave is an interesting series. It seems to be using sex to sell, with a scantily clad Alexandria on the cover, and the Crave app is being used mainly for sex. But it also feels like the book is laying the groundwork for something more sinister. The book seems to be gearing up to ask the question what happens if people can get everything they want? Even just one issue in we're seeing that people are acting out of character, that things are becoming somewhat chaotic, and the the app is hurting people as well as fulfilling some's desires. I also suspect that it's going to be touching upon the idea of freedom, and of how quickly people are willing to give up part of their autonomy in order to get what they think will make them happy.
And despite pushing the sex angle on the covers, the book doesn't resort to pushing it in your face as you read it. Most of the book is characters talking, university halls and lecture rooms. It's not wall to wall sex and nudity, and even when it does happen the art, by writer Maria Llovet, never really gets explicit. Most of it is suggestive. We see a student giving his teacher oral sex, but it's angled in a way that you see nothing. Alexadria's pictures are sexy, but there's no actual nudity in them, with her nipples always covered, and underwear always on. It uses things like rope play, ball gags, and the tiniest hint of bush to provoke images of more overtly sexual acts, but the book never goes there explicitly. As such, those coming to this book purely for sex might be surprised to find that this first issue is focused more on character and story.
Crave has a pretty solid first issue, one that set the series up to go in some interesting directions. Whether it strays into the realms of sexual thriller, or just ends up as pornography is yet to be seen, but it feels likely that it's going to be the first; and I'm interested in seeing what comes next.
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