Motor Crush, Volume 1

This book is another I got at HeroesCon this year, and it's by the same creative team behind the recent, very fun Batgirl revival. Here they have more leeway to write and draw as they please, as this is a creator-owned property. Motor Crush follows the exploits of Domino Swift, a phenom competing in an international motorcycle racing league. She reluctantly takes part in the business side of racing, which includes participating on social media and making sponsors happy.

 

 

Also, she has a secret night life where she competes in illegal and dangerous street races where the winners obtain Crush, a rare and valuable substance that supercharges ordinary motors. The rub here is that for some reason Domino is able to take Crush herself, and instead of dying she gains superhuman attributes. Over the course of this book, we get to see the effects of her lifestyle on herself, her family, and her girlfriend. Also, Domino begins to learn more about herself and how she came to have her special abilities.

I loved the energy and artwork of this book. The story is quirky but it hums along at a good clip, and the images really pop, conveying action and characterization in excellent fashion. There is a lot going on in this book, but I have to say that it was all very compelling and thrilling to read. And it ends on a breath-taking cliffhanger that left me hungering for more of this series.

The creators behind this book are Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, and Babs Tarr. All of them are involved in plotting the series, and Tarr and Stewart create the artwork. Stewart is an Eisner and Shuster Award winning artist/writer who has worked on a number of different comic book series as well as his webcomic Sin Titulo. Fletcher is a veteran comic book writer, and Tarr is an illustrator who is relatively new to comics. The trio speak of their work on this book and series in this interview.

Most of the reviews I read about this book were positive. Mara Danoff wrote, "The characters endear themselves quickly and never appear one dimensional." Nico Sprezzatura summed up, "If you want fast-paced, candy-colored cyber-motorpunk, then Motor Crush is the comic for you." Rory Wilding felt the story took a while to get up to speed but still concluded, "Although the narrative occasionally falters, Motor Crush expands on some of the ideas the creators explored in their Batgirl run and has fun with this colorful futuristic bike-centric action book."

Motor Crush, Volume 1 was published by Image Comics, and they have a preview and more info about the series available here. This book collects the first five issues of the series, which will resume in September with a six-issue arc. I would recommend this book for more mature high school readers and anyone older.