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.

Batgirl Volume 1: Batgirl of Burnside

Honestly, I have checked in here and there with DC Comics over the past five years. There has not been much attractive about their books since they rebooted into the new 52, and I find most of their books too dreary and depressing to take much stock in, because they seem to have equated gratuitous violence with maturity. But I have heard a lot of good things about this Batgirl book, so I decided to give it a try.

Now, I know Batgirl has a long and convoluted history. This version of the character was created in conjunction with the 1960s Batman TV show, and Barbara Gordon has been a librarian, a congresswoman, and eventually a paraplegic computer genius over the decades. Here, she is re-imagined as a hip 20-something living in the trendy Burnside area of Gotham City. She is still a vigilante, but one who spends her days studying computer science as a university student. So, this book looks at Batgirl as much as a person with a bunch of new relationships and tech-savviness as it does as her playing the superheroine role. Just look at this sequence:

 

 

Overall, I found a lot to like about this book. It was fun, colorful, and it features some good character work as well suspenseful plots. I would not say it's the best superhero comics I have ever read, but it is certainly well crafted and enjoyable. And I did like that it was a very contemporary book. I do not know if it will age well, but in this moment this book is one of DC's top 3 publications (which is faint praise, at least coming from me, sorry). I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone who wants to read accomplished and entertaining superhero comics.

The creators behind this book are Cameron Stewart (plot and breakdowns), Brenden Fletcher (plot), Babs Tarr (finished art), and Maris Wicks (colors). 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. Wicks has written and drawn a number of science themed graphic novels. These collaborators speak about their work on this series in this interview.

The reviews I have read about this book cover the full spectrum from praise to dislike. Matt Santori-Griffith wrote that this book "takes the mythos of Barbara Gordon and expands it even further, giving rise to a new chapter in her history," showing that that Batgirl stands alongside Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as one of DC’s premier heroes." Etelka Lehoczky called it "pretty good"  on the whole, especially the artwork and the story's take on digital identities. Dustin Cabeal wrote that he found this book too trendy and wrote, "This Batgirl is written and created based on public opinion and that’s terrible because public opinion shifts all the time"

Batgirl of Burnside was published by DC Comics and they have more info about the series here.