Babs Tarr, Cameron Stewart, and Brenden Fletcher are back together again for their Image debut, “Motor Crush” #1. This creative team has demonstrated a sharp style in their past work, a cool vibe that makes their projects wonderful to look at and soak in. Free from the editorial oversight of DC Comics, Fletcher, Stewart, and Tarr hope to turn in something truly off-the-wall and exciting.
Written by Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, & Babs Tarr
Illustrated by Babs Tarr & Brenden StewartThe team behind the critically acclaimed revamp of Batgirl returns with an exciting sci-fi action-adventure series! By day, Domino Swift competes for fame and fortune in a worldwide motorcycle racing league. By night, she cracks heads of rival gangs in brutal bike wars to gain possession of a rare, valuable contraband: an engine-boosting “machine narcotic” known as Crush.
For all its energy, for all its attitude, for all its action, “Motor Crush” #1 ultimately falls short of being something special by relying on easy and convenient comic tropes. There’s been a lot of anticipation surrounding this book, especially following Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, and Babs Tarr’s successful run on “Batgirl.” To a large extent, therre’s a strong amount of confidence between the three of them, which leads to some interesting moments throughout the book.
Stewart, Fletcher, and Tarr introduce us to this soft cyberpunk world one part Speed Racer and another part Akira. This is a world where motorcycle racing is everything and out hero, Domino Swift, is very good at it. No, more than that. She could very well be the best, if they don’t get to her first.
Except: Domino Swift has a drug problem. Specifically with this pill called Crush. It makes everything go faster, makes everything seem more precise, and is, of course, highly illegal. In addition to her main racing duties, Domino Swift spends her nights in these intense street races, where the victor is rewarded with a supply of the drug.
Most of “Motor Crush” #1 follow’s Domino Swift’s string of bad ideas. Should she spend the night in with her dad and sponsors, having a delicious meal and talking about what’s coming next? Not when there’s another race to be had! When she learns one of her team’s former mechanics stole her Crush stash, does she write it off and dive deeper into new ways to acquire more? Of course not, because she’s going to get what’s rightfully hers, regardless of the level of security.
She’s like a morally gray Speed Racer (so maybe more like Racer X?) who’s not above doing something illegal if she thinks she can get away with it. Domino Swift’s an interesting character to follow, her ambiguity giving Tarr, Fletcher, and Stewart more room to amp up the tension.
And I haven’t even really touched on the races themselves. “Motor Crush” #1 is already bright and colorful, but the action sequences take that vibrancy and boost it till it’s bursting. It’s not just the hot pink stripes trailing Domino Swift as she takes another tight corner, pulls off another tricky maneuver, or beats down on one of her competitors. It’s that Babs Tarr has gotten so much stronger at staging these things, at showing us that pitch perfect moment to deliver. (According to the Image website, both she and Stewart contributed to the art, but I’m not sure how they divvied it up. Judging from their previous collaboration, I gotta give props to Tarr on this one.) The rhythm, the beat of the page revs up the adrenaline levels.
Where the book struggles, however, is in how it delivers its information, especially when it comes to the wider world of “Motor Crush” #1. I like the “touch here for more” footnotes and the way the team makes the page feel more interactive — for lack of a better term — during the expositional bits. Yet, on top of this, they add a first person narration, which doesn’t appear until like five pages into the story. Not only is this a distraction and an easy out to connect with Domino Swift’s characterization, it actively hurts the material. It demonstrates a lack of trust between the creators, the material, and, worst of all, the reader. Not only could you take out these boxes and still understand everything that’s happening, but the characters become even more richer and interesting without Domino Swift talking about them.
Continued belowThe device is lazy and typical of Fletcher and Stewart’s scripting — that superhero M.O. It undermines all three of their work. So much of “Motor Crush” #1 is enamoring, infatuating, but it’s so caught up in its glamour and spectacle it abandons doing anything equally bright with its structure.
As fun, exciting, and energetic as it appears, “Motor Crush” #1 ultimately falls short of being as great as we may have hoped. While the presentation is intoxicating and the characters interesting, the actual storytelling is lazy and conventional. That distrust it shows to its audience and to itself overshadows everything it does well.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Fun art and high energy are undercut by a lack of trust in its storytelling, its own creators, its readers, and itself.
