Image Comics 2016
Creators Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart & Babs Tarr
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar
With nowhere left to turn, Dom takes a leap of faith and makes a proposition, unmasking Cricket as Domino Swift and putting it all on the line: if she can win the WGP, Lola’s debt is
erased. If not, she belongs to the mob…
You know what hit me when I finished reading this issue, it’s like a modern day twist on Speed Racer! Just so ya know when I was a wee little guy that was the one show I would sit through giving my mother a full half hour to herself. So that kind of comparison from me is a huge compliment.
Dom’s condition is helped by Crush which also provides her with a side benefit as well as a dependency upon it. With her love life on the rocks and having just made a bad decision, depending on your point of view, we get all the drama of a woman on the edge and trying to keep it all together while doing what she loves the most, racing. It really is a modern rush of adrenaline that mixes the whole extreme sports angle with a form of performance enhancing drug addiction that makes this something completely new and original.
Loving the interiors here! The mix of soft, hard and the way the action of the racing is able to be presented really make everything about them pop off the page. The use of page layouts with their angles, perspective and the use of backgrounds here not only provide some wonderful visuals but enhance the mood, tone and feel of what we see. Facial expressions and body language are utilised extremely well for additional characterisation and really give us a chance to get to know the characters better.
I think the way this story is structured is extremely well done. The blend of action into intrigue into the drama and how they manage to interweave with one another is seamlessly done. We have enough players on the board and we know most of their motivations throughout the story it’s really a question is who is going to do what and when. I mean the mob would want Dom in their pocket so ensuring she loses well that’s in their best interest right? But we also see others who have stakes in this as well and what they will do is anyone’s guess.
Lola asking Dom for no more lies is a great thing but is it something we can expect to see? Dom’s been lying for so long and not just to Lola but her father and more importantly herself. It’s as if she needs to find that inner strength that she possesses but is too insecure to unlock. So it’ll be interesting to see her character develop as the story continues onward. With such strong characterisation already in play that it feels like they are just beginning with it has me excited for what’s still to come.
The way this issue ends with the mysterious Racer X type character well that is just another added bonus. I mean who can it be now? (full disclosure i’m singing Men At Work’s Who Can It Be Now) with another seeming ally in her corner can Dom find the strength to do the right thing overcome her fears and win back the love of her life? We’ll see regardless how it all turns out this has more excitement than anything CBS Sports has to offer!