Motor Crush #1 Review

Writers: Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr, Cameron Stewart / Artist: Babs Tarr / Image Comics Image Comics’ new cyberpunk racer title Motor Crush has had quite the allure for long-awaiting fans. Pick your interest. Maybe it’s the lead character, a young Black woman on a motorcycle whose persona fuses mohawk Storm with a Fast and Furious action film. Maybe it’s the Batgirl creative team of Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr, and Cameron Stewart. Maybe it was Motor Crush #0 picked up from a convention and left you looking for more pages when you found yourself at the last. Whatever the case, comic fans recognize the allure even if comic book stores are still under the false impression that a new, Black woman-led title is unlikely to sell. Brief digression here – if your comic book store happens to be one that understocked Motor Crush by assuming readers are too racist buy a comic with a Black woman on the cover, only to perpetuate that exact racism and justify their decision under “responding to the market,” express your disappointment in them, find a new comic store, or both.

Motor Crush follows Domino Swift – a racer’s name if I ever heard one – and her bifurcated life in which both sides are based on racing. By day she races legitimately in the reality-TV style World Grand Prix, complete with the Motor Crush-analog 343 Guilty Spark from Xbox’s Halo that records her interactions with friends and competitors to build tension for the sport and entertain fans. In that regard, she lives a v…