Snake Oiler takes his name too seriously.
Speed Racer: Circle of Vengance #1 (of 4)
Allegory (November, 2011)
WRITER: Tommy Yune ARTIST: Robby Musso INK ASSISTS: Lee Kohse COLORIST: James Rochelle COLOR ASSIST: Lee Kohse & Tommy Yune LETTERER: Jimmy Betancourt EDITOR: Len Wein COVER ART: Lee Kohse & Tommy Yune Based on Mach Go Go Go, created by Tatsuo Yoshida
Speed tries to prove he’s as good as members of the Car Acrobatic Team and gets himself and the Mach 5 seriously banged up. Speed and Sparky have a fight before adding a new feature to the car that will help Speed in the Great Alpine Race, and Pops makes himself sick trying to add it on, flashing back to how he met Speed’s mom.
What they got right: This isn’t Yune’s first run around the track with the Racer family. While I don’t know if this is in the same continuity with his earlier works, it’s still just as good. The art invokes the look of the characters without trying to be anime/manga. I’m curious about Pop’s backstory in this continuity.
What they got wrong: Otherwise, it seems Yune is swiping the main story from the Car Acrobatic Team episode of the show, “The Most Dangerous Race”. I don’t mind seeing a new version of Snake or the CAT, but it’s too close to what I remember of the actual episode.
Recommendation: Speed Racer fans will probably enjoy this, but the first issue is pure set-up so there’s not much otherwise for me to judge on.
I couldn’t even get a decent Best Scene nomination out of this issue.
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