Are you getting sick of seeing so many issue #1s in this franchise yet?
Speed Racer #1
WildStorm Productions (October, 1999)
“Born To Race”
WRITER/ARTIST: Tommy Yune
COLORIST: Matt Milla
LETTERER: Ali Fuchs
EDITOR: Eric DeSantis
A young Speed Racer cheers on his brother Rex even though he went to the team from the nation of Kapetapek. It’s their cousin Hank in the Mach-3 indy car for this race, which at least has Sparky cheering for him, but Pops promised his wife he’d try to make up with Rex. Also in the stands is Rex’s manager, the mysterious “X”, who is actually driving the car by remote. Villains try to take the remote but in the battle the car crashes, which was “X”‘s plan since “Rex had to die to make way for Racer X”, but Speed blames X and vows to unmask him someday.
What they got right: First let me say that between Yune’s colors and Milla’s colors the artwork is a thing of beauty. I wish I had half their skill just in this comic from decades ago. As a new version of Speed and Racer X’s backstory (I don’t expect them to follow the NOW comics continuity) this isn’t bad. We actually get to see the crash that Rex uses to fake his death.
What they got wrong: Although I don’t know why he had to change teams to do it. He could have rigged this either way but I assume this will be explained in the next issue or two.
What did I think overall: A good start to the story and some great art overall makes this a book to check out.
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