Speed Racer #0

From Free Comic Book Day 2025 at Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA.

Title: Speed Racer
Issue: 0
Date: 2025
Publisher: Mad Cave
Writer:David Pepose, Mark Russell
Artist: Davide Tinto, Chris Batista, Sabrina Cintron
Colorist: Rex Lokus, Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Buddy Beaudoin
Editor: Chas Pangburn

An updated reboot of the classic anime with two stories, one for Speed himself and one for Racer X. The setting is the fictional Palm City and the vibe is very definitely borrowing from the Fast and Furious films. Speed is a street racer, driving his heavily modified Mach 5 through the streets of a city obsessed with the anything-goes sport of "Formula X" racing. Spritle, updated as a youtuber, provides most of the dialogue here as Speed is more of the silent type, and is busy evading the police for most of the scene. A veteran cop clueing in a rookie on life on the streets of Palm City provides a bit of extra story perspective as well as giving some setting background. 

Speed as the outlaw street racer makes sense, although it makes so much sense that it feels like to most obvious possible direction that this reboot could have been taken in. The action was fun, though. Car chase scenes don't always translate well into comic panels, but the artists here did about as good a job as was possible to convey the pacing and movement of the action. The end of the story teased some of the other familiar characters who will have roles moving forward.

The second story has Racer X beating up some gangsters and keeping Speed from getting shot by a sniper. Pretty standard comic-vigilante jobber squash, but it kept the feeling of Racer X watching over Speed that was such a part of the show.

This was a good start to this new vision of Speed Racer, and it had enough action and plot development to be more than just a teaser.

Rating: 7/10

Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero

Title: Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero
Publisher: Legendary Comics
Date: 2013
Writer Travis Beacham
Penciler: Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet, Pericles Junior, Chris Batista, Geoff Shaw
Inker: Mark McKenna, Steven Bird, Pericles Junior, Matt Banning
Colorist: Guy Major, Tom Chu, Dom Regan
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover: Alex Ross
Editor: Greg Tumbarello, Bob Shreck, Guillermo del Toro

This is a prequel to the film Pacific Rim. It does a great job of expanding on the backgrounds of the characters, particularly focusing on Marshal Stacker Pentecost.

We get to meet Pentecost's sister, a RAF fighter pilot on training in the US on K-Day, the date of the first kaiju attack on San Francisco. And we get to meet her wingmate, Tamsin Sevier, who goes on to become Pentecost's jaeger co-pilot.

The book covers Tendo Choi's experiences in San Francisco on K-Day, and introduces the woman who developed the two-pilot drift system and went on to become co-pilot of the first jaeger to see combat.

For fans of the film, this is a treasure trove of background, and it's got some great character development and a lot of tragedy and triumph. It is deeply sad in places, and the right kind of fun in others.

I also loved the diversity of the cast of characters. Many writers would have felt like they had gender diversity covered with one female pilot (Pentecost's sister, Luna). It was awesome to see Tamsin introduced as well, and then given a powerful role in the story.

There were a couple of inconsistencies with the story presented in the film, most notably the fact that nuclear weapons were used on kaiju in the early years, which appears to be a contradiction with the background as presented in the film. This may have been an issue of final editing to the film.

I do feel like you need to have seen the film to get the most out of this, but for fans of Pacific Rim, this is a great collection of backstory that adds dimension to several key characters.

Rating: 8/10