Editors note: This transmission was beamed to me by rebel spies in the midst of the night. Spybot 9000 (Adam McDonald) was forced to see Twilight and put together this review of the latest film in the series.

I’ll say, he was kinder to it than I expected we’d see. Without further ado:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One is a very hard movie to review. It’s not that the film doesn’t accomplish what it set out to do; it does, and Twilight fans will absolutely love every moment they spend in the theater. That said, there are a LOT of issues they will gloss over which I don’t think anyone else will be able to ignore. When the books came out, I read them based on the incredible word of mouth and did enjoy them for what they were — sugar coated young adult fantasy aimed at teenage girls. Once I finished Breaking Dawn, though, I set them aside knowing I would most likely not revisit them again in the future — one reading was enough. Unfortunately, the movies all paled in comparison to the novels, as they were hampered by bad acting, writing, special effects, etc. All of these things rear their heads in Breaking Dawn Part One, but the worst offense is that this is only part one and there is a part two to follow next year. The unfortunate idea to split the final book into two movies, while understandable from the studio’s standpoint, being the cash cow it is, leaves the non die-hard fan with a bad taste in their mouth as this decision causes the story to drag on and on, making the hour and forty minutes seem twice as long. While Deathly Hallows was able to pull off splitting the book for the movies, there just isn’t enough content in Breaking Dawn to do the same, and that is the film’s downfall.

I would say spoiler alert, but since this is based off a book that came out a few years ago, I assume the reader is somewhat familiar with what is taking place in the story, but if you’re not, you’ve been warned.

The day of Bella and Edward’s wedding has almost arrived, and while the two of them and the Cullens are busy prepping for the big event, not everyone is as excited as they are. Jacob is angry not only about the fact Bella chose Edward over him, but also because he realizes it won’t be long until she will be turned into a hated vampire. Freaking out on receiving the wedding invitation, he transforms and runs off, apparently to boycott the wedding. He does change his mind and show up to wish her well, but is horrified to learn they are going to engage in honeymoon activities before she has been turned. Sure enough, vampire/human sex is pretty rough on the human involved, and the bruises he caused makes Edward feel even guiltier than usual, so he refuses to touch her the rest of the honeymoon. Instead, they play chess (with red and white pieces, in a not so clever nod to the cover of the book) no matter what kind of lingerie Bella puts on, or how she tries to seduce him. Their first time did the trick, however, as it is revealed that Bella is impossibly pregnant. Not only is this hybrid child developing much faster than a normal fetus should be, but this accelerated growth is slowly killing Bella as it literally drains her of all her energy. Bella goes into labor and delivers via C-Section, only to die after seeing her daughter for the first time. Edward immediately begins the process of turning her in an effort to save her life, and the movie ends as Bella wakes up, a vampire. The credits roll, there is a short scene that sets up the next movie, and we get a ‘to be concluded’ message.

Overall, the story is interesting, unfortunately, the execution is much too flawed to be enjoyed. When I said earlier that the movie drags, it was almost an understatement. I would say a good half of the movie focuses on people staring into the camera, walking through rooms or up and down stairs, and doing absolutely nothing. Sure, when Bella and Edward honeymoon in Rio and on their private island, pull the camera back and focus on the grandeur of the locale and the flavor of the culture, but don’t do the same thing when walking through the forest around the Cullens’ house that we’ve spent hours seeing in the previous movies. Bella, we get that you’re confused that you’re carrying Edward’s child because you shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant with him, but the ten minutes you spend touching your belly and gazing into a mirror, jaw agape (and in slow motion, for some reason) jars the viewer out of the experience and reminds them they’re just in a theater.

It’s glaringly obvious the screenwriter was doing whatever they could to meet the producers’ demands, but there just isn’t enough in the book to warrant stretching the story over two movies. What I would have preferred would have been a tighter script and a movie that was about thirty minutes longer that encompassed all of Breaking Dawn. Considering where this one ended, I can’t even imagine how they are going to turn the leftover content into another two hour movie. The events shown could have easily taken place in a little over an hour, with the rest of the book wrapping up in about the same amount of time. But, no, the studio wanted to milk this for all it’s worth, so we are getting two sub par movies instead of one decent one.

In the end, though, I’m fully aware that this film was not targeted at me, but to the hardcore fans, and my thoughts and those of all the critics really won’t make any difference to the success of this movie. They will turn out in droves to see it (multiple times, most likely), and they will completely eat it up as the ones in the theater did. Unfortunately for everyone else who will be dragged along with their friends of significant others, be prepared to settle in for the long haul and understand that there is going to be a lot of nothing happening for most of the movie.

Get lots of snacks or sneak in a flask; you’ll probably need both to get through it all.

We are giving away a copy of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Volume 3 and 4!

This is a fantastic show and since the first two volumes are available to watch on Netflix, this is the perfect way to get ahead on episodes. Trust me, this is maybe the best animated series Marvel has been ambitious enough to do and it’s not afraid to take its time and develop one character at a time before bringing them all together.

And they’re fun as hell.

The contest will be open until Monday, November 21. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 22.

To enter, all you need to do is shoot us an email at editor (at) bigshinyrobot.com. Make the subject “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” For an extra chance to win, post on your Facebook wall asking all of your friends to like our Facebook page. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Or both.

Just be sure to mention in your email that you’ve done it.

If you can’t wait, you can get it on Amazon now for $14.99 per volume.

Good luck.

Disney and Pixar released the trailer for their next original film, Brave, today.

It’s a gorgeous looking film, but I get the sneaking suspicion that there’s far more to this than they’re letting on. Their stories are always complicated and rich and I expect this will be no exception.

Here’s the synopsis from IMDB:

Set in Scotland in a rugged and mythical time, “Brave” features Merida, an aspiring archer and impetuous daughter of royalty. Merida makes a reckless choice that unleashes unintended peril and forces her to spring into action to set things right.

The film features the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.

Comment below with your first impressions.

The marketing strategy for The Muppets has been nothing short of brilliant. I only hope the movie can live up to the hype and the legacy.

In their latest brilliant move, they have released these three Twilight themed posters.

I had the chance to do an exhaustive interview with the author Max Allan Collins about his new book from Mickey Spillane’s manuscript, The Consummata. It’s a fantastic read and a sequel to the top selling Delta Force.

For the portions of our interview regarding Spillane and The Consumatta, those will be appearing on The Huffington Post. For the portions of our conversation that had to do with writing, the ebook industry, and Spillane’s writing habits, they are on my writing blog.  You can read that here.

Big Shiny Robot!: Sort of the last thing I wanted to talk to you about was that I had gone back to the Batman books, I’m a big Batman fan, and you are sort of the architect of the revamped origin of Jason Todd.

Max Allan Collins: That was very unpopular incidentally!

BSR!: I remember that! These are the comics I remember coming out, and as a kid I loved Jason Todd, I was 7 or so when these started coming out and 8 when they killed him.

MAC: I always tried to do Batman… I had a problem with the editor.

I had an unfortunate situation where during my tenure there was a revolving door of a artists, I had no continuity, a lot of times I’d be doing a two-part story and one artist would do the first part and a different artist would do the second part with no reference to how the first artist drew the characters.

It was absolutely frustrating but I always tried to write it, the best thing I think I’ve done with Batman is I did a graphic novel called Batman: Child of Dreams that was derived from a Japanese Manga. I had a lot of freedom on that, they let me do whatever I wanted with the script so I feel that I didn’t just translate that, I don’t speak Japanese, It was just my take on that material. I tried ot make it accessible to younger and older readers, I tried to walk the line so it wasn’t silly or campy but that there was someone 7, 8, or 9 at the age I was when I started reading Batman could enjoy the book.

What a lot of people, the Batman show is despised by a lot of comic fans, particularly Batman fans, the dirty little secret of the Batman TV show is that it was extremely accurate to the comic, it was exactly how the comic was. It worked in a similar fashion; it worked for kids who liked a fun adventure story and if you were older you could see some of the irony. If you were under 12 you didn’t know it was campy, so it worked for a huge wide audience. A lot of the stories are based on comic book stories, some written by Bill Finger who was the co-creator of Batman, so this thing they hate was actually extremely accurate for the 1950’s batman. No one would cop to that because they wanted him to be a dark knight, they wanted him to be oh-so serious but now they’ve got Batman screwing Catwoman, which is like the Tin Man doing Dorothy doggy-style.

It’s crazy! It’s just crazy.

These things began as comics for children, that doesn’t mean they have to be childish but trying to make Batman and Robin realistic, that’s grounds for commitment.

BSR!: There is a fine line there, like if you see what Chuck Dixon did with Tim Drake after they killed Jason Todd, they basically made it kind of a Peter Parker novel where he had to deal with high school and…

MAC: That’s the way to do it, I think Stan Lee was the guy that figured it out. I was in a really cool place as a kid, I read comics throughout my childhood and the comics code came in so when I read old comics it had to be from a used book store or something. MAD magazine was around, Batman was still being published, thre were a lot of newspaper strips. I read Dick Tracy as a comic strip, but I also read Uncle Scrooge and all that. By the time I got to junior high, there was Stan Lee who said here’s comics for teenagers. He really found a way to really have fun with it, people forget how tongue-in-cheek Stan Lee was.

In an early issue of Fantastic Four, they get evicted because being a superhero doesn’t pay very well. That’s hilarious. Definitely spoofing the material, he opened the whole world up so I could continue reading comics throughout junior high and high school. It wasn’t like they said in MAD magazine where you’d have to hide it in another book so people wouldn’t see that you were reading a comic.

The Batman show happened when I was a senior and the camp thing came in. All of that stuff, for whatever negative aspects it has for some comics fans because they think the comics are being made fun of, that opened the culture up to everyone and took the stigma away. I bet if the Batman show had never come along, none of this stuff would have happened; graphic novels, underground comics, none of this would have happened. It brought attention to the medium in a brand new way. Comics fans and I never saw eye to eye on how Batman should be handled. I never thought it should be campy. I have been told most of the Jason Todd stuff that they didn’t like was after I was off the book.

Also, it wasn’t my idea! I was hired to do a new origin, people act like an author can go into DC with a gun and make them do Jason’s origin again.

BSR!: I think maybe… I love all that work you did there, I think Jason’s story starting with #408, with him boosting the tires off the Batmobile

MAC: Yeah, which a lot of comic fans don’t like because, surely the Batmobile would have better security than that; I just want to say THERE IS NO FUCKING BATMOBILE! Will you just get a grip?

BSR!: My favourite run starts there and ends with A Death In The Family.

MAC: That’s really nice to hear, I’ll tell you what my revenge was.

The ultimate freelancer’s revenge, although some people say this proves the point of why some fans didn’t like what I did, Toys R Us came to DC and asked to do 3 or 4 packets of toys when Batman was still hot, and they want to sell them at Toys R Us. They looked at 5 years of the Batman comic book, they looked at Year One and Dark Knight and all this stuff. Guess what they picked? Only my comics! That’s all they did, and I got royalties off of it.

While the comic book fans were talking about how terrible what I did was, I was getting incredible checks in the mail for all the comics that were sold at Toys R Us.

BSR!: I didn’t realize until you just said that, but that’s probably where I got some of those first books, I still have my Robin action figure…

MAC: A lot of that has changed because they do have Batman humping Catwoman now, but there’s
been more attention in recent years to providing entry level comic books for kids now. Of course kids are hipper now, and probably more debauched than they used to be so it doesn’t have to be watered down much, but my friend Terry Beatty was involved with a long run of the comics that were based on the various Batman cartoons. That was much more in line with what Bob Kane and Dick Sprang intended.

I’m not saying that you can’t do a somewhat serious Batman, you certainly can, Batman is after all essentially Zorro which is something adults can enjoy. I‘m not preaching any type of dumbing down but I honestly don’t think … it’s what I said about the Wizard of Oz, the door these came in through was for kids and I’m a big preacher … I mean you read Return to Perdition, have you ever read a comic more violent than that?

I put zero blow jobs in my Batman comics I promise you.

BSR!: It’s interesting there are different writers who take it different ways, I think Scott Snyder who just relaunched Batman has a more measured approach to it like you’re talking about

MAC: It is a great character, it’s a great concept with great villains and I, Child of Dreams is definitely
not for kids but it was in that graphic novel sort of format. I really loved being ablt to come back to Batman after some of the trashing I got. It was very tricky, I had to work from a Japanese version and I had a rough translation and they were flopping all of the pages because of the Manga, you have no idea how much time I spent in front of the bathroom mirror holding up the Japanese book to the mirror so I could see how the page would look in the American version because it played differently. It was just an interesting thing. Kia Asamiya is a talented guy, I met him at San Diego Comic Con after the book came out and he was very nice about it, very sweet.

Well, we got off on Batman didn’t we?

BSR!: Yeah, and I have so many more Mickey Spillane questions…

I’ll let you know when the Huffington Post portion of the interview about The Consummata goes live. Until then, you can read the writing portion of the interview on my writing blog.

And be sure to check out The Consumatta. It’s a fantastic read.

After getting a peek at the The Hunger Games movie a few months ago, a full-length trailer has finally arrived!

This trailer gives fans of the young adult novel series their first look at some important characters like Effie Trinket, Cinna and Haymitch played by Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz and Woody Harrelson respectively. Personally, I think the trailer – while a bit short – was really well done. It was exciting without giving too much away, but gave just enough of the story to perhaps generate interest for those who have not read the books. Jennifer Lawrence looks pretty damn close to the Katniss that I pictured in my head as I read the books and Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth appear to fit the roles of Peeta and Gale.

The Hunger Gameshits theaters on March 23, 2012, is directed by Gary Ross and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland.

You can check out the trailer below, or in glorious HD over at Apple.com!

Janine Spendlove, an old friend of mine, published her first novel back in June.

It’s called War of the Seasons: The Human. It’s the first part of a planned trilogy and fits neatly into the YA Fantasy category of books. The Human tells the story of a 17 year old girl named Story who is transported to a different world all by her lonesome and has to overcome great obstacles to save the world.

It’s difficult to find the entire world is hanging in the balance and you can’t even get your own life together.

The Human is a very fun read, very much in the vein of the Chronicles of Narnia or The Hunger Games. It has a very strong female lead, an incredibly well-developed world, a fiendish villain you just love to hate, and above all: a love story that doesn’t actually make you want to gag.

Though it’s a long book (90,000 words or so), I really couldn’t put it down and read it in a single sitting, a rarity for me these days. The world really draws you in and keeps you asking questions about it. And Spendlove has such a rich knowledge of the history of the world she created that it’s just dripping with details behind details you don’t even see. There are elves and faeries, dryads and selkies, trolls and gnomes, and anything else you can think of. And it’s all brought to life through Spendloves charming prose.

It’s destined to be a classic, so I’m telling you all now that you should get in on the ground floor so you can like it before it hits big. The second book doesn’t come out until next year and from what I’ve read of it, I can’t wait until it comes out.

You can order a signed copy from her website, or pick it up on eReaders. I would advise you to do it and see why it’s my Book Of the Week.

Plan of Dissent is the third part of the Umbaran arc and sees Jedi Master Pong Krell once again devising a plan that aims to get all of his troops killed. Instead of dying on the frontlines for nothing, a trio of clones (led by Fives) decide they’re going to take matters into their own hands and come up with a brilliant but risky alternate plan.

Of course they take the idea to Krell first, who dismisses it out of hand. Then they proceed to do it anyway and save the lives of countless clones.

As far as the story is concerned, the episode was essentially a set up for the ending which will lead into the next episode.

And I’ve been talking about Paths of Glory a lot since we started the Umbaran arc and never has it been more prevalent than with the cliffhanger at the end of this episode. Krell is out of control and clinging too much to orders and wants to see these men dead rather than be made a fool of. It’s very un-Jedi like, but that’s what they’re dealing with.

I can see why Dee Bradley Baker had problems with this arc. Watching Hardcase’s fate had me choked up, I can’t even imagine how it must have been to play that scene for Dee.

And while all of that is at the top of my mind, the thing I really want to talk about was the space battle. This might have been the finest Star Wars space battle we’ve seen since Revenge of the Sith. It was complex and intricate, bigger and better than anything we’d ever seen on the show before. The battle was truly breathtaking.

Credit where credit is due: the lighting schemes in this entire arc have been phenomenal, but this episode really pulled out all the stops. The interiors of the Umbaran ships were second to none, but perhaps the best shot I’ve seen this season (and perhaps the entire show) was the Return of the Jedi homage with the clones blasting their way out of the Umbaran supply ship. It was assembled, animated, and lit so well that I had a hard time believing I was just watching a cartoon.

And that wasn’t the only direct classic trilogy reference in this episode. The clones have to bluff Krell just like Han Solo on the Death Star in A New Hope by comlink, and there was some droid odds humour that I got a big kick out of.

I really don’t see how anyone could be complaining about these episodes.

I love these diversions with the Clones and I love seeing how they interact with different kinds of Jedi. And Pong Krell is certainly no ordinary Jedi.

Everything is boiling to a point in the next episode and if it’s a more direct homage to Paths of Glory than any of these others hinting at it, I’ll be happier than I can stomach.

The new Space Battleship Yamato 2199 trailer is here, Viz Media has debuted two Naruto volumes ahead of the print counterparts, and we’ve got another great video to share from Japan – Danny Choo has just shared Episode One from season two of his television series Culture Japan and you can watch it right at the bottom of this post.

First up this week:

It’s been confirmed that we’ll see the re-make Space Battleship Yamato 2199 come to Japan on April 12th, 2012, and I couldn’t be more excited!  At Anime Expo 2011 it was announced that this series will be the animated re-telling of the “Journey to Iscandar” storyline.  The project will initially launch in theaters as a fifty minute feature consisting of episodes one and two – and the rest of the series will soon follow on broadcast television in Japan. Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s adopted son Shoji Nishizaki is leading the project, and the trailer for the series was just launched yesterday on the new Yamato 2199 website:

-s

I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited about this series! I really hope we’ll get North American distribution soon after the release of the series in Japan this spring, but it’s hard to say with this title as only some of the Yamato properties have come to North America since 1974.

Next up this week:

Press Release: November 7, 2011

VIZ MEDIA DEBUTS TWO LATEST NARUTO VOLUMES AHEAD OF PRINT COUNTERPARTS ONVIZMANGA.COM AND THE VIZ MANGA APP FOR iPAD, iPHONE AND iPOD TOUCH

November Digital Manga Update Also Sees Debut of
Natsume Ono’s RISTORANTE PARADISO And GENTE,
As Well As Updates to 17 Popular Series

VIZ Media continues to lead the digital manga (graphic novel) revolution with a variety of new titles just announced for November that are available to read online on VIZManga.com and also for digital download on the VIZ MANGA App for the Apple iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod™ touch.

Among the notable new releases will be the two latest editions of NARUTO – Volumes 54 and 55 – which will be made available on VIZ Media’s digital platforms several months in advance of their print counterparts. This is part of the SHONEN JUMP DIGITAL WARP, a speed-up of selection titles to bring North American readers up-to-date with Japanese releases to prepare fans for the debut of the digital WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP ALPHA in January 2012.

NARUTO Vol. 54 · Rated ‘T’ for Teens · Available Today!

Viaduct to Peace: Naruto and his team engage in an intense battle with the Akatsuki organization as both sides seek the power to determine the future of their land. Internecine fighting weakens the Akatsuki, but will their dark forces sideline Naruto?! Print edition debuts on January 3^rd, 2012.

NARUTO Vol. 55 · Rated ‘T’ for Teens · Available November 21^st

The Great War Begins: Evil masterminds Kabuto and Madara instigate a skirmish with Naruto and friends on Turtle Island. The Allied Shinobi Forces prepare to attack, but are they ready for Kabuto’s horde of reanimated dead ninja?! Print edition debuts on March 6^th, 2012.

November also sees the debut of two titles from the critically acclaimed Natsume Ono. RISTORANTE PARADISO weaves a story around the lives of the staff of a restaurant in Rome, and in the follow-up manga, GENTE, continues to follow the character’s romances, heartaches, hopes and dreams.

RISTORANTE PARADISO · Rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens · Available Now!

At the age of 21, Nicoletta travels to Rome to find her mother, Olga, who abandoned her long ago. Nicoletta finds her at Casetta dell’Orso, a charming little restaurant owned by Olga’s husband. The staff of bespectacled gentlemen welcomes Nicoletta warmly, but Olga’s reception is not so pleasant. Olga has never told her husband that she ever had children–and he must never know.

GENTE Vol. 1 · Rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens · Available November 14^th

Buona sera! Welcome to Casetta dell’Orso, a quaint little restaurant in the heart of Rome. The food’s delicious, but the handsome staff of bespectacled gentlemen is the real draw. Follow these dashing men home and witness their romances, heartaches, hopes and dreams in this delightfully whimsical continuation of Natsume Ono’s beloved RISTORANTE PARADISO.

Additions to 17 popular VIZ Media series are scheduled for November, with over 30 new manga volumes scheduled to make their digital debut. Updates include the rock-and-roll romantic drama of AI ORE and the courtly royal intrigue of THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU, as well as the supernatural adventure of BLEACH, the ongoing high seas pirate fun of ONE PIECE, and the kinetic sci-fi action depicted in new weekly chapters of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION.

New VIZ Media manga volumes launching include:

November 7^th:

BLEACH Vol. 32

DENGEKI DAISY Vol. 6

NARUTO Vol. 54

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 14

OISHINBO Vol. 4

ONE PIECE Vols. 54 & Vol. 55

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB Vol. 12

RISTORANTE PARADISO Vol. 1

November 14^th:

AI ORE Vol. 3

BLACK BIRD Vol. 11

BLEACH Vol. 33

CLAYMORE Vol. 19

D. GRAY-MAN Vol. 21

FUSHIGI YUGI: GENBU KAIDEN Vol. 8

GENTE Vol. 1

KEKKAISHI Vol. 17

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 15

ONE PIECE Vol. 56

RUROUNI KENSHIN Vol. 26

November 21^st:

BLEACH Vol. 34

GENTE Vol. 2

NARUTO Vol. 55

ONE PIECE Vol. 57

NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS Vol. 9

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 16

SATURN APARTMENTS Vol. 4

THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU Vol. 5

November 28^th:

BLEACH Vol. 35

GENTE Vol. 3 – Final Volume!

INUYASHA VIZ Big Vol. 6 – Exclusive to the VIZ Manga App for iPad!

KEKKAISHI Vol. 18

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION Chapter 17

ONE PIECE Vol. 58

RUROUNI KENSHIN Vol. 27

VIZ Media’s digital manga platform allows for universal access for fans for reading manga from their iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and now, VIZManga.com for desktop/laptop computers and Android-powered devices with built-in web browsers. With one account, registered users are able to view their purchases across even more devices than ever.

The free VIZ Manga App continues to be the top app for reading manga on iOS devices and features a rapidly growing library of the most popular manga series in the world, currently offering over 45 series and nearly 500 volumes, with new additions and free Chapter 1 previews added weekly.

For more information, please visit VIZManga.com or www.VIZ.com/apps.

Finally this week: I bring you another video for our Videos from Japan collection – Danny Choo has just shared Episode One from season two of his television series Culture Japan. For those of you who haven’t checked the series out yet, it’s definitely worth a watch for anyone hoping to learn more about Japan and Japanese culture (including fun tech. and geeky stuff). Some of you may have seen him on youtube as the Tokyo Stormtrooper, but he’s much more than that – he is a Japanese cultural expert and self-made, geek-culture powerhouse! This particular episode is a somber one – as it covers the recent earthquake and tsunami, but I highly encourage you to watch and learn a bit about Japan’s struggle to recovery.

Speed Racer has a pretty storied history in comics. The character first appeared in the Japanese manga Mach GoGoGo which was pretty faithfully adapted into the classic Speed Racer cartoon. Speed’s large popularity in the US spawned a re-imagining in the 80’s taking place in then contemporary times. Later, Tommy Yune and WildStorm had a pretty well-received pair of mini series in the 90’s. Most recently, IDW had a mini series starring Speed that in my opinion is best forgotten. Now, Allegory Media has taken the wheel of the Mach 5 with their interpretation of a legend. Read on to find out how it compares to past efforts!

First, I will admit I am a big fan of Speed Racer. When something is good, I’ll praise it to the nines. If it’s bad like the aforementioned IDW series or stuff like Speed Racer: The Next Generation, you won’t be able to get me to shut up about what missteps were taken. With that in mind, I am very happy to say that Speed Racer: Circle of Vengeance #1 falls firmly into the first camp. A big reason for that is the writing efforts of Tommy Yune. He already has a good track record with the character. In that older story though, he mostly re-told Speed’s beginnings. In Vengeance though, Speed is already an established racer. Speed’s character is a bit brash and cocky, but he’s also got that indomitable will that makes him a character you want to root for. Suffice to say, there is much love for the characters in this tale, and it shows in the strength of the writing. The legendary Len Wein on editing duties is also a huge coup in the credibility department.

It's not a Speed Racer tale without Spritle & Chim-Chim in the Mach 5's trunk!

The art on the other hand… It’s not bad. Far from it in fact. When I first cracked the book open, I was a bit taken aback by Robby Musso’s art. That was mainly because I was expecting Yune as writer/artist. That in no way means that Musso is not up to the task. In fact, as I read on, I came to think of Musso’s style as a tribute to the original Tatsuo Yoshida art, but with a flair all his own. Musso is an artist who’s work was unfamiliar to me before I read Speed, but the consistency of style and pleasantness and fluidity of his work means I’ll be following his career with much gusto. In fact, I’d go far enough to say that sans dialog, the art could easily be used to storyboard an actual episode of the show.

"Unknown to Speed, Racer X is secretly his brother Rex Racer!"

Speaking of which, the comic is actually a retelling of the classic Speed episode The Most Dangerous Race. In fact, the first couple of pages are almost verbatim from the show. It’s the differences that make the book appealing though. We’re introduced to the Car Acrobatic Team, as well as Snake Oiler and Captain Terror, but they’re ever so slightly different from what you may know. Snake is apparently a bishōnen, for instance. The story also delves into Pops’ past and how he met Mom Racer. Hopefully, as the story continues, we’ll get a name for her like we did for Pops in this issue (Pete). The story ends on the reveal of Captain Terror, looking much more horrific than 60’s TV would allow. Because of the story’s divergences from the source material, I really have no idea what’ll happen next, but I am certainly on board for more adventure!

How he DOESN'T have helmet hair is beyond me.

Speed Racer: Circle of Vengeance #1 is available at finer comic shops everywhere for $3.99 and is also available digitally via Graphicly for $1.99