The Last Driver #1
Writer: Sean Murphy
Artist: Sean Murphy
Colors: Simon Gough
Letters: DC Hopkins
Cover: Sean Murphy
Publisher: Image Comics
Gonna be quite open with you and let you know that I almost passed on The Last Driver. Mainly for the fact my read pile has become HUGE and adding to it didn’t seem like the wisest of choices. And as I look around the past few years, I’ve noticed that way too much of my dystopian sci-fi fantasy stories are getting mixed in with reality. However, there was something about Clutch and a world where driving is illegal that kept tugging at me. Plus, I’m a sucker for a good car chase sequence that involves explosions, crashes, and near death escapes which does hit that nostalgia button since I grew up on a steady diet of shows and movies that provided just that. So here I am being transported into a fantasy world where the extremely rich and powerful have their boots on the neck of the everyman
After we get an excellent set-up of a world that seems hauntingly familiar we’re thrown into action as Clutch is driving like his life depends on it! It’s a great visual sequence that immediately has you asking all the right questions as you see that things are dire and that the driver is determined to risk it all. But why? Murphy takes us back four hours and we meet the most important person in Clutch’s life, his granddaughter, Cuda. While Clutch waxes poetic about the past and Cuda hangs on every word, Murphy takes this time to not only flesh out more of the world but establish the stakes and you begin to care about the characters involved. From here we meet a larger cast but nothing here feels rushed as the pacing of the story is great as we get little breadcrumbs about Clutch’s criminal (depending on your point of view) past, his resentment of eCop Womak, and his conflicted past with Kowalski.
To be expected, Murphy and Gough deliver excellent visuals from start to finish with huge, bold horizontal panels that barely contain the action inside the panels. The image of the Mach 1 Mustang speeding down the road with a play on one of my favorite lines from the movie Major Payne is absolutely one of my favorite images here. The cityscape looks amazing and gives off the feeling of an overcrowded and claustrophobic metropolis as these immensely tall buildings block out the skyline. When we shift locations to meet our band of outlaws, the art team does a great job of pulling off a visual trick that leads to one of the top ten pettiest reasons to arrest someone. The character designs are great and ridiculous all at once but each one fits perfectly in this world.
The end of the issue is capped off with a splash page that is poster worthy showing a car chase underway as Clutch and Cuda begin their adventure!
The Last Driver #2
Writer: Sean Murphy
Artist: Sean Murphy
Colors: Simon Gough
Letters: DC Hopkins
Cover: Sean Murphy
The second issue gives us a minute to catch our breath as we shift gears and get a proper flashback to Clutch and his daughter, Shelby. This is the moment that was mentioned in the previous issue and Murphy establishes it perfectly. In just a few pages you get everything you need to know about this father/daughter dynamic and it’s adorable. Shelby is just as much a gearhead as her dad and seeing the two of them together is a highlight of the issue. What makes it stand out even more and helps build the growing tension with this scene is Gough’s use of yellows, reds, and orange to make the grayed out flashback sequence pop! Then we get hit with a series of flashbacks within the flashback that is a kick in the feels and as the colors fade out they are quickly brought back to slam us right into the present. The car chase ends in spectacular fashion and its’ a damn shame what they did to that Stingray!
As Murphy takes us on the run with Clutch and Cuda he takes the time shine some light on several characters we only caught a glimpse of or who just had a small amount of panel time in the first issue. From Clutch’s best friend, Trans Am, to the $%#@ Kowalski, and the guy who graces the cover of this issue, Firebird. From the looks of him you can guess he’s exactly the kind of individual you think he is and I hope all the bad things that can happen to a person happens to him. He’s just filled with all the racial microaggressions and the audacity people like him are happy to display. When we meet him he’s being recruited by Kowalski’s right hand to go after Clutch which is Murphy throwing in another wild card and raising the stakes yet again. But even with the addition of more characters the issue never loses focus and each new element just enhances the story without things feeling crowded and unnecessary.
This chapter ends with another car chase that looks like a classic freeze frame at the end of your favorite show and it feels even bigger than the previous one! There’s also several cameos in the garage scene that many eagle eye readers will be able to spot immediately and I hope more things like this pop up throughout the series.
Where the first issue did a great job of setting up the story and getting your attention the second issue is the one that holds it and demands you come back for the rest. So I’ll definitely be here for the remaining issues and a little upset I didn’t preorder this one. If you’re already a fan of Murphy’s work then you’ll have this on your radar. If you’re not as familiar but feel like this might be something you’d want to read then I’d say it’s worth the time and money because The Last Driver is all gas and no brakes!
Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net
