Misdirection #1 Review - Pilot Season 2011

Introduction:

An up and coming NASCAR driver makes a terrible mistake one night proving to his buddies that he is as tough as he says he is. The mistake takes the life of an innocent, leaves him with a revoked license, and burns his future career of driving fast paced cars and living a life of luxury. His life in ruins, he gets one last chance to drive fast, but the job in question is like nothing he has done before.

Vitals

Title: Misdirection #1
Writer: Filip Sablik
Pencils: Chris DiBari
Cover: Michael Gaydos
Colors: Ivan Plascencia
Letters: Troy Peteri
Content: Misdirection is for mature readers and contains graphic violence, adult situations, and language.
Publisher: Image Comics (Top Cow)
Cost: $3.99

Story:

Vince Martinez is a man living the dream. He drives fast cars for a living and is on his way to winning the NASCAR circuit. His buddies goad him into a night on the town and when he tries to prove his bravado after a night of drinking, a young woman is dead, his license is gone, and his dreams are gone with it. Vince is left with riding the bus to a dead end job, separated from his family, and nothing to show for it.

His buddy from his past life drops a gift in his lap. Strings were pulled to get his license back and he wants Vince to drive jobs for him. Nothing fancy, just pick up a passenger and drop them off at an undisclosed location.

What Vince doesn’t realize is that his “passengers” have just robbed a bank and need him to drive them to safety. Even with his top notch driving skills, he can’t shake the cops in close pursuit and his passengers are starting to turn on themselves. Vince decides to give up and surrender, but a phone call persuades him to kick it into high gear and speed off. It is up to him to escape, or his loved ones will pay the price.

Review:

Pilot Season has some stiff competition this year with some really great titles like City Of Refuge, The Beauty, and Theory of Everything. Sablik and DiBari have to work extra hard to get the votes they will need to win this competition. I just don’t know if what we have here will pull it off.

As a total package, I felt there were some great things here. The pacing is good, the art is well done, and the character development was good as well. I guess I felt the total premise was a bit below what we have seen in other comic books in Pilot Season. I just felt that the overall premise was something that’s been done and done better. What is to come could easily prove me wrong, I just don’t see it happening with this first issue.

Conclusion:

I try not to be too negative in my reviews of comics and like I said, there was a lot that Misdirection did well. If we had the full mini-series to judge, then my opinion might be vastly different. As it is I don’t see Misdirection making it to the final cut as what is here just doesn’t stack up to the other comics in the competition.