“When a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.”- Kurt Vonnegut
There are a lot of new indies that come out every week, and even my $400 a month pull list can’t catch them all, so it’s no surprise to me that I almost missed out on this title.
Fortunately I managed to get a copy or two, and I am pleased to say that The Many Deaths of Laila Starr is one darn fine comic.
So with no further ado, let’s jump into it. Here’s the blurb:
A powerful new series for fans of The Wicked + The Divine and The Dreaming from Ram V (Justice League Dark) and Filipe Andrade (Captain Marvel) that explores the fine line between living and dying in Mumbai through the lens of magical realism. * With humanity on the verge of discovering immortality, the avatar of Death is fired and relegated to the world below to live out her now-finite days in the body of twenty-something Laila Starr in Mumbai. * Struggling with her new-found mortality, Laila has found a way to be placed in the time and place where the creator of immortality will be born… * But will Laila take her chance to permanently reverse the course of (future) history…or does a more shocking fate await her?
It’s hard to really write about The Many Deaths of Laila Starr because it is so very different from so much of what is already on the shelf. Death gets fired, is sent to Earth to take over a human body to live out her days, and immediately starts hatching a plan to kill the person responsible for her no longer having a place in the cosmos.
I mean, what more can you say about this, except that it is wonderfully, fantastically different. The character designs and art are vibrant and interesting. The plot is both simplistic and mind-bendingly complicated. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr raises questions about life, the universe, and everything else and the first issue ends with such a surprise twist that I honestly have no clue where this title is going.
Add to that Ram V bringing in his Indian upbringing to give The Many Deaths of Laila Starr a mood and vibe that is both alien and familiar at the same time, and I think we’re seeing something that could very easily match Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol run for being outlandish and at the same time intensely grounded.
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr is a good book, written by a great writer, and illustrated by a fantastic team. If you missed picking it up this week go back to your LCS and demand a copy (or, at the very least, politely ask for a copy). You won’t be disappointed.
