The moment when young Darius is confronted with the fleeting nature and sanctity of life is rendered by introducing Bardhan as visually parallel to a tree that Darius is grasping, and then, in the next panel, drawn gigantic (Bardhan’s skin and the bark given a similar tone) as if he, himself, were a looming tree. 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. Instead, take your time, and savor the art, the writing and, well, everything else — the graphic novel has a lot of things going on. To depict Hindu mythology in graphic formats is nothing new, as these tales have been featured in religious and cultural art for millennia.

This is since, I feel brown people often get left behind in the discourse of social justice as there is a tiered hierarchy involved within social justice issues.I would recommend this for fans of when the DC Vertigo line was at its peak, or people who love creative takes on mythology in a modern world. Just like These Savage Shores, this story was put together beautifully and by the time you get to the end, you’re all caught up with emotion.

I now have a poet to look up and read, and the end of a story that was so brilliantly unhinged that I am not upset we did not get a fairytale ending. I mean the fact that it seems there was no real invention of immortality, it just seems they both, Darius and Laila, found out the real meaning was it is to be alive, and what it means to live. The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr is almost too timely a read as the COVID-19 pandemic still ravages the world.

In the latest issue, 8-year-old Darius (the foretold “world-changer” who will usher in immortality and make Death redundant) loses Bardhan, a mysterious man that the younger character admired. Death is the scariest concept to me and I think of frequently on a daily basis so parts of this book made me very depressed and miserable. The narrative style was wonderfully poetic, like an old tale in a dusty tome on a long forgotten shelf of a ramshackled library. He takes cultural ideas and beliefs, combs through them for universal experiences and sentiments, and gives them a voice that's wholly unique and maybe a little transcendent.

Throughout these meetings, she starts to see what death does to people, family and loved ones, which begins to change her outlook on the topic. In an age where the trailer for Marvel’s “Across the Spider Verse (Part One)” is speculated to feature animation of Mumbattan (a portmanteau of Mumbai and Manhattan), the graphic novel “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” offers an accessible deep-dive addition to the collective imagination of the omniscient city of Mumbai as well as its storied supernatural inhabitants. Maybe the ending is too tidy, and maybe the character arc for Death is somewhat truncated, but I don't care. As much as it bends your thoughts towards ideas of death and destruction, it also celebrates life and is a surprisingly comforting read.When they are both given a chance at immortality, their individual decisions lead to a surprising and touching series finale. In its first two issues, meticulous care is put into showing how life illuminates itself against the larger backdrop of death. All in all if you’d like to read something that discusses mortality or uses Hinduism in a fun way similar to how Greek and Norse mythology are used in today’s popular culture, then this is a great book. Godess of death is fired from God's office and she is sent to earth for living a mortal life in the body of a girl named Laila Starr. A disinterested young woman named Laila Starr reclines on the ledge of an open window several stories above.

The most interesting thing about each issue is that each time Laila meets Darius, two incidents happens and the way they happen was so interesting to see. In recent decades, the beloved Amar Chitra Katha comics — which were a staple of my parents’ childhoods — often come to mind when reading “Laila Starr. If you need proof, look no further than Laila’s flowing hair (which is featured on almost every page) — the modern bangs mixed with traditional flowing locks, the intense shadows and highlights and the way it floats, suspended in mid-air with irreverence for the laws of physics, tells you everything you need to know about “Laila Starr”’s divergence from the canon.Laila and Darius meet at intervals throughout his life, which unfolds through a series of staid recaps. First and foremost, allow me to say that I really liked both the art and the POC representation that this graphic novel brings to the table.