The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

 

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

This is going to sound bizarre, but please bear with me: I think there is some weird cosmic connection between myself and Ram V… let me explain. I’m sure most comic or literary fanatics will have this, but I have a little book of story ideas. Designs, half plots, characters, and outlines that have come to me over the years. I think Ram V and myself must be on the same mental frequency, or he has access to the little grubby book on my desk.

Let’s pick a few of the ideas I had scribbled down that have somehow become authored by Ram V:

“British colonial Vampires vs native superstitions” – These Savage Shores, 2019

“Mermaid / Atlantis life disrupted by crashed UFO, also alerting Humanity” – Aquaman: Andromeda, 2023

“Man walks through his hometown, reminiscing on his life through vignettes of his previous graffiti” – Gafity’s Wall, 2018.

It must just be coincidence. I’ve never aired this to Ram over social media. There is nothing new under the sun and concurrent thoughts happen all the time. But it is a little spooky.

What am I reading? The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Issues 1 – 5, 2021, Written by Ram V and illustrated by Filipe Andrade.

What’s it about? The Goddess of Death has been made redundant by corporate. Humans will shortly discover immortality and “I’m afraid we are letting you go…”. Outraged, she inhabits the body of recently deceased Laila Starr, and sets out on a mission to prevent the invention. Throughout her time on the mortal plane, she discovers what it truly means to be alive, even if that takes dying to find out.

What’s good about it? The concept is awesome. We’ve seen it done elsewhere, I’m thinking of Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett and American Gods by Neil Gaiman, but this is something special. I don’t know a great deal about Hindu beliefs, but I understand the displaced Goddess to be Kali, although she’s not named in the book.

Ram’s writing is always poetic in its simplicity. I’ve never read a Ram book I’ve not loved. He has this magic of capturing the emotions or themes in few words. Unlike Gaiman or Pratchett, there isn’t a spare syllable on any page.

This really is a transportive work. Andrade’s art, albeit in no way realistic and it sounds incredibly pretentious to say, but it feels like India. Its vibrant, dynamic, colourful, dirty, detailed, fluid and eye catching. Moving all the time coupled with the inner thoughts of smaller scenes within the bigger picture.

What did I struggle with? Again, without sounding insane, a small bit of me feels that this is a personal attack.

The inventor of immortality, the antagonist of the book and in many ways the story’s real subject, is called Darius… my name is Darius. It could just be that growing up in southern England that I’m not used to encountering my name in the wild without it referring to me. I’ve never met another Darius in person.

But this, coupled with the strange mind link between Ram V and I, isn’t the end of it: There is a section where Darius first experiences the death of a loved one. In that he is told “Don’t forget me, eh, Darius?”. My Grandfather said those exact words to me the last time I saw him in hospital.

On a lighter note, this isn’t my first out of the blue comic book cameo. After a brief conversation over twitter with DC writer Tom Taylor, I found this in a Taylor penned Nightwing issue (can’t remember what one):

I don’t know what I did to deserve being chased down by both Death incarnate and Batman.

My one pure legitimate criticism (outside of my paranoia): This is a hell of a way to find out I’ve been using an apostrophe wrong on my own name for the whole of my life. There are several instances in the story that refer to “Darius’s invention”. I silently tut and scoff “It should be Darius’ invention”… turns out I’m wrong! In writing this review, with the aim to point out this grammatical misnomer, I’ve learnt that the second S after apostrophe does apply for names where the initial S is pronounced, such as Darius or Thomas. It doesn’t apply to names where the final letter S is not pronounced, such as Ulysses or Dumas… for nearly thirty years I’ve been using that wrong…

Would I recommend?  Whole heartedly. This deserves all the awards it won. Its magnificent and should be taught in schools. Its rare for me to find a book that I feel embodies what it means to be alive.