The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (2021)

November 29, 2021
The opening pages of this dynamically drawn but unevenly scripted graphic novel by V (Grafity’s Wall) and Andrade (the Rocket Raccoon & Groot series) brim with explosive energy before losing momentum. Mrs. Shah, in labor and trapped in a Mumbai traffic jam, screams at her husband over the phone. A disinterested young woman named Laila Starr reclines on the ledge of an open window several stories above. And “in a high place, far beyond mortal clouds,” the goddess Death prepares for an uncomfortable meeting with her boss. These three story lines collide when Laila leaps, Shah gives birth to her son, Darius, and Death is unceremoniously fired—because Darius is destined to discover immortality. But Death, now in the resurrected body of Laila, sets off to eliminate Darius, only to be hit by a truck, then resurrected again. Laila and Darius meet at intervals throughout his life, which unfolds through a series of staid recaps. Darius tells Laila of recent events, most of them tinged with loss and guilt, and, predictably, Laila/Death starts to respect the sanctity of human life. The sudden shift in pacing kills the narrative momentum, even if Andrade’s kinetic art captures both the busy chaos of Mumbai and meditative moments alike. But despite cool art, these mortal and immortal characters don’t live up to their promising start.

February 1, 2022
Death is out of a job when Darius Shah, a boy destined to invent immortality, is born in Mumbai. Nearby, Laila Starr falls to her death from a balcony, and the once cerulean, bejeweled, six-armed Death is sent to live out the rest of her days in Laila's reincarnated body, often dying and being revived by her good friend, Life, and seeking Darius, the baby (then boy, then man) who ruined Death's divine status and endures much loss of his own. Andrade renders the verve and energy of Mumbai through crowded traffic scenes and parties populated by twentysomethings and wispy cigarette smoke. His scratchy inking is as lively as the people themselves, whether it's shading the undersides of a character's face or the leaves of a fruit tree. Warm colors dominate the palette, especially in the panels where Mumbai's skyline reflects the sun, but are sometimes offset by melancholy blues and otherworldly greens. This quick-paced yet philosophical graphic novel wrestles with existential questions surrounding life and death through the relationship between a fallen deity and an aging man.

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Starred review from November 4, 2022

One Wednesday afternoon in late December, the Goddess of Death is summoned to a meeting with her supervisor. He informs her that a child named Darius has just been born in Mumbai, and that since he's fated to unlock the secret of eternal life, her services will soon be unnecessary. The supervisor presents this as happy news, but Death isn't ready to retire. She travels to Earth and takes over the body of recently deceased twenty-something Laila Starr to prevent the newborn from rendering her obsolete. Author Ram V (These Steady Shores) concocts an array of quirky and/or macabre obstacles and incidents to hinder Laila's progress, forcing her to spend decades enduring the various pains and pleasures inherent to mortal life. Meanwhile, she watches Darius mature from a lonely boy into a world-famous scientist with a loving family, only to lose everything and end up an isolated hermit, and begins to wonder whether it's the inevitability of death that gives life meaning, or the experience of being alive in and of itself. VERDICT A passionate and refreshingly unsentimental fable that suggests every aspect of the human experience is vital and worthy of celebration.

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