Broken Frontier

In the late 19th century, an archeologist makes an astonishing discovery, now Dr. Shyana Bhalla works for a dark, menacing, and mysterious figure who wants her to clone a god. Problem is if she doesn’t succeed she is in jeopardy; if she does succeed, will the world be destroyed?

Virgin is an interesting comic book company. Based out of India, much of their content deals with the mythologies of their native land. This book is part of the publisher’s Shakti imprint which focuses on refreshing those ancient myths into new stories. The most popular of these books has been Ramayan 3392 A.D., a retelling of the story of the cloned deity in this book.

Rama is a very popular character in Indian mythology. He is considered the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, the high Indian being. That makes Avatar, the clone in this book, a very special being. He has blue skin and develops at an astonishing rate. Of course, he is also endowed with powers.

Much of this issue deals with exposition as any good first issue does. We are shown how the DNA is discovered and why the good Dr. Bhalla is the best candidate to work for her mysterious employer. Her loneliness and dedication to genetic science is compellingly developed through her handicap and a brief summary of her more formative years. We understand instantly why she becomes attached to Avatar. The only questionable character moment is in her decision to work for the dark figure who hires her.

I’ll be honest that the dark figure confuses me. It has been too long since I studied these myths in college and while I am sure that our mysterious antagonist is an allegory to a baddie in Indian mysticism, I have no idea who he is. Not giving him a name or revealing any kind of character traits or motive is one way to tell a story; but for this reader, it is an irritating way to tell a story. He is creepy and given that this book was advertised as some kind of horror book, that is a good thing because he is the only part that is even remotely horrific.

The majority of the story seems to delve into a retelling of the Buddha cycle, which is odd given that Virgin is publishing Deepak Chopra’s version of that story as a comic now. It is kind of like a studio releasing a straight up version of Romeo and Juliet and Baz Luhrmann’s version at the same time. Hopefully, this story will go to a very different place.

The art provided by Vivek Shende is competent and relates the script well. What really stands out is the coloring of R Gavaskar. It is dynamic and sets the dark tone of the book with more capability then the actual story does.

This is a good example of what Virgin is doing with the Shakti imprint. It is worth checking out for those not familiar with the line to see if it might be their cup of tea. For those already acclimated to the line - it is not the most stellar book Virgin is producing; but if the premise intrigues you, it might be worth checking out. I’ll wait till the second issue to see if this is going on the pull list or not.