Broken Frontier

The first of Virgin’s "Reloaded" titles, Tale of the Snake Charmer picks up directly where the unpredictable Snakewoman Volume 1 left off, with a new setting, new characters, and a decidedly different angle to the action, if not entirely a new direction. No longer is the Snakewoman – Jessica Peterson – a pawn of The 68, but having lost everything dear to her, she’s living a life on the run, hoping to avoid her destiny of becoming a killer of men. But there’s a whole ‘nother layer to the Snakewoman curse, one which Jessica is about to discover….

While Snakewoman initially seemed one of the poorer, more uninspired offerings in Virgin’s starting line-up, it has since proven a gleefully volatile epic that – for once – is as lethal in plot as its premise presupposes. It also happens to be the best comic book ever penned by Zeb Wells, whose track record before Snakewoman was far from solid. Tale of the Snake Charmer isn’t any better or worse than Volume 1: it’s the same story, the same basic flavor, style, and sense; the beginning of a new story arc, though with all the elements that made earlier issues so undeniably habit-forming.

I’ve never been one for re-launches, though so long as the quality of the book doesn’t suffer, does it matter? And the quality here, in fact, improves: the writing is as strong as ever, but the art by Vivek Shinde is allowed an impressive evolution – from his Gaydos-esque, smudge-stroked panels, to a team-up with colorist I. Jeyabalan to produce a fully-painted look, a kaleidoscopic panorama of pastel splendor that is drop-dead gorgeous, a presentation more in line with Virgin’s other books.

So a notable new beginning. It is, I think (though I don’t have the perspective to be certain) new reader friendly; coupled with lustrous art and an absorbing script, Tale hits all the right notes. It should pull in new readers while keeping all the old loyally standing by.