Finally for this week, Virgin Comics makes its debut with Devi.

Actually, the cover logo says "Shekhar Kapur's Devi."  Kapur is one of the three individuals whom Virgin credit as "chief visionaries", the other two being Deepak Chopra and Richard Branson.  Quite what Richard Brandon is envisioning, I have no clue.  Kapur is best known as a film director, although the IMDB doesn't list any previous writing credits for him.  Besides, his involvement in this book is simply to create the concept; he's not actually on the creative team.

It would be interesting to see what Kapur's concept involved, because the actual execution is nothing to write home about.  Devi is, we're told, an entity created by the gods to fight the evil Bala, who uses a female warrior as a host.  Most of the first issue is battle scenes in the mythological era, before they jump forward to the present day; the obvious suggestion is that they're going to do the modern woman possessed by the mythological Devi.  "Devi", incidentally, is the Sanskrit word for goddess, and in mythological terms she's supposed to be the template for all Hindu goddesses.

Potentially, this isn't a bad idea.  Unfortunately, the end result is a semi-naked woman (with an admittedly striking visual of fire coming from her right arm), some ultra-simplistic mythology, and not a great deal else.  The art starts decently enough, but looks rather rushed towards the end.  The style is emphatically American and looks like something Image might have put out ten years ago.  The pacing is extremely debatable - who opens a first issue with a "story so far" recap? 

And the dialogue, which might perhaps be aiming for mythical melodrama, vastly overshoots the mark.  The opening line is, and I quote, "General Iyam, my most trusted of allies.  Tell me, old friend, why does your black heart and my fortress tremble this day?"  It doesn't get much better.

Imagine Promethea being done by Top Cow, and you get the general idea.  Visually, the first half has its moments, but that's about all that can be said for it.

Rating: C-

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