he stories are written by Shamik Dasgupta and has dollops of everything from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings to Hellboy and 300 bubbling in it. But it's the art work led by Jeevan Kang in the second and third episodes and in the first issue led by Abhishek Singh and Satish Tayade that are quite stunning. It gives this retro-futuristic saga its dark, edgy tone.
The term for Ravan, "Asura Prime", is aptly filched from The Transformers, as the demons are a kind of genetically-mutated techno-biological creatures. In fact, this 34th century landscape of politics and war – and, as the reader will discover, the notion of religion itself — is driven by technology that has been presented wonderfully in a form that has not been associated with depictions of technological societies in Western science fiction or fantasy works and films. All the more strange that Dasgupta and Kang have no credits on the covers of the books.
Shades of Star Wars, itself lego-tweaked out of Greek mythology, become apparent, not only in the lightsaber 5.2 used but also in scenes, especially where our heroes visit a dive in Panchvati that's a version of the good old Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine that Obi-Wan Kenobi had described as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy."
Ravana, Meghnad and his ilk are presented as creatures from a familiar fantasy Hell, taking on distinct Ridley Scott 'Alien' features. Ravana is still dull and rather unimpressive in the series. I so much prefer the way he is depicted in the one-off Ravana: Roar of the Demon King (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Abhimanyu Singh Sisodia and Sachin Nagar. I'm still waiting for the "Nark-angels" in Ramayan 3392 AD to pick up the ferocious nobility was in Sisodia and Nagar's straighter re-telling.
The only serious complaint I have about this series is the all too frequent and inane footnotes inside the frames. When "Ma!" is translated as "Momma!", my groan can be heard till the Moorland of Gabaksh. I'm sure even Johnny Jindal sitting with his Pops won't require such frame-breaking "explanations".
White nose-haired worthies — and I'm not talking about the "Wendy hai hai!" lot — will nitpick their nose-hairs to eternity on finding faults with the 'connections' being made with the Ramayana(s). But I think here's the epic recast in a sharp, cool form, style and look that will not only excite A.K. Ramanujan — whose brilliant essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation is always rightly quoted by the liberal lot when faced by the illiterate mob — but also will bring some much-needed tachyon-sparks to a great story that may have become ossified for many ever since it became just a 'indoo canon.