Vimanarama

You can usually count on Grant Morrison to do something a little bit different with a comic, and Vimanarama checks the 'a little bit different' box with aplomb. The main protagonist is a young Bradford lad, whose parents immigrated to the UK from India. He's on the verge of meeting the girl his parents have arranged for him to marry but, as if he didn't have enough to worry about, the floor of the back room of his father's convenience store opens up an abyss that releases an ancient evil. This gate can only be closed by a collection of mystic superheroes, but when their leader falls for his new fiancée, what chance does our hero have of living happily ever after?

Melodramatic is probably an understatement, but like stereotypical Bollywood cinema, there's a fairly straightforward boy meets girl theme going on under here, no matter how many ancient robots, Atlantean mysteries and multi-limbed gods Morrison deigns to throw into the mix.

Perhaps the greatest treat is that Philip Bond is the man behind the visuals. British comic fans of a certain age may remember Bond from the superb Wired World strip he used to write and draw for Deadline magazine - the rest of you have missed out. His ability to draw hip young British youth hasn't diminished, while he proves he can also give some sci-fi staples a good run for their money.

This is a short blast into mystic sci-fi with a Bollywood twist that, to be perfectly honest, will give Morrison junkies a fix but is unlikely to rattle the cages of many others. Bond helps give it a hipper edge but it isn't really enough to bring it into the 'must-read' category.

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