DC is making a big deal of Grant Morrison's upcoming All-Star Superman project, which teams him with artist Frank Quitely. But for those looking to experience Morrison at his best, they need to turn to Vertigo and his short but surreal and thoroughly entertaining limited series. We3 just wrapped up, and now, Vimanarama is launching. I'm sure Morrison's Superman stories will be amazing, but he can only tinker with that pop-culture icon so much. He offers much more original and experimental work on projects such as Vimanarama, which feels like a coming-of-age sitcom crossed with an Indiana Jones-like adventure and cosmic epic. Most importantly, though, it demonstrates Morrison is no slouch when it comes to comedy.
Ali is on the cusp of adulthood, and he's got all of the problems one would expect of someone his age. His family drives him nuts, and he's a bundle of nerves when it comes to the opposite sex. Of course, he's got some problems some of us never have to face. For example, he worries that the wife his father has selected for him for an arranged marriage could be a real uggo. And his infant nephew, who's just learned to walk, has ventured into a mysterious cavern that leads to a magical and dangerous place deep beneath the earth. Oh, and he may have trigged the end of the world. Hey, everyone has bad days.
Philip Bond's art is perfect for a thought-provoking comedy such as this one. His thick-lined style boasts a delightfully goofy tone at times, and his skill when it comes to comedic reactions on characters' faces is second to none. He captures the ethnicity and culture of Ali and his family quite well, balancing it with the Western influences in their lives. I love the exotic yet grounded look he's developed for Sofia. The designs for the cosmic city and its unusual residents are fascinating as well, and the colors add a lot of magic and energy to the story.
A great deal of comedy here stems from Ali's and Sofia's inability to deal with the larger, wondrous ideas in which they find themselves. They're self-involved. Sofia thinks she's shopping; Ali's completely obsessed with superficial concerns about his future wife. The fact that an infant is being lured by magical blocks or that they've triggered a potential apocalypse aren't major factors in their thinking. They're oblivious to the impossible circumstances and focused only on the mundane.
Morrison does an excellent job of fashioning East Indian characters to which Western readers can relate while not sacrificing cultural traits in order to do so. For example, the concept of an arranged marriage isn't judged here at all; it's just a fact of life for Ali. Indian culture is incorporated into the designs of the underground city as well. There's a wonderful mix of both Indian and Western culture here, and I like the notion of how both aren't mutually exclusive. 9/10
