When launching a new comics company, who would you think to tap for creative talent? Hmmm … New Age guru Deepak Chopra and ELIZABETH director Shekhar Kapur? Gazillionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics thinks so. The free sampler VIRGIN COMICS #0 – check your local comic-book store now, folks, or download it – gives us a glimpse at the line’s initial offerings. From the looks of things, I’m not expecting Virgin to grab a chunk out of the industry as they have in selling CDs and cell phones.

Kapur’s DEVI is another high-kickin’, leather-wearing hot babe adept at fighting baddies in the realm of the supernatural. She’s dispatched to assignments by a brooding inspector who looks a lot like FABLES‘ Bigby Wolf, mussed hair and frumpy overcoat and all. Kapur and Chopra’s RAMAYAN REBORN is a hardcore fantasy concerning a blue-skinned warrior. Its influences seem to be CONAN, PLANET OF THE APES and that trendy manga.

It wasn’t until I finished both stories that I read the executives’ letter to readers, which states one of Virgin Comics’ two “core missions” is to “reinvent the rich indigenous narratives of India,” but yeah, I thought I sensed a trend. One would hope they’ll be a little wider reaching in the future (of more promise is the John Woo/Garth Ennis collaboration SEVEN BROTHERS, debuting in the fall). –Rod Lott

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