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A review by wealhtheow
Shekhar Kapur's Snake Woman, Volume 1: A Snake in the Grass by Michael Gaydos, Zeb Wells, Shekhar Kapur
2.0
A shy waitress awakens to find herself covered in blood, with a dead man cooling at her feet. She flees, horrified, but then she's kidnapped. Her kidnappers explain that she is the reincarnation of an Indian snake goddess. 68 English mercenaries/explorers slaughtered her people and her fellow snake god--ever since, the goddess has reincarnated over and over, seeking vengeance. Only when she manages to kill all 68 in a single lifetime will they finally be able to rest.
I'm over the trope of superpowers making women out-of-control and hypersexual, particularly when a white woman's *Indian* self is the aspect that is animalistic and aggressive. And I'd be thrilled to read a comic in which rape of the female character wasn't part of the plot. It just gets a little tiring, tbh. So I won't say this was an unproblematic story.
But while I wasn't particularly impressed by the idea or the execution, at least it isn't a retread of Spider-man's origin story, or yet another Crossover Event. And though I found it hard to distinguish the male characters from each other, the art is at least grounded in reality: no balloon breasts or 24-pack abs. Perhaps this story will find its feet and progress beyond its origins.
I'm over the trope of superpowers making women out-of-control and hypersexual, particularly when a white woman's *Indian* self is the aspect that is animalistic and aggressive. And I'd be thrilled to read a comic in which rape of the female character wasn't part of the plot. It just gets a little tiring, tbh. So I won't say this was an unproblematic story.
But while I wasn't particularly impressed by the idea or the execution, at least it isn't a retread of Spider-man's origin story, or yet another Crossover Event. And though I found it hard to distinguish the male characters from each other, the art is at least grounded in reality: no balloon breasts or 24-pack abs. Perhaps this story will find its feet and progress beyond its origins.