As Laila gains more understanding of life and death, she becomes more thoughtful. How can she convince Darius not to invent immortality? Find out in The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #5 from BOOM! Studios.

THE MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR #5

Writer: Ram V
Artist: Filipe Andrade
Colorist: Inês Amaro
Letterer: AndWorld Design
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 1, 2021

Previously in The Many Deaths of Laila Starr: On her search for Darius Shah, Laila stops at a small Chinese temple. Laila may be mortal, but she is still extraordinary; the temple can communicate with her, and it tells her the story of Chinese immigrants to Mumbai. It’s caretaker is the last of the Chinese immigrants. Laila finds Darius Shah’s house and goes in. He recognizes her from having seen her over the years and asks who she is and why she hasn’t changed. She tells him the truth, but before she can talk him out of inventing immortality, he interrupts her out of anger and grief. His beloved wife died, quite young, of cancer and he wants to know why. He also swears to keep Death from taking anyone else. Shaken, she returns to the temple where she stays overnight, or at least until the floods destroy it and she dies again.

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #5 picks up twenty-eight years later. It is the end of summer, the crowds by the beach are thinning out. A stage at the end of the beach is being dismantled. Among all of this, a young girl named Gilly finds a tiny, injured puppy on the verge of death. The grown ups gently tell her it won’t be able to make it. But she walks six miles to the house of a crazy old man who takes in hopeless cases. Indeed, he does, as we see his house is full of pets, not just cats and dogs, but all manner of creatures. Of course, he accepts the puppy.

Laila has decided to visit Darius. She must fly part of the way, and to calm herself, she picks up a little book of poems. Some of these become part of the story, and it is fitting. The entire issue is like a visual poem. She agonizes over what to say to him and very nearly gets hit by a bus. She also realizes how much she has changed through living…and dying.

The old man cleans up the puppy and bandages its leg. Then he sends Gilly on her way – she can come and visit the puppy, but he does not take in humans. As he says good-bye to her, Laila arrives on his doorstep, because this is Darius Shah. He invites her in, and the first thing he does is to apologize for how he acted the last time they met. He had looked for her, going back to all the places he had seen her over the years.

She tells him that she had just wanted to ask him to reconsider inventing immortality. To her surprise, he laughs at her. He has already invented it, years ago. He celebrated quietly, came home, and stuffed his work into a shoebox and put it in a closet. Laila doesn’t understand.

He takes her outside. On the beach at sunset, they watch men bring the fishing boats in. He confesses that he is dying. He hasn’t spoken to his son in years. But he has come to realize that the beauty of life in is living it, in seeing the little daily miracles like sunsets, and seeing injured puppies recover. She stays with him, helping him with his work, until his time comes, and on his death bed, he gives her the shoebox.

LIGHT AND SHADOW, YOUTH AND AGE

The art of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #5 is lovely. So much in it hints at endings, from the end of the summer festival on the beach to Laila realizing this may be her last chance to do something. But from the very start, with the tiny, injured puppy (who is also very cute) we also get a strong sense of the fragility of life, a fragility that, nonetheless, has a strong inner core.

I like the contrast we see with Darius as well. Inside his house, it looks a little untidy, as his other house did in the previous issue. But this is a more purposeful untidiness because he takes in the hopeless strays who have nowhere else to go. It is a lived-in untidiness. The coloring makes it look cool and dark, so at first we are led to believe that he is still grieving. But then he takes Laila to the beach, and we see all the glorious colors of life. And as he spends his last days, now we see the color infused into his life. He has learned something over time. Laila has as well.

BOTTOM LINE: A TERRIFIC BOOK FROM START TO FINISH

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #5 is beautiful and is a wonderful treat to read. You can read it multiple times and it is still powerful. It is so full of feelings as well as contentment, and it is a glorious reminder in a troubled world that there are still things that make life worth living.

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