The start of something weird and fun.
Creative Staff:
Story: Paul Jenkins
Art: Andy Clarke
Colors: Marcelo Maiolo
What They Say:
Meet Trevor Carter, an Earth-born peacekeeping agent on the intergalactic hub known as The Transfer. When Trevor’s already near impossible assignment becomes a bit too much for the errant detective, he turns to the only logical approach, Replication. More of a good thing can’t hurt, right? A single clone could be helpful; unfortunately the replication process doesn’t go as planned!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The arrival of the first round of books from new publisher AfterShock Comics had me pretty excited because I like supporting new publishers and I liked the talent involved. The problem, for me, is that they’re purely print oriented at the moment and that means a no-go for me since I’m largely a digital guy at this point. i ended up with a copy of Replica when I made the rare trip to an actual physical comic book store for an unrelated signing and opted to give the first issue for this series a shot, though I’ll say that I won’t be back until I can get it digitally in the future. This book comes from Paul Jenkins, who did some fun stuff at DC Comics a few years back that I liked, and artist Andy Clarke, whose work I’ve seen a few times before but mostly know him from the REBELS series way back.
While any new book is going to take some work to dig into the rhythm of it, it’s even harder for those that are within their own self contained world and not part of the larger shared universes out there that can provide context. With Replica, we’re introduced to a massive space station/location of sorts that exists as a connecting hub between a wide range of places which has existed since some of the earliest of space faring civilizations made their way out there – and it was old at the time. Named The Transfer, the place is a sprawling location of so many millions of species and cultures that it’s a wonderful kind of open-ended overload of material that can be worked with. Within this place, we’re introduced to Trevor Carter, a man born on Earth that lives here as a detective where they’re trying to manage things so that there’s as little interspecies killing going on as possible. Considering the size and scale of the job, it feels kind of weird to try and impose any kind of law and order on it, especially in trying to deal with a million different species and a million different kinds of cultural situations and laws/rules they have.
This issue has a pretty chaotic approach as it gets itself moving and we see the struggle that Carter has in dealing with the kinds of creatures out there, especially with a partner like Vorgas, whom he tells his boss is as dumb as a box of rocks with the rocks removed. What we get with some of the chases and initial setup here is a feel for the kind of uncontrollable chaos there is and the attempts to try and impose some semblance of order. It’s the kind of crazy chaos that works because of how Clarke illustrates it, giving it both variety and energy so you wonder what’s around each corner. Jenkins keeps it moving once you get into the rhythm of it, and that does take a few pages, but once we get the minor info dump and a feel for who is who the book certainly finds its pacing.
What I like is that towards the back half of it we get the nod to the title itself, Replica, as Carter realizes that the only way to actually deal with this crazy place and do something of merit is to clone himself. And there’s an alien facility that will do that, for the right price. Of course, nothing goes right in Carter’s life and you have to enjoy that kind of basic setup where it goes disastrously wrong by his attempt at creating a clone to do his paperwork results in something like several dozen clones being created instead. This opens up a whole host of possibilities that I actually like because we see that the clones are starting to develop their own personalities and pushing back, gently, against their original. I can see a lot of different stories that can work from this, but there’s not a lot in this opening installment that speaks to a larger story just yet as it’s mostly character and setting placement. Which is certainly important considering the location and characters at hand.
In Summary:
What amused me the most, and I certainly say this as a compliment and a kind of fear setting, is that Replica reminded me a whole lot of Grimjack. I love Grimjack and there’s been nothing that’s felt like it to me for ages. Replica comes close with some of what it does while going in its own direction, so it has me intrigued. I like what Jenkins and Clarke are putting together here and there’s a lot of potential to just really run with it and make it engaging – if the characters truly become something special and unique. I like the concept, I enjoyed the writing as I got into its rhythm, and I loved the artwork with its variety. But man, I hated buying print again. I’ll be back when this is available digitally.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: December 2nd, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
