Orphan Black

The Clone Stranger

Release Date: OUT NOW!

Publisher: IDW Publishing Writers: Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Jody Houser Artists: Szymon Kudranski, Mat Lopes

Spin- off

comics are hard enough at the best of times, but tackling a property as complex as Orphan Black is asking for trouble. The TV show sports a ferociously involved mythos and multiple clones ( all played by Tatiana Maslany), but this eight- issue miniseries takes an interesting approach, focusing on one clone per issue, and giving us an alternate view on many of the show’s events.

Once again, we follow a con artist named Sarah as she encounters duplicates of herself and discovers she’s part of a human cloning experiment. These duplicates vary from the insane Helena ( the focus of issue two) to nervy housewife Alison ( who stars in issue three), and each is heavily involved in the overall conspiracy.

Written from outlines by show creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, the series attempts to be accessible for new readers but works best as a companion piece, giving more insight into the characters. So far ( three issues in) the results are a little on the uneven side, with too many scenes recycled directly from the show.

However, the narrative approach does pull off some highlights, and adds depth to the overall saga. It’ll be up to the remaining five issues to conclusively prove whether the Orphan Black comic is a worthy experiment or a noble failure… Saxon Bullock