Orphan Black #2

By Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Jody Houser, Szymon Kudranski & Mat Lopes

Orphan Black Season 3 isn’t far away, and it’s great to get the second issue of the comic so soon after the first. It was incredible to see that the first issue of Orphan Black was the highest selling comic of February 2015, outstripping Darth Vader and Spider-Gwen to come first, and even though the comic itself wasn’t entirely strong, it served as a good foundation for an interesting new take on the series, offering glimpses into stories that you haven’t seen before.

The second issue shifts its focus a bit onto Helena, with Sarah having been our gateway into the world in the first issue. It provides a great origin story for Helena if you will, with some flashback scenes that explain how arguably the most twisted member of the Clone Club came to become what she is. It offers a great look into Helena and her mindset is pretty good, with some great, chilling monologues that really work.

Like the first issue, the second is closely related to the television series and manages to make it new-reader friendly as well as offer stuff that fans haven’t quite seen before. The flashbacks with Helena’s past are a welcome touch, with Szymon Kudranski using black and white images to keep them separate from the main events.

If you’re worried that there are too many writers on this series, with no less than three, Graeme Manson, John Fawcett and Jody Houser all collaborating, it’s good to see that there isn’t any clear difference. The pacing is handled smoothly and there’s a nice split between the past and present storylines. It’s a good character study of Helena and a welcome insight to someone who is essentially the Clones’ bogeyman, or bogeywoman. It looks as though we’ll be alternating characters going forward, with Alison being the next focus point, but this character has been very fun to explore and it will be interesting when she’s put back in the spotlight.

The artwork by Szymon Kudranski is pretty good and it’s easy to see who’s who. Much like the first issue, there’s not too much detail put into the characters’ faces, but that’s only a minor problem as both Kudranski and the colourist Mat Lopes capture the atmosphere and tone of the comic well. It’s something that doesn’t feel out-of-place in the Orphan Black Universe.

So on the whole then, this reviewer enjoyed the second issue of Orphan Black more than the first and it’ll be great to see where the series goes when we shift our focus to Alison. It looks as the creative team will be weaving a “Clone of the Month”-type story and going forward, that should be very awesome indeed. The next issue, and the next season (April 18^th!) can’t get here quickly enough.