New Clones!

Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Heli Kennedy, Denton J Tipton “Orphan Black: Helsinki” (IDW, 2016)

There are several different approaches to doing tie-in comics.  As far as I know, the approach taken in Orphan Black: Helsinki is new to me.  What they have done is to tell a new story in the world of Orphan Black that occurs in the margins of the primary narrative.  

As the title indicates, this is a story that takes place in Europe.  And for the most part, it involves characters that are new to this book.  New clones! New clones!

There are a few characters that you will recognize, and the larger world dynamics are still the same.  But it’s taking advantage of the great world building of the show to tell a new story.

I thought it was great.

If you haven’t seen the show, you’ll probably be pretty confused.  But give it a chance.  If you like this world & this style of storytelling, you will like the show.

Mulder Are You All right?

Joe Harris & Matthew Dow Smith “X-Files Season 11, Volume 1” (IDW, 2016)

Now that we have a televised season 10, is this season 12? I suppose that strictly speaking the comics are no longer canon (were they ever?).  My own feeling is that given the absolute mess of continuity that is the original run of X-Files, fans shouldn’t worry too much about what is or is not canon (or even what the conspiracy actually is).

I think this story is one that it’s important not to spoil.  So much of the enjoyment of the X-Files was the confusion & sense of interactive myth making.  You didn’t know what to expect, or know what twist was coming.

I really liked this volume. It felt like the actual X-Files.  There’s some shadowy machinations going on, there are horrific characters.  Mulder being on a farm felt like a throwback to his days infiltrating bee farms.