Author: David Schulner, Aaron Ginsburg, and Wade McIntyre
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WORTHY!
Art work: Juan José Ryp.
Colors: Andy Troy (no reliable website found)
The third novel in this series is much more violent and sexual than the previous two and the one I liked the least of the quartet I read. Luke is still stupid unfortunately. This is also a kind of Joss Whedon tribute edition in that favorite characters are killed off (or appear to be killed off) willy-nilly.
This novel introduces cloned sisters, just as Orphan Black introduced brothers. The ones we meet are Kazumi, Meiko, Rei, and Sayaka Hatanaka daughters of Ayato, a friend of Luke's father. They are trained in martial arts. When they learn of the plight of the Luke clones being hunted down like animals in the US, they decide to take action.
The problem I had with this whole scenario is one I have with a lot of US-based stories, TV shows and movies. The US is only a tiny portion of the planet - less than five percent of the population - yet it acts like it is the planet, and we see that same arrogant, aggressive stance starkly illuminated here in that this entire story is a claustrophobic world of its own. Every single one of these clones lives in the USA - not a one of them has moved abroad for any reason despite being army brats every last one of them.
Worse than this, when the pogrom comes, not a word is spoken about these people moving to Canada or Mexico or some other place where they would be safe at least temporarily. Not a word of objection to this bloody and barbaric slaughter is heard being voiced neither from within the US nor from any other nation. It's like the US is the world, and there is no other place, and this story is taking place in a vacuum, and frankly, it simply isn't realistic. It's this which made me start to doubt the worthiness of this story for the first time.
At one point, one of the characters suggests that it's time to "...cut tail and run..."?! Cut tail and run? What the heck is that? Does he mean "turn tail, and run" and is perhaps confusing it with "fish, or cut bait"?! Who knows.
It's at this point that we learn that Ayato Hatanaka is willing only to take the clones - no family members, helpers or loved ones. Obviously this is going to create maximum friction. Amelia has already deposited the baby with her rather estranged (if not outright strange) mother, which I considered to be a serious mistake. This is supposed to ensure the safety of the child, but it's with her mother - do they not get that the evil government will know that Amelia has a mother and might leave the child there? No one raises this as a problem, but I predicted big issues with this (and I was right).
The novel ends with a show-down at a house in the country where the clones are hiding out until Hatanaka can organize their escape to an isolated island off the coast of Japan - a place which will be a sanctuary for them. Before they can leave, there is a government assault on the clones. Jennifer, Sanah, and Bennett hold-off the assault rather ineffectually as everyone escapes down a tunnel, and then the house blows. Did anyone survive?
I had some issues with this particular volume but in the end consider it a worthy read as part of the entire series, and I looked forward to volume four.
