Tai Freligh reviews Replica Volume 1: The Transfer…
Collecting the first five issues of the hit series REPLICA, from Paul Jenkins and Andy Clarke. Meet Trevor Churchill, 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!
Replica is the first title from publishing startup AfterShock Comics, a company founded by Mike Marts (former executive editor at Marvel) and Joe Pruett (Caliber Comics), which launched last December with a mish-mash of titles, including one about vampires and another about the Tuskegee Airmen. Aftershock has brought on board a deep bench of writers, including Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Sandman, Stardust), Amy Chu (Poison Ivy, Deadpool, X-Files), Garth Ennis (Preacher, Punisher, Spider-Man) and Paul Jenkins (Inhumans, Hellblazer, Sentry).
Jenkins admits up front that the main character in Replica is completely a copy of himself. From the introduction:
In case you’re wondering, Trevor Churchill is me, Paul Jenkins. These days I’m a novelist, a studio head, a director and writer of animation, a videogame creator, a comic book writer, a teacher and who-knows-what else. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could clone myself fifty times. The problem is, I’m pretty sure the clones and I would not get along. Because I’m kind of an asshole.
This graphic novel is complicated, ambitious, funny and, at times, confusing. The world of The Transfer is filled with races of all kinds and that can lead to misunderstandings and hi-jinks as they try to work and live together. Detective Trevor Churchill is an overworked peacekeeper who seeks a solution to his heavy workload in the creation of clones of himself…around 50 of them to be exact. There are plenty of moments for comedy as each of Trevor’s clones mirror an aspect of his personality, from the hippy forensics expert to the Sherlock Holmes investigator to the smarmy, obese, deranged and sexist, all jockeying for position in the clone food chain.
After a peace treaty meeting goes terribly wrong and ends with a dead ambassador, Churchill must use all his investigative skills and the power of his clones to figure out who did it and why, but could one of his own replicants be the perp? By the end of book 5, I have a good idea of who it might be (I’m looking at you #2!), but there is still enough unanswered questions to make me want to see what happens in the next volume.
The graphic novel includes a few variant covers done by Andrew Robinson and Phil Hester and a tease for another few AfterShock series, Alters and Animosity. The issue concludes with a one-page ad for the four launchpad series, Superzero, Replica, Insexts and Dreaming Eagles.
Rating: 8/10
Tai Freligh is a Los Angeles-based writer and can be found on Twitter.
Originally published August 17, 2016. Updated October 24, 2022.
