Luke Taylor races to find his wife while Beta unleashes havoc on the clones. Will they escape in time before they’re destroyed?

Here’s the official description from Image:

What do you do after you kill one clone? Kill the rest. Beta is hell bent on exterminating his predecessors from the face of the planet. But has he also unlocked the killer within Luke?

Clone is really starting to find its legs now that the backstory is established and there is a worthy adversary for Luke Taylor. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot here since shit really goes down in this issue. Essentially, Director Davis sends Beta to destroy the first generation of clones. All hell ensues. While issue six was more focused on father and son dynamics than violent suspense, this issue is an action-packed thrill ride–non-stop–full throttle to the last page.

The story written by David Shulner, Aaron Ginsberg, and Wade McIntyre seems a little flat at times (maybe one too many action film clichés) which isn’t much of a problem when you have Jose Ryp as your artist. There’s a sequence you’ve seen a hundred times before. Luke is on the phone trying to warn the clones that they’re under attack but can’t relay his message because of bad phone reception. Although the scene is a cliché, it creates suspense and a sense of urgency and therefore works surprisingly well. The truth is I’m not buying Clone for its story or premise, which is cool but not entirely original. I’m buying this for one reason: Ryp’s art. He’s definitely one of the most unique and interesting artists in comics today.

Jose Ryp’s hyper-detailed line work reminds me of Geoff Darrow’s work on Hard Boiled or, to a lesser extent, Chris Burnham’s current art on Batman Incorporated. I could spend an hour pouring over his blood-spattered panels. He makes a shootout scene startlingly beautiful (see the two-page spread in this issue). No one draws bullet-riddled action scenes with this level of visual eloquence.

Overall, Clone is a great read, a vastly underrated sci-fi comic–overloaded with suspense, action, and spectacle–which resembles a mixture of Philip K. Dick and The Terminator. With the last two issues, Clone has really started find its voice. The final page cliffhanger leaves me desperately wanting to find out right now what’s going to happen. Thirty days is a long time to wait. Highly recommended.

4/5