Skin Police #1 from Oni Press is the sort of comic book you expect to come from 2000 AD. And to be clear, I mean the publisher, not the time period (but you probably already figured that out). It’s a heady mix of sci-fi ideas, detailed artwork, and big action that sits side by side with Judge Dredd. It’s also an exciting start to a comic book probably best pitched as “What if Ridley Scott and David Cronenberg teamed up to make Children of Men?”
If I’m spending a fair amount of time comparing the new series, which is written by Jordan Thomas and drawn by Daniel Gete, to other things… That’s because it does what the best sci-fi does: take everything that’s come before it, pour it into a blender, and come out with something new. Any of the individual parts will seem familiar to genre fans. A jaded older cop sucked in a weird conspiracy that may challenge everything he believes. The rookie cop he’s paired with who helps lay out the rules of the world. Technology gone wrong in a way that challenges us, the reader, to think about who we are and what the world is becoming.
That all sounds pretty heady — and it is. Yet Skin Police is far more accessible than Thomas’s previous work, the also excellent The Man From Maybe. Here, the police structure helps balance out wild sequences like an airplane flight seemingly filled with demons. It also helps emphasize and cut through some of the darker parts, like the multiple, casual deaths throughout the issue.
The plot — since I didn’t actually lay it out above — is that in the future the birth rate has plummeted. So people created black market clones out of their own genetic material. Unfortunately, these clones have a high rate of going insane, which is where the Skin Police come in. They track down these “Dupes” and take them in. Unfortunately, and most pointedly, it’s not entirely clear who is or is not a Dupe, something the Skin Police don’t seem to be bothered about delving into.
Beyond Thomas’s writing, Gete is the perfect partner here. His pencils are nowhere near as exaggerated as Shaky Kane (who was on Man from Maybe), and that realism helps ground the wilder moments in the story. And though it also doesn’t go as far as, say, Moebius, the details and grittiness of the world definitely call to mind a more European style of comics.
Overall, this is a fantastic start to the new series and ties into what we hope sci-fi will do… Take a look at the world outside our window, extrapolate outwards, and then point back at us. Skin Police is a warning not of cloning run amuck but of a police force given too much leeway. It’s a scary thought that is very, very real. Lucky then that it’s fun to read, at the same time.
Skin Police #1 hits stores on October 2, 2024 from Oni Press.
Skin Police #1 Rating:
Skin Police #1 Official Synopsis:
From writer Jordan Thomas (The Man from Maybe) and artist Daniel Gete (Über) comes a sci-fi/action spectacle that will force you to trust no one…
In the year 2142, fertility levels around the globe plummeted, and a black market for illegal clone babies emerged. Millions of parents used their own genetic material to welcome these new children, only realizing the horrific consequences far too late. At some point in their life cycle, three in four of these genetic duplicates transform into psychologically unstable killing machines known as “Dupes.” Fortunately, the United Nations of Europe has decided to take an active role in containing the growing threat. Their specialized task force has taken up the unenviable task of hunting Dupes before their violence can spread. To the government, they’re the Duplicate Identification and Capture Division. To everyone else, they’re the “Skin Police.” The worst part of the job? It’s always the one you least suspect…
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.