Let me start by saying how thrilled I am to dive in the "Blade Runner" comics. It's taken me this long because I (somehow) hadn't seen "Blade Runner 2049" yet. I'm happy to say that I loved the sequel and was beyond excited knowing that I was sitting on these issues. Let's begin, shall we?
Just like the movies, the comics largely stay focused on the stories at hand, giving us only tantalizing hints at the larger world's status quo.
Green and Johnson focus this series on Blade Runner Aahna "Ash" Ashina. With fewer Replicants on the loose - an interesting framework for Deckard's efforts in the original "Blade Runner," which also takes place in 2019 - Ash's boss has her investigate the disappearance of tycoon and "philanthropist" Alexander Selwyn's wife and daughter.
Right off the bat, this arc's biggest contribution to the larger "Blade Runner" mythology is elaborating on the off-world colonies. Green and Johnson make it clear that the colonies aren't just mines where Replicants work as slave labor, as Batty and his crew did in "Blade Runner." They're where people go to live a better life. For example, even though Ash's mother isn't wealthy, she moves to the colonies (without Ash) when she learns that Ash has a spine problem to make money for the treatment. For the most part, though, it's clear that the wealthy benefit the most from the colonies, which immediately raises the question why Selwyn and his family are still on Earth.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. On Earth, Selwyn's wife and child - Isobel and Chloe - are moving through the Replicant Underground. Along the way, we're introduced to the Underground, such as the Skin and the Blood, who are atoning for their work with the Tyrell Corporation by helping Replicants change their appearances so they can pass as humans. By the end of issue #2, it's pretty clear that Chloe is a Replicant.
In issue #3, Green and Johnson show that this series is great not just because they're playing in the "Blade Runner" sandbox but because they know what the fuck they're doing while doing so.
After a mysterious party (i.e., the Replicant Underground) shoots Ash's spinner from the sky, she winds up hospitalized. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD, for the uninitiated) fires her for lying about her spine (whose weakness she hid with a motorized brace). Moreover, Selwyn wants someone else on the case, likely because a conversation that he and Ash had spooked him that she's getting too close to the truth. The question at this point is why he sent someone to find out the truth if he didn't want it uncovered in the first place?
Not surprisingly, the truth is tricky. Not able to leave the case alone, Ash goes to the Tyrell Corporation to get more information on Chloe. She's sent to see a Ms. Elo who unexpectedly hires her to find Chloe. It turns out Isobel is the Replicant; Tyrell created her the previous year for Selwyn after the real Isobel died. That said, Chloe isn't irrelevant. Elo informs Ash that Chloe possesses a gene linked to increase longevity, so Isobel may have kidnapped her to find a way to extend her life. Like Ash, I'm surprised how plausible that story is.
Ash's interactions with Elo show that Ash's hatred of the Tyrell Corporation is linked to the offer that Elo makes her here, to "fix" her. Ash doesn't see herself as needing fixing, explaining why she despises Tyrell's efforts to create "perfect" humans.
Now working for Elo, Ash shakes down a Replicant at a club who sends her to el Santuario, the same beach in Mexico - now a collection of narco-states - where Isobel is headed with Chloe.
Unsurprisingly, this arc ends brutally. Selwyn tortures the Skin to get el Santuario's location and arrives with his good squad to grab Chloe. Green and Johnson are great at not rushing the drama. Before Selwyn arrives, Ash learned that he made a deal with Tyrell: in exchange for giving Chloe to Tyrell, Tyrell would give him a stream of Isobels. It's...gross. When Ash asks Selwyn about it, he denies it, but Ash is clearly siding with the Replicants at this point.
As Isobel tries to protect Chloe from the ensuing gunfight, Green and Johnson punch you in the heart as she remembers Chloe's childhood, like how her favorite socks have watermelons on them. As a parent, these sorts of moments break me now. Isobel is wounded as Ash gets Chloe in her spinner and sacrifices herself so that Ash can escape with Chloe. Later, Ash tries to get the police to help, but they won't, and decides to take care of Chloe rather than see Tyrell make her a lab rat. Chloe tells Ash that her mother mentioned a safe place, and it looks like we're going to the colonies!
Final Thoughts: I can't believe how incredibly good this opening arc is. Given how much I love "Blade Runner" and "Blade Runner 2049," I'm beyond stoked that this series really matches their drama, intensity, and pathos. I can't wait to see where we go from here.
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