This arc is interesting, though less expansive and immersive than the first one.
In 2026, a wheelchair-bound Ash is working as a mining-station administration while Cleo - posing as a boy named Rabbit - works as a fixer. Not surprisingly, everything goes wrong when a group of Replicant rebels storm the station. (Where would it be if they didn't?)
During the invasion, Ash and Rabbit are separated. Rabbit's friend Padraic convinces the rebels not to kill Rabbit, and Rabbit gets all of them to Ramajuna, a trade-route nexus where you can buy whatever you want. The rebels all opt to have their eyes - and, thus, serial numbers - removed, but Padraic refuses. Instead, he accompanies Rabbit to the Hartawan, one of Rabbit's suppliers located on Ramajuna. Rabbit asks the Hartawan to smuggle him and Padraic to Arcadia, the subject of a brochure that Rabbit has carried with him ever since Ash read it to him when they first fled Earth.
Meanwhile, Ash survives the attack on the station, though it's put her on the radar of Hythe, an aggressive Blade Runner. She offers Ash a cybernetic brace if she helps her track down Rabbit. Ash agrees (to use Hythe's resources to find Rabbit), and the pair are about a week behind Padraic and Rabbit. Along the way, we learn that Hythe doesn't work for the police; corporations now hire most Blade Runners post-Blackout. At the end of issue #7, we learn that she's working for Isobel.
Of course, Ash isn't stupid, so she doesn't fall for the claim that Isobel didn't really die at el Santuario. But, she works with Hythe and Isobel to track down Rabbit. Meanwhile, the Hartawan tells Rabbit to improve his look if he wants Arcadia to accept him. Padraic tells him that he knows that she's a girl, and Chloe is reborn, as the Hartawan encouraged her to be. At Ramajuna's transit station, Ash realizes that Rabbit would be going to Arcadia (because of the brochure), so she and Hythe head to the platform where that ship is departing.
When Ash IDs Chloe, Hythe puts a gun to her head. Ash says that Isobel would never do what this Isobel is doing, and Hythe confirms that this Isobel is a new model, more devoted to her husband. Padraic attacks Hythe, and Isobel screams for Chloe who emerges from the crowd. Padraic is confused that Ash (or "Ms. Kady" as he knows her) is helping Hythe, who uses the distraction to kill him. Before Hythe can kill Ash, Isobel kills her.
Ash is surprised, and Isobel tells her that she's not there to take home Chloe. Ash and Chloe embrace, and Isobel tells Ash that she still had all the same memories that the previous Isobel had. Chloe is upset that Ash won't come with them to Arcadia, but Ash tells her that she has to return to Earth to make sure her father can never find her.
As I mentioned, this arc lacks the first one's ooomph. For example, Green and Johnson never really explain Padraic's loyalty to Rabbit/Chloe, particularly his willingness to die for him/her. It may just be because Rabbit was his only friend, but we only have hints at that. That said, I was glad to see that Chloe wanted Ash to join them. The arc starts with an angry Rabbit expressing an adolescent belief that he can live without Ash. With her mother restored to her, Chloe seems to appreciate Ash for the surrogate mother that she was.
Going forward, Green and Johnson certainly plant some intriguing questions for the future. First, I'm excited to explore post-Blackout Earth. Second, I was surprised how extensively humanity had colonized the galaxy by 2026. It feels more like a "Mass Effect" scenario, where we stumbled upon existing technology to help us do so. I wouldn't mind them digging into that mystery at some point.
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