This series starts off roughly.
Even after reading it several times, I have no idea what the opening line, which the speaker says to his wounded colleague, is supposed to mean: "They say you'd want to fight any obstacle with your last breath once you discover what life really is but I guess I'm going to have to settle for you, Avery." I think he means that he's fighting to save his colleague rather than "what life really is." I think?
At any rate, Moreaux (whose name I only caught on his uniform after re-reading this sequence for the third or fourth time) speaks this line to Avery as they're apparently facing down waves of enemies at the siege of Kalanthia in 2007. Avery orders Moreaux to clear the South Hall to avoid the enemy flanking them while he (Avery) goes to activate a box of Replicants. The art is so unclear in the next sequences that it's hard to tell what happens. I think Avery successfully opens the box and the two Replicants clear out the South Hall of "enemies" before Moreaux even arrives, but it's really unclear. Fortunately, it doesn't matter because we don't really revisit this scene again.
In the present (i.e., Los Angeles, 2009), Moreaux is a cold-case expert for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). His only human connection appears to be his comatose sister. When his boss puts Moreaux on the case of a suicide in Tyrell Corporation's new HQ, he explicitly sends Moreaux with orders to solve the case in a way the Powers that Be won't mind. At the HQ, Moreaux learns the dead woman is named Lydia Kine. He's speaking with her assistant, Effie Koropey, when a woman named Ilora Stahl informs him that she'll be handling his engagement with the Tyrell Corporation -- at Mr. Tyrell's request -- from this point forward. Ilora dismisses Effie and seems to offer Moreaux a job. I'm not sure what her goal is there, as someone else would just take his place if she thinks hiring him would end the investigation. At any rate, he doesn't take up the offer.
Later, Moreaux has a few drinks at La Plume Sauvage, where his drag-queen friend warns him to be careful of Tyrell for his sister's sake. Issue #1 ends with a bang, as Lydia's brother Marcus appears to Moreaux outside Moreaux's apartment to tell him that his sister didn't kill herself. Their conversation is interrupted when some goons following Marcus attack. Moreaux gets them into his apartment safely only to discover a voicemail from Effie saying that a Nexus 5 (the next Replicant model at the time) escaped the night Lydia died.
Issue #2 is an improvement, though it still suffers from an odd rhythm to the characters' interactions. Moreaux takes Marcus to LAPD HQ, where he figures he'll be safe, and goes to the morgue to look at Lydia's body. His boss meets him there, telling him that he was supposed just to fill out the paperwork closing the case and leave. Moreaux makes it clear that he isn't just going to look the other way and criticizes his boss for the "debt" they owe Tyrell because of him. His boss tells Moreaux that he's happy to throw him under the bus, and it's clear that he isn't the only one Tyrell has bought when Moreaux arrives at his desk only to discover Marcus is gone. We then see two cops taking Marcus to Ilora who is just beginning her attempt to shake down Marcus when a Replicant attacks their car and frees him.
Later, Moreaux meets Effie at a diner, and she informs Moreaux that they built the Nexus 5s with an obsession with optimization. Moreaux tells her that they both need to lay low.
The art and writing team again stumble in issue #3. In terms of the art, I would've sworn that the Replicant who saved Marcus at the end of issue #2 was a blond European male. But "he" looks like a black-haired Asian female at the start of issue #3. This art decision is made all the more confusing when it turns out the female is in fact Lydia but she's actually a black-haired Asian man. It's only when the writing team mentions that Lydia is now a man that it becomes clear Lydia didn't commit suicide: she inhabited a male Replicant body to transition. The art team's utter failure to convey these nuances make the entire scene difficult - if not impossible - to follow.
Later, Effie and Moreaux are suddenly at each other's throats despite their fairly friendly encounter at the end of issue #2. Effie apparently sees Moreaux as part of the system destroying society (given his job at the LAPD) whereas Moreaux sees Effie as creating the Replicants who are forcing more and more humans into the slums. Why they're suddenly having this argument is never explained.
At any rate, issue #3 ends with Asa (formerly Lydia) arriving at Moreaux's apartment to retrieve evidence for Marcus that to prove he was Lydia. Asa arrives just after Moreaux took out some invisibility-cloaked goons whom Ilora presumably sent. Moreaux chases Asa through the streets as Effie just so happens to pass them in a cab. She follows them only for Ilora to shoot her before she can tell Moreaux what she wants him to know. Ilora then tells Moreaux that she'll kill his sister if he doesn't kill the Nexux 5 and Marcus. Asa emerges from the shadows and grieves for Effie, who she claims was "right" for reasons that are as yet unclear.
In a twist that frankly made me roll my eyes, it turns out Asa isn't the Nexus 5 who escaped. Ilora tells Moreaux that said Nexus 5 been causing havoc in the slums, but the only havoc we've seen is the havoc Asa has caused. It's only at issue's end that we see some Replicants join (presumably) the Nexus 5 that we realize that they're two separate problems. Later, Moreaux tell his boss that Lydia's death was a suicide and then throw away his badge
If any part of these four issues made sense to you, let me know. Otherwise, I'm getting off this train before it derails.
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