‘Blade Runner Origins #9’ Review (Titan Comics)
Written by K Perkins, Mellow Brown | Art by Fernando Dagnino | Published by Titan Comics
I am enjoying this book, how could you not after all, but I do think it has slightly dropped below the Blade Runner 2029 book in the Blade Runner pecking order. Cal’s story started so strongly, with so much happening, that it has struggled to maintain that level. Have things got a little too complicated? Perhaps. Dead by presumed suicide Lydia Kine is actually now the Replicant Asa. The Nexus 5 Replicant Cal has been chasing is actually his sister, Nia, who has been busy ‘awakening’ Replicants to rise up, rather like Yotun over in the pages of Blade Runner 2029. Ilora Stahl is the Tyrell enforcer tasked with trying to sort all this mess out, while keeping Tyrell’s name out of the news. The positive of that is that it’s made Asa, Nia, and Cal (what’s with all the three letter names?) put aside their differences and all team up against the bigger threat…
Ilora it seems is happy to burn the entire sector to the ground to eradicate any and all Replicants, and she has a small Tyrell army to help her do it. Things get very ugly, very fast. Cal takes the initiative, gives himself the task of taking out Ilora, while Nia and Asa as the ‘muscle’ take on the Tyrell militia. Unfortunately, the Tyrell Nexus 3’s are pure brute force, strong though deliberately not too bright. It’s going to be a hard slog. Fernando Dagnino must have rubbed his hands together with happiness when he got this script, as the next several pages just let him cut loose with a whole lot of fighting going on. Crash, bang, wallop in visual form. Plenty of panels packed with plenty of action, Dagnino reminding us that there is no special effects budget in comics. You get a real sense of the confusion and anarchy that exists in the midst of a firefight in a warren of streets and a town square.
Despite all the destruction everywhere, the real battle here is between Cal and Ilora. The two generals of this conflict. They finally see each other, both lose someone important to them. Sadly, no resolutions this time, as Ilora escapes. This time the victory, such as it is, belongs to the local neighbourhood inhabitants and the Replicants protecting it. I see ‘victory’ loosely, as it has also emphasised the divisions between the uneasy alliance. Marcus, for one, is no longer welcome. Nia’s loss of someone important has set her on a path that will make Cal have to once again step in, and the Replicants left have to decide what course they will take. Open rebellion? Work in the shadows methodically? co-existence? War never really seems to solve what the fighting is supposed to it seems.
After such a physical issue, with such a whole lot of action, Perkins and Brown have a little fun at the end with some philosophy. If Replicants were only ever intended to be servants and slaves, why were they given such emotion, the ability to free think, to appreciate things? Can it be that Tyrell wanted them to ‘enjoy’ being a slave, deriving some sort of perverse pleasure from it? A valid point. The flaw in the Replicant make-up was there from the start. Just like humans, if you are made to perform a role you don’t like or enjoy, you will try to escape that role. Independent thinking leads to free will, and free will leads to personal freedom. Like I said, very philosophical.
Was this a great issue? Probably not. A good, solid issue? Yep. It felt a little padded to be fair, as Dagnino had fun drawing multiple pages of fight scenes, but they never really moved the story on hugely. Even the death was a little underwhelming, feeling as though it was done as much to generate some emotional depth as to advance the story, which to be fair it does do as the nest issue promo reveals.
A solid read, but some treading of water before the big climax next issue it seems.
