In BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS #2, available from Titan Comics on March 24th, 2021, LAPD Detective Cal Moreaux brings reaches out to those closest to Dr. Kine about her research. When her brother goes missing and her assistant tells a terrifying tale, Moreaux must beat the competition to the truth.
The Details
- Written By: K. Perkins, Mellow Brown
- Art By: Fernando Dagnino
- Colors By: Marco Lesko
- Letters By: Jim Campbell
- Cover Art By: Angel Hernandez, Esther Sanz
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: March 24, 2021
Was It Good?
Yes. Titan and the creative teams on these Blade Runner titles are nailing the look, the feel, the characters, and the tone of the film and the Blade Runner world.
The art is gloomy and dreary with just a hint of electric edge. The writing is straight-up detective noir, dripping with mood and a dark conspiracy.
Check out the BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS #2 preview to see the internal pages and variant covers for yourself.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
We pick up in an odd spot after the end of the last issue (read our BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS #1 review here to get caught up). Moreaux and Dr. Kine’s brother, Marcus, were under attack from someone throwing a dumpster at them. When we start here, the two are inside the house almost an hour later. It feels like the story skipped a step from issue #1 and #2 but it’s a small quibble and the only down of the issue.
Moreaux takes Marcus into the station for questions and safe-keeping while he goes to get the coroner’s results from Dr. Kine’s autopsy. It turns out her vertebrae were cracked, which is inconsistent with a hanging, so there’s enough evidence to convince Moreaux her death from an apparent suicide was really a murder.
When Moreaux gets back to the station to talk to Marcus, he’s gone and nobody from the station willingly admits to knowing where he went. It’s clear from the reaction of the other detectives and the sergeant that they’re more than happy to see this case go away or else risk getting on the bad side of the Tyrell Corporation.
Meanwhile, we learn Marcus was taken by the Tyrell Corporation with help from corrupt cops. Before Marcus’s transport can make it to its destination, a replicant leaps from a nearby building to bring the transport crashing down to the street.
This scene is well-staged and executed. You can picture seeing this play out on a large screen and it’s thrilling.
Cut to Moreaux enter a local diner to meet with Dr. Kine’s assistant. Without much urging, she reveals Dr. Kine was working on upgrading Nexus-4 replicants to a Nexus-5 with human-like personality traits such as needs, wants, and desires. It’s not clear why a Tyrell Corporation scientist would do such a thing or what they hoped to discover from such an unsavory experiment, but Moreaux now has a motive (silence).
Without giving away the ending, Dr. Kine added something special, Moreaux asks an important question, and Marcus is given a helping hand.
Final Thoughts
BLADE RUNNER ORIGINS #2, available from Titan Comics on March 24th, 2021, keeps the artwork high and turns the excellent writing up a little higher. But for the slightly jarring gap between the end of the first issue to the start of this one, this would be a near-perfect issue.
Score: 8.5/10
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