In BLADE RUNNER: ORIGINS #7, available from Titan Comics on October 13th, 2021, the deception is uncovered as Det. Cal Moreaux’s sister, Nia, leads a small band of replicants to start a new way of life with collateral damage.
The Details
- Written By: K. Perkins, Mellow Brown
- Art By: Fernando Dagnino
- Colors By: Marco Lesko
- Letters By: Jim Campbell
- Cover Art By: Jesus Hervas (cover A)
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: Ocotber 13, 2021
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Was It Good?
It was revealing.
A review of this issue is impossible without getting into some spoilers. Hop on down to the next section for the dirty details, but consider this your advanced notice that some spoilers will be covered in this section.
We now know Nia Moreaux, Cal’s sister, is the escaped Nexus 5 that’s got the Tyrell Corporation all hot and bothered. However, it’s not that simple. Nia was born a human and her mind was placed in the Nexus 5 as the first prototype experiment under Dr. Kine’s program. Why? Apparently, Nia was injured and/or dying and it seemed like a ripe opportunity for human trials. Nia escaped her lab and Dr. Kine used the escape as a cover to transfer her own mind into a Nexus 4 (called Asa) to cast off her old body and frame it as a suicide. Tyrell wouldn’t be bothered to investigate Dr. Kine’s suicide too closely if all eyes are on the hunt for Nia.
That’s the story so far. What’s still not crystal clear is why Dr. Kine wanted to transfer her mind into a Nexus 4. Time will tell but the writers dropped some telling hints in the last issue, so we’ll see if we guessed correctly.
Whew! That’s a lot of plot machinations to get through. Does it work as a compelling story? Honestly, the misdirection and convolution are significantly muddying the waters. The point of the story is completely lost by now, and it feels like cool reveals are happening in a story that doesn’t have a clear direction. The reveals may be worth it for some readers. Others may find the reveals are a lot of style covering for a lack of substance.
Nia is now the central focus of the story, and except for one or two panels where he watches from a distance, Det. Cal Moreaaux doesn’t show up at all in this issue. The shift in focus away from Cal to Nia adds to the lack of clear direction for the series. You could surmise the writers are building up Nia to a reckoning with Cal, but again, we’ll see how it plays out.
There’s not much to say about Dagnino’s art in this issue. Dagnino is doing a great job with a grounded noir style that evokes the spirit of a detective story set in a “future” where everything’s about tech and innovation. The characters look great and every panel is dripping with moody designs. In this issue, there’s more emphasis on unique character costumes to make the replicants look a little sleeker, and it helps enforce the idea that replicants are organizing themselves to be more than just manual labor.
In all, this issue has a lot of interesting reveals to demystify the questions raised in issue #1 but the reveals are detracting away from a clear direction for the story. At least the art is a perfect fit for the material.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We gave away the bigger reveals in the section above, so we’ll cover the plot specifics below. But first, check out our BLADE RUNNER: ORIGINS #6 review to read up on those hints we mentioned earlier.
We begin with Nia and her band of merry replicants raiding a garage that’s been used to capture and destroy other replicants. In these scenes, we get a feel for Nia’s code of ethics for how replicants should behave and how her colleagues either agree or not.
A few neighborhood children notice Nia is different from the average replicant, and she explains she’s only here to set her brethren free… not kill. The children explain not all replicants are above killing and that there’s a replicant-hunt in progress just a few blocks away. The killer replicant is one that Nia’s group “freed” earlier but who reacted violently to the change. Nia moves to find the replicant out of a sense of responsibility for freeing him without guidance.
We then get two flashbacks. First, we see how, when, and why Nia came to be a replicant, revealing Dr. Kine has been working on her experiments for some time. Second, we get a character-building flashback of Ilya Stahl’s childhood. We conclude the issue with Stahl learning of Dr. Kine’s plan from a surprising source and all parties converging on the rogue replicant.
Final Thoughts
BLADE RUNNER: ORIGINS #7 is filled with surprises and satisfying reveals, but the constantly shifting focus feels like the story doesn’t know where it’s going. That said, there’s plenty of cool art and cool reveals to keep the reader engaged as long as readers are invested simply for the cool factor.
Score: 7.5/10
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