Blade Runner 2029 #1

Blade Runner 2029 #1

Titan Comics 2020

Written by Mike Johnson

Illustrated by Andres Guinaldo

Coloured by Marco Lesko

Lettered by Jim Campbell

The first comic to tell original, in-canon stories set in the Blade Runner universe returns!

It is 2029 and ex-Blade Runner Ash continues to hunt the streets of the rain-soaked dystopian world of Los Angeles for renegade Replicants, but this time she’s trying to protect as many as she can find.

This is one of those franchises that surpasses the original in so many ways. This makes the idea of Blade Runner a lot more accessible to people as well as introducing it to new generations in ways that the film or novels ever could, of course the film is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Sheep. After the first run we are now rejoining Aahna “Ash” Ashina in her job as a Blade Runner but now things have drastically changed for a myriad of reasons. The opening for this one is utterly sensational and it is a great example of how effectively Ash is at her job or was as it open twelve years before the current one starts. It is an effective opening that garners interest an the reader leaving them wanting to know more.

I love the way that this is being told! The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented so amazingly well. With the way that this is structured and how the layers within the story emerge as well as continue we see how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow. This flow is amazing to see on the pages and it really does give that elevated storytelling feel, like it’s a mini-series or film. The character development is phenomenal and I love how not only does the dialogue help to flesh them out more but how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they find in their way. The pacing is fabulous and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story as well as the twists and turns along the way it draws the reader in and keeps them engaged in what is happening.

I have to say at first I was a little leary of the interiors but all in all after they really didn’t strike me as my style. Of course I am wrong on occasion and when I got to the haberdashery everything I thought went out the window because the linework is exquisite and the way that we see the detail work here through the varying weights and techniques is beyond what I could’ve hoped for. With backgrounds being utilised throughout so effectively in both expanding the moments as well as how we see depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is beautifully rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is fantastic to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extraordinary to see.

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I love this issue and how we see the events already playing out and unfolding before us. There is a lot of stuff going on here and with so many moving parts within a story it could quickly feel muddled and overcrowded but I am super impressed with the talent, skill, charm and charisma that Mike possesses. The man has some seriously mad skill when it comes to writing and to see him bring this world alive the way that he does is something you will never forget.