Titan Comics Review: Blade Runner Origins #1

by Carl Bryan
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Review: Blade Runner Origins #1

 

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers:  K Perkins, Mellow Brown, Mike Johnson

Artist: Ferando Dagnino

Colors:  Marco Lesko

Letters:   Jim Campbell

 

Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary

“Detective Moreaux – got a fresh batch of cases that have gone cold for you…your specialty” –  Precinct Supervisor

Los Angeles: 2009 …Uncover the story behind the first Blade Runners!

A Tyrell Corporation scientist is dead – the victim of an apparent suicide.

When LAPD Detective Cal Moreaux is called to investigate, he uncovers secret documents revealing a new kind of Replicant and a conspiracy that could change the world.

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Positives

There was a commercial that was pretty inspiring when it first was broadcast.  You saw scenes of a movie where you thought to yourself… “This looks like it could be in a Star Wars universe”.  Then you heard it…that breathing…and you were taken away to 1977 and the first Star Wars movie.  But this was the beginning… the studio had created a “prequel”.  Arguably the first prequel set up ever.

Now in the literary world, K Perkins, Mellow Brown, Mike Johnson have created that prequel for us in terms of the Tyrell Corporation and the first Replicants produced for dangerous industries and for war.  How did we get to the point to where Dekker had to hunt down Replicants in Blade Runner.  How were the Blade Runners created? What implications in this comic have influenced Detective Ash’s practices in her comic?

These authors have so much fertile ground to play with that each member of a Blade Runner crew could have a story.

 

Positives 2.0

Ferando Dagnino immerses us into LA…a rainy LA…those vehicles…that skyline.  If you are not familiar with the Blade Runner landscape, you will immediately recognize that is is and always has been dreary.  The rain is a character in the movies and in the comics.

There is a certain artistic style that readers (and viewers) of Blade Runner are used to.  Dagnino pays certain homages to this style.  All that is missing is a bowl of noodles at an outdoor cafe while it is raining.

In terms of character development, we are immediately sympathetic to Detective Moreaux.  His sister is in a coma in the hospital, where he reads to her at her bedside.  He is a “cleaner upper” in that his department is relying on him to be the first person outside the Tyrell Corp to enter its workplace.  He’s trusted and tough.  And he seems perfect to be the first one to begat Dekker and subsequently Ash, and so on!

 

Negatives

Crickets are chirping as you need to check this out!  This comic is what we have been craving as a prequel in expanding our knowledge of the Blade Runner universe.  If you are a Pulp Noir fan or simply a Blade Runner fan, you should be on board with this Titan Comics entry.

Verdict

This story line has been refreshing.  I literally cannot wait to drink in each issue as I was a fan of the Harrison Ford original.  But Ash…Ash fits like a glove in this Blade Runner environment.  This is cutting edge science fiction pulp noir.

 

5outof5 DC Comics News

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