Review: Blade Runner 2029 #5
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Publisher: Titan Comics
Writers: Mike Johnson
Artist : Andres Guinaldo
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Colorist:Â Marco Lesko
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
In a surprise attack,of the Los Angeles seawall construction site, Ash discovered that ta Nexus 6 Replicant, Yotun, whom she had failed to retire 12 years previously, had somehow outlived his expiration date.
He is now leading an army of Replicants who have destroyed a section of the seawall and murdered the political and corporate elite of Los Angeles.
Ash now finds herself captive in Yotun’s hidden base of operations where she may very well meet her doom!
Positives
 Mike Johnson just created a game changer in the canon of Blade Runner. It’s too important not to mention it and I hate giving away any Easter Eggs or Spoilers.
That being said, what does Ash do when confronted by all of the Replicants she had “retired”? That’s Blade Runner speech for “killed”. Game changer…a Replicant’s mind can be “reharvested” into a fresh body. A new skin with a healthy body. Now we knew this tech has been coming from the work established in Blade Runner Origins and Blade Runner 2019, but here we have the story line coming to a bit of fruition in that the Tyrell Corporation is offering eternal life – give or take a new body or two. Wow!
Positives 2.0
Fernando Dagnino captures the grit and the dirtiness and the neon of a Blade Runner LA. His pulp noir style is on fire. Or rather…on rain! Again, the rain is a character in this book. The vehicles, the cityscapes, the costuming, the noodle bars and the list goes on and on. You feel disappointed if these elements are not included.
Dagnino captures a bit of Terminator like landscape in Ash’s departure from where she is being held to a junkyard.
Negatives (Nah…it’s more Positives!)
This is a page turner and what Blade Runner fans have been wishing for. I love that this team has provided both origins, time jumps and updates that keep providing more and more canon for long time fans to latch onto. Finally, someone gets futuristic pulp noir right on the artistic and script levels!
Verdict
We get to really see the seeds of what the Tyrell Corp puts into play.  Cal has his hands full and he is not even a Blade Runner…not that it will allow him special powers. This is some hard core science fiction that contributes to canon with every strike on the keyboard!
