Review: Blade Runner Origins #12
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Publisher: Titan Comics
Writers:Â K Perkins, Mellow Brown
Artist: Fernando Dagnino
Colors:Â Marco Lesko
Letters: Â Jim Campbell
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
Enter the world of Blade Runner: 2009 and Discover the untold origins of the Blade Runners!
Blade Runner Origins #12 – LAPD DETECTIVE CAL MOREAUX has discovered that the suicide of DR. LYDIA KINE was actually an elaborate ruse constructed by the Tyrell Corp engineer so she could live freely as a Replicant named ASA.
Dr. Kine’s latest experiment – the escaped NEXUS 5 prototype – initially received the blame for her death, however Cal has discovered the truth – the identity of the Nexus 5’s host consciousness: his sister, NIA MOREAUX.
More existentially advanced than the others, Nia has been “awakening” some Replicants in the slums of Los Angeles, causing them to leave their positions of servitude in pursuit of autonomy.
Tyrell Corp executive ILORA STAHL has been charged with the Nexus 5’s capture, and she will stop at nothing to protect her job and the company’s brand in spite of growing chaos. Two months have passed since Ilora launched an all-out attack against the SECTOR–6B slums and Cal has finally confronted his sister NIA MOREAUX, instigator of the Replicant uprising that lead to the Battle for Sector–6B..
Positives
K Perkins, and Mellow Brown… this issue is monumental in that it names Detective Cal Moreaux as the first Blade Runner. The fact that things are so complicated by his relationship with his sister who is basically running an underground railroad for Replicants.
Perkins, Brown, and Johnson are giving this story such strong bones that audiences may even cry out to see this on the big screen. Everyone loves a prequel and this book has been building to.
How did the Replicants go underground? It’s here… how did the original Blade Runner institute the Voight-Kampf machine (that little piece of machinery that measures eye dilation and makes a Replicant very unnverved)…it’s in here. When you finish reading this final issue of Blade Runner Origins, you have the final brick that sets the foundation for the Blade Runner movie.
As Blade Runner fans, we have a lot of our “aha” moments…it’s like watching Anakin Skywalker as a young child and you know what is coming, but you still relish every moment.
Perkins and Brown set off a “nostalgia bomb” that makes you immediately research how you can watch Harrison Ford’s Blade Runner again and again!
Positives 2.0
Fernando Dagnino, what he does with the rain, the roof tops and replicants is amazing. We see an entire new species that are about to be hunted for simply existing. Are we uneasy? Yes, because Dagnino brings them to life. You cannot ask for an artist to do more than that! Mission accomplished!
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. We get to really see the seeds of what the Tyrell Corp puts into play. Replicants….are they more human than we are? We are about to see!
Verdict
If we are lucky, we can get this into one anthology. If you are lucky, you have been buying issues #1 – #12 all along.  You may want to reach out to local comic shop if you have not been placing this in your pull bag. This series arguably could be the Hollywood film we crave as a Blade Runner prequel… it’s eye candy of that standard!
