Written by Michael Green & Mike Johnson

Art by Andres Guinaldo

Titan Comics, out now

The year 2026 and ‘Blade Runner’ Detective Ashina has rescued the kidnapped daughter of business tycoon Alexander Selwyn. Escaping from an island of Replicants, they’ve made their escape to the off-world colonies.

The first four issues in this series based around Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic feel even more standalone now that the narrative has taken a significant jump forwards of seven years. This allows Cleo to grow up and for the landscape to have changed for Replicants – in 2022 their production was banned and remaining Nexus 8 units were allowed to live their lives on colonies.

This change in the law has given Ash and Cleo the perfect deep cover, the former being a wheelchair-bound office worker, while Cleo is masquerading as a shaven-headed boy, Rabbit, supplying goods to the Replicant workforce. But nothing lasts forever, and it was only a matter of time before the fugitives would be tracked down by Selwyn’s mercenaries.

After the all-out action of Issue 4, we’re at a new jumping on point for readers, meaning that we need some world-building and context to drive the story. But by the end, it’s business as usual (and that’s a high standard of BAU), and with their cover blown, the duo need to plan their escape route.

Verdict: While less obviously set in the Blade Runner world than the first four issues (we’re no longer in LA and there’s no Spinners, neon landscape or other iconic props), writers Green and Johnson have built up enough goodwill in the opening chapters for us to see this as a natural extension, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us. 9/10

Nick Joy