Written by K. Perkins, Mellow Brown.

Creative Consultant Mike Johnson, Michael Green.

Art by Fernando Dagnino

Titan Comics, out now

 

 

Los Angeles 2009 and LAPD detective Cal Moreaux is tracking the presumed killer of Doctor Lydia Kane, a Nexus 5 prototype. His path leads to the Slums, an under-resourced and forgotten part of LA.

This issue takes up to the halfway mark of the Blade Runner prequel series and it’s hard to see just where this story is going. If I’m going to be critical – and as a fan of the IP I feel qualified – I’m not quite feeling this spin-off series in the way that I do with Blade Runner 2019 and 2029.

Maybe it’s the over-population of the story with subsidiary characters and the feeling that they are just being pushed around a chessboard in readiness for their next moves, rather than achieving anything of note along the way. That’s not so say that there’s only room for one successful comic book at one time in the Blade Runner universe, but being released in tandem with its bigger sister is not helpful with the obvious comparisons.

Verdict: An episodic issue that lacks the pace and revelations of the main Blade Runner comic. Let’s hope that the course is soon corrected for an exciting second half. 6/10

Nick Joy