Comic Book Review - Blade Runner 2019: Volume 1 Los Angeles

Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? 

Courtesy of an impromptu bid on a Facebook comic auction group, I recently found myself in possession of the first volume to Titan Comics Blade Runner 2019 series. The series itself isn’t new to me as I’ve previously written reviews on Titan’s first Blade Runner outing; Blade Runner Origins. And while I have picked up an issue here and there to 2019 (and it’s subsequent sequels) I’ve never sat down to read the entire series. Naturally with this spontaneous purchase that’s all about to change. 

Blade Runner 2019: Volume 1 Los Angeles collects the first chapter of the wider 2019 story arc. Co-written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, with art by Andres Guinaldo, the narrative follows Blade Runner, Aahna Ashina. While it’s not specifically stuck to the narrative explored within Ridley Scott’s phenomenal masterpiece, there is a few points that bleed over. 

Taking place within a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles, Blade Runner focuses on the synthetics known as Replicants. Created by the globe spanning Tyrell Corporaton, Replicants are bioengineered to be the workforce across humanities off-world colonies. Once a Replicant has reached the end of its operational lifespan, or suffers a severe fault, a Blade Runner is usually employed to permanently track down and essentially retire the unit. However, in good old fashioned sci-fi shenanigans, with Replicants being intelligent, they don’t take being retired lightly.  Hence the entire plot of the film. 

Anyway, Blade Runner 2019 centres itself around Aahna Ashina, a highly effective Blade Runner who holds a personal distrust against Replicants. Due to her side hustle as a broker of Replicant parts - she steals from her “kills” - Ashina finds herself at the mercy of billionaire Alexander Selwyn. Selwyn, who has ties to Tyrell tasks Ashina with tracking down his missing daughter who’s been kidnapped by his estranged wife. While the case initially doesn’t sound like one that needs the attention of a Blade Runner, Ashina soon finds her skills tested to the extreme as a grand globe-spanning conspiracy starts to unfold. With the lines blurred as to who she can trust, Ashina finds herself acting alone in a world where not everyone is who they seem.  

Where Blade Runner 2019 works well is that it’s story subverts your expectations, while simultaneously treading down some familiar pathways. The whole plot involving Selwyn and his daughter fall into familiar territory, yet it’s pay off goes in an entirely different direction to where a sci-fi tale involving intelligent machines, and a secret underground rebellion would have gone. Likewise, the interest in Tyrell across the whole affair adds yet another unknown variable to the mix. 

Elsewhere, and Ashina also adds to this moral grey area as she’s not particularly portrayed as a traditional hero. From her introduction we’re shown exactly why her reputation proceeds her, and her prejudice towards Replicants is seeing them as a commodity for the rich, rather than an intelligent race of machines. While she does start off as a bit of a bigot, as the narrative progresses so does her character arc. Her hunt for Chloe Selwyn takes Ashina to a few interesting places that she starts to open her eyes up to the prejudices that surround her world as a Blade Runner. And much like the Ridley Scott film, Green & Johnson don’t journey down the straight and narrow. 

While the story is spot on, bringing everything together is Andres Guinaldo. The art really does sell the vision of this dystopian society. Not only does Guinaldo capture the intricate details within the characters, with subtle facial expressions, and mannerisms. He perfectly captures the feel of the world too. The grittiness rain-soaked streets of the cyberpunk noir setting of Los Angeles invokes feelings of Scott’s own portrayal, yet Guinaldo is able to add plenty more to it.

Overall, Blade Runner 2019: Volume 1 Los Angeles is the perfect accomplishment to Philip K. Dick, and Ridley Scott’s respective worlds. It takes the familiar sci-fi tropes seen within the film, and improves upon them in every way possible. Not content with simply copying the films portrayal of runway Replicants, Michael Green, and Mike Johnson craft a real page turner full of conspiracies, twists, and turns. 

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Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on Twitter/Facebook @GeekCultureRev, and TikTok/YouTube @Geekculturereviews.