Blade Runner 2039 #6 Review

 

Writer: Mike Johnson

Artist: Andres Guinaldo

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Cover Artists: Alan Quah, Lamar Mathurin, & Syd Mead

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 23, 2023

 

A battle with raiders left Cleo gravely injured. Can Ash get the help she needs so they can resume the search for the girl's mother? Let's climb into our L.A.P.D. Spinners, fly into Blade Runner 2039 #6 and find out!

 

Story

Ash, Cleo, and the replicant Lexi traveled California back roads toward San Francisco. Now Ash faces the consequences of her decision to swap safety to avoid surveillance. While she and Cleo hunker down in the shot-up truck, Lexi braves the storm to seek help. Thankfully, good people still live in Central Cal.

 

In Los Angeles, Luv and Rash search for Isobel, Alexander Selwyn's replicant of his late wife. Even though Niander Wallace intended Rash to be her subordinate, the replicant copy of Ash believes she ought to run the investigation. Understandably, this rubs Luv the wrong way. Even though created later—by a man who prized obedience above all—Rash displays some startling differences. Luv may not have gotten along with her human counterpart in the L.A.P.D., but Rash might.

 

Whether the late Alexander Selwyn's research proves pivotal to the replicant community's future or merely a MacGuffin remains to be seen. What seems vital to Blade Runner 2039 #6 is how industrialization has transformed our planet.

 

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Art

Each page of Blade Runner 2039 #6 produces scenes seemingly lifted from a movie. A dust storm sweeps through central California, dwarfing humans and their creations. Beyond the highrises dominating Los Angeles, people eke out their lives, barely scraping by. Ground down by their socioeconomic plight, the less fortunate exhibit less charm than vehicles, houses, and the sea wall that protects Redondo Beach.

 

A youthful version of Ash harkens back to Blade Runner 2019. The partnership sparks more interest than poor, unloved Luv could sustain. Ash and Cleo's benefactor inhabits a tired relic of better times. Yet it feels homier than the stately residence of one of Alexander Selwyn's former employees.

 

Aside from glimpses of the electronic billboards that dominated Ridley Scott's film, subdued colors fight for survival in Blade Runner 2039 #6. The dust storm that ravages California colors the air brown and casts a pall over everything in its path. Beige, muted green, and red emerge, but barely. The interiors fare a little better. Even in the elegant home of Mr. Hollis, little color survives. More than its predecessors, this series drives us closer to the bleak future Denis Villeneuve painted in Blade Runner 2049. 

 

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Small black letters fill narrative boxes and dialogue balloons. Only the yellow time and space markers give older eyes respite. In keeping with earlier runs, the series' small lettering reminds those who saw the first movie during its original theatrical run that the changes time brings are not all for the better. But then, the trade in black-market eyes opened this series, and a man who cannot afford lab-grown ones in Blade Runner 2039 #6 demonstrates that life goes on, even for those who cannot read comics.

 

Final Thoughts

Ash and Cleo take the back seat while Luv and Rash steer the Spinner in Blade Runner 2039 #6. The replicant Buddy Cop partnership produces wry humor, observations on humanity, and an explosive ending.

 

Rating 8.4/10

 

To preview interior art and more covers see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.