Writer: Mike Johnson
Artist: Andres Guinaldo
Colorist: Marco Lesko
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover Artists: Lesley Li; Clark Blint; Syd Mead; Nahuel
Grego
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 19, 2023
Niander Wallace bought Tyrell Corp’s assets. His last three
Replicant models have disappointed him. Then he learns that the wife and
daughter of late Replicant researcher Alexander Selwyn have returned to Earth.
What’s an ambitious and wealthy industrialist to do? Acquire Selwyn’s research
into replicant physiology by any means necessary. Is this bad news for former
Blade Runner Ash, who's taken Selwyn's daughter Cleo under her wing? Let's fly
into Blade Runner 2039 #5 and find out!
Story
Humans are imperfect, and replicants bear the defects of
their creators. Thus, Wallace gifts the police a new and better replicant. His
latest creation, named Luv, will never disobey his creator. Unlike Ash, she
will never kill humans and side with replicants. But no cops wanted a Skinjob
for a partner and impeded her efforts. So Wallace gives her a perfect partner
in Blade Runner 2039 #5: a replicant modeled on that renegade, disgraced Blade
Runner, and replicant-lover Ash.
It's been twenty years since Ash helped Isobel and Cleo
escape off-world. Now they’ve returned, or at least Cleo has. The young girl
has grown into a woman. Still, she longs to find her mother. Cleo thinks Isobel
may be in San Francisco. The best way to travel there—without alerting the
authorities—is to travel offroad in a beat-up old truck. But traveling offroad
entails certain risks.
Perhaps Ash contemplates these as she says her goodbyes to
Freysa. There's no doubting her feelings for the former combat-grade replicant.
To distract themselves from their parting and the dangers Ash will face, the
two women discuss the implications of Selwyn's research.
Art
Ridley Scott, the director of Blade Runner, describes
himself as more a worldbuilder than a storyteller. Titan Comics has expanded
Scott's world with Blade Runner 2019, 2029, Origins, and Black Lotus. As writer
Mike Johnson opens the next chapter of this expanded universe with Blade Runner
2039 #5, artist Andres Guinaldo returns us to an Earth that feels closer to
director Denis Villeneuve's sequel Blade Runner 2049 than Scott's original
film.
Niander Wallace meets with city authorities in a vast hall.
Despite the grandeur of the setting, he often resides in shadow. Sometimes only
his eyes, and part of his mouth, grow distinct. Yet there's no disguising the
intensity of his feelings and his ruthless hunger for perfection. His replicant
Ash, which he's named Rash, resembles the younger Blade Runner of the first
series. Unlike her imperfect human model, the replicant strikes an impressive
figure. Quietly elegant in a suit and green overcoat, her black hair falls to
her shoulders and shrouds her emotionless face.
With her shaved head, Cleo looks like she’s had a hard life.
Freysa also looks tired and worn out by all she's endured. At least her
replacement eye allows her to view the world without an eyepatch in Blade
Runner 2039 #5. Of the three, the years weigh the heaviest on Ash. But then,
she was granted opportunities nature never gave her, thanks to an artificial
spine in Blade Runner 2019 and a strange rejuvenation in 2029. Yet even though
she hobbles around on a cane, she's still a force of nature, always thinking of
what she must do next.
Sometimes Marco Lesko’s coloring shows a touch of gray in
Blade Runner 2039 #5. Yet scenes reveal striking luminescence. A glowing moon
Ash and Freysa's parting. The truck's headlights burn like stars as it rumbles
across the dirt, casting a writhing, merging cloud in its wake. Green plants
and a darker green sky contrast with the old red truck that defies obsolescence
to obey Ash's commands.
When bullets fly, they resemble the tracer rounds of
military combatants. Jim Campbell helps us hear their impacts with bold black
letters outlined in white. He fills white balloons with uppercase black letters
that could be a little larger for fans who saw Blade Runner during its original
theatrical run. But our protagonists’ low-key utterances and movements shield a
depth of feeling that makes Niander Wallace’s intensity resemble a childish
tantrum.
Final Thoughts
Blade Runner 2039 #5 burns with a creator's striving for
perfection, a young woman's hunger to find her mother, and a woman who works
tirelessly to help the people society so readily discards.
Rating 8.6/10
To view covers from artists Clark Blint, Nahuel
Grego, and Blade Runner production designer Syd Mead see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
View preview art at Comiclist.com
