Like tears in the rain.
Blade Runner by Titan Publishing, is a number of series set in the world of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Winner of the 2020 Scribe Award for best Graphic Novel, this graphic novel is the official sequel to the cult classic 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. Co-written by Michael Green, the Academy Award nominated screenwriter of Logan, Blade Runner 2049, and Murder on the Orient Express.
There's a new Blade Runner in town, and she's out for blood. Replicant blood. When a rich industrialist's wife and young daughter go missing, seemingly the victims of a Replicant kidnapping, Blade Runner Ash is called in to rescue them before they end up on a slab or worse. As Ash's investigation deepens she uncovers a shocking secret that could very well end up costing her her life.
Volumes in the Series:
- Blade Runner: 2019 (volumes 1-3)
- Blade Runner: 2029 (volumes 1-3)
- Blade Runner: Origins (volumes 1-2)
The first series, Blade Runner: 2019 is a prequel to the first film. It then skips ahead ten years to Blade Runner: 2029, which makes it an interquel between the first and second films.
It, furthermore, has a prequel called Blade Runner: Origins that is set ten years before the first film.
The series, of course, has many tropes in common with Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049.
This series contains the following tropes:
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The series as a whole
- Advert-Overloaded Future: The city of Los Angeles is covered in neon advertisements at any given moment of the day.
- Alternate Timeline: As befitting the fact that it has since passed 2019 and 2009.
- Antihero: Blade Runners are treated as this since their jobs involve terminating people who just want to live free.
- Alternative Turing Test: The Voight Kampff Test is frequently brought up.
- Artificial Humans: The Nexus series of Replicants remain indistinguishable from humans save through the Voight Kampff test.
- Battle in the Rain: A frequent thing that occurs between the protagonists and their enemies.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: People are either utterly vile or morally compromised with almost no one inbetween.
- Chiaroscuro: The comic books are exceptionally dark and in shading and color while still having color.
- City Noir: Los Angeles is a city that is riddled with corruption, cruelty, and violence.
- Crapsack World: The planet is utterly ruined environmentally, food is scarce for anyone but the wealthy, and even the rich eat ants for protein. The rich and healthy have (almost) all moved to space, leaving behind only the poor and sickly.
- Cyberpunk: The rain-soaked neon-filled dystopia of Los Angeles in the film is replicated perfectly here. Up to and including all the class inequality and corruption that characterizes the genre.
- Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: As befitting a spin off of the original movie, it is constantly raining in many panels.
- Fantastic Racism: Replicants are hated and despised by many characters, including the protagonists.
- Flying Car: They are ubiquitous enough that Ash using ground vehicles is considered bizarre.
- The Future Is Noir: The stories combine gritty detective stories with science fiction.
- Futuristic Pyramid: The Tyrell building is still intact across all the series.
- Hand Cannon: Standard issue for Blade Runners since regular ammunition won't cut it.
- Hero of Another Story: The comics follow different Blade Runners during different time periods of the setting.
- Just a Machine: A very common attitude among the populace to Replicants.
- La Résistance: The Replicants form one of these between the movies and actively work to destroy the Tyrell Corporations' records so they can live in peace on Earth.
- Meat-Sack Robot: Replicants have an artificial core but are covered in organic tissue.
- Megacorp:
- The Tyrell Corporation is one of the richest and most powerful in the world.
- Canaan Corporation is more or less the sole remaining provider of food in the world.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: The Replicant resistance destroying all of the Tyrell Corporation's records with the Blackout gave them a chance at freedom but also turned the public irrevocably against them and triggered a new wave of persecution.
- Private Eye Monologue: The protagonists frequently have these in their thought boxes.
- The Problem with Fighting Death: Replicants frequently cause no end of violent episodes due to their imminent nature of their demises after just a few short years.
- What Measure Is A Nonhuman: Averted, actually. The Replicants are treated as people by the story and those people who deny it are simply fooling themselves.
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: The Replicants are needed in the Offworld colonies to provide the luxuries that the rich expect.
- Zeerust Canon: Much of the visuals of the books come from the first film, which was an 80s vision of the future. There's no cellphones in sight for instance.
Blade Runner: 2019
- Action Girl:
- Ash is an utterly brutal Blade Runner that is capable of fighting her superhuman foes.
- Hythe is also a badass Replicant Hunter.
- Freysa is an interesting variant as she's definitely one but also The Medic.
- Artifact Title: Ash is fired from the Blade Runners before the first story arc is concluded.
- The Atoner:
- Many former employees of the Tyrell Corporation had a Heel Realization over the years and attempted to form an Underground Railroad for them.
- Ash becomes one of these after realizing Replicants are people too.
- Boomerang Bigot: Hythe is a particularly nasty and bigoted Blade Runner, often using slurs against them and insisting on them being Just a Machine. Which is interesting since she's a Replicant.
- The Butcher: The nickname for Ash among Replicants and Blade Runners alike for her habit of Organ Theft.
- Corporate Samurai: Hythe works for the megacorporations as a Blade Runner rather than the police. She's also a Replicant made for the job.
- Dark Secret: Ash is covering up her spinal deformity that renders her unfit for police service.
- Deal with the Devil: Selwyn sold his daughter to the Tyrell Corporation in exchange for a Nexus-7 replacement for his wife. Who the Devil is turns out to be difficult to say.
- The Dragon: Selwyn works for Hythe as one of these as she was created by him.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Ash is a cyborg who can't move without her brace but considers Replicants to be less than human.
- Ash finally makes it to space where people can live in abject luxury but ends up living among Replicants.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Volume 3 ends with Selwyn dead, Cleo living with her mother on Arcadia with her father's fortune, and Ash having a new partner. However, Freysa won't live very long like all Replicants and Ash will never see her daughter again since there's no chance of being able to afford a life in the offworld colonies.
- Establishing Character Moment: Ash shows she's a badass, ruthless, and utterly hates Replicants by threatening one by saying she's going to sell off his organs.
- Handicapped Badass:
- Ash suffers from a spinal deformity that can only be corrected with a brace that needs regular recharging.
- It gets worse in volume 2 where she has to live for a decade without it and use a wheelchair to get around despite being in space.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ash slowly undergoes one of these as she comes to see Replicants as people due to the love Isobel has for her child.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The Isobel Replicants are motivated by their love of their daughter more than their loyalty to their husband.
- Hollywood Cyborg: Averted as Ash's artificial spine is a medical tool.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Tyrell Corporation collapses after the Blackout and the death of Eldon Tyrell.
- Living Macguffin: Cleo is possessed of a longevity gene that Tyrell wishes to acquire.
- Morality Pet: Ash ends up adopting Cleo after the death of her mother.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Selwyn deeply regrets his deal with the Tyrell Corporation. It doesn't mean he should be with his daughter, though.
- Offing the Offspring: Selwyn supposedly wants to kill his daughter for reasons unknown. The Tyrell Corporation wants to keep her alive. This isn't true. Selwyn just wants his daughter back but is dangerously insane.
- Organ Theft: A way Ash used to supplement her income. Apparently, many people collect Replicant parts.
- Red Baron:
- Ash is known as the "Butcher" among Blade Runners for selling off their parts to collectors.
- Cleo is known as Rabbit while they're serving as a black marketeer in space to survive.
- Relationship Upgrade: Freysa and Ash become lovers at the end of the book.
- Replacement Goldfish: Isobel is a Nexus-7 prototype that was designed to replace Alexander Selwyn's dead wife.
- Retcon: The four year lifespan of Replicants is not deliberate like established in the first movie but a result of the science. Tyrell was actively trying to overcome it.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Even when Replicants are banned completely and no longer being manufactured, Selwyn continues to supply them to the super rich. In outer space, in fact, Ash actually doesn't even notice there is a ban.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ash is fired the moment her Dark Secret is discovered.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Cleo disguises herself as a boy for ten years in order to hide from Selwyn and his goons.
- Time Skip: The second volume jumps ahead ten years after the events of the first one.
- Underground Railroad: Namechecked by Ash herself when she finds out that the former employees of Tyrell smuggle Replicants to an island off Mexico in order to live out their remaining days in peace.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Replicants in space are more like pirates than liberators, indiscriminately killing any humans they encounter.
Blade Runner: Origins
- Bigot with a Badge: Averted as Cal doesn't have any of the Fantastic Racism other Blade Runners have. Probably because they don't exist yet.
- Brain Uploading: Lydia Kine achieved this with the Nexus-5 prototype.
- Bribe Backfire: Ilora Stahl suggests that Cal get a job in private security for far more money. He is offended and shuts her down.
- Cop and Scientist: What Effie tries to form with Cal against Tyrell. It doesn't work.
- Corporate Samurai: Ilora Stahl is fanatical in her service of Tyrell.
- Cowboy Cop: Cal Moreaux is a guy who does the job by his own rules and screw the consequences.
- Detective Patsy: Ilora wants Cal to do her dirty work in covering up the events of Lydia Kine's death.
- Dirty Cop: The LAPD has no interest in actually investigating the "suicide" at Tyrell HQ.
- Gay Best Friend: Cal's closest confidant is a drag queen who runs a bar downtown called La Plume Savage.
- Invisibility Cloak: A group of assassins tries to take out Cal with one of these. He reveals them with his sprinkler system.
- Morality Pet: Cal has a comatose sister who he continues to hope will wake up despite most people agreeing it's hopeless.
- Revealing Cover Up: Ilora Stahl's attempt to shut down the suicide investigation is what clues Cal into something huge happening. Then invisible ninjas show up to kill him.
- Shame If Something Happened: Ilora says this about Cal's comatose sister before dropping the pretext.
- Space Marine: Cal Moreaux was one of these since the Replicants hadn't yet replaced them.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Lydia's brother doesn't react well to her new Replicant body.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Effie is murdered by Ilora Stahl for her attempts to go against Tyrell.
- Trans Nature: Played with as female Lydia has moved her consciousness to a male Replicant body and is quite comfortable with it. Her brother reacts poorly to it.
- Turned Against Their Masters: It initially appears that the prototype has done this. It actually contains the mind of Lydia Kine.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist:
- Effie Koropey thinks telling the public about Tyrell Corporation will bring it down. Cal points out the public already knows Tyrell is shady.
- Lydia Kine is repeatedly described as this by her former coworkers.
Blade Runner: 2029
- Big Bad: Yotun is a fanatic demagogue who wants to liberate replicants.
- Category Traitor:
- Jac tries to prevent Yotun's mass murders and is killed by a fellow Replicant for being one of these.
- Ash being one of these actually keeps her alive as the Replicant resistance knows she's an ally.
- Eye Scream: Freya loses an eye due to Yotun.
- Good Is Not Soft: Ash still retires murderous Replicants despite her sympathies.
- Happily Married: Not married due to the fact its illegal for humans to marry Replicants but she and Freya live together in domestic bliss.
- Nasty Party: Yotun crashes the elite of LA having a gathering into doing one of these.
- People Jars: Yotun has a bunch of Replicants stored from the Tyrell days that he is releasing and using in his revolution.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Yotun regularly receives blood transfusions from later-model Replicants that may, in fact, be the key to his extended lifespan past his initial four years.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Ash has her spine healed by her time in a Replicant regeneration tank.
- Underground Railroad: Ash helps Replicants escape as a Blade Runner by faking their deaths. She also retires those Replicants who are killers.
- Wasteland Elder: Yotun is a peculiar example of this but lives in the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk slums of Los Angeles with the other Replicants and rules by virtue of being older than any other of their kind.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Yotun is entirely justified in resisting Replicant oppression but his methods are going to get massive amounts of the poor and destitute killed that have nothing to do with Replicant slavery.
