Blade Runner 2029 Vol 2: Echoes

Mike Johnson, Andres Guinaldo Titan Comics, 2022 Pb, 112pp, £14.99, ISBN 9781787735972

Blade Runner is now seen very much as part of the origins of cyberpunk, yet we often forget how truly odd Ridley Scott’s masterpiece was at the time – how strange the streets are once we drop from those opening shots, gliding over the cityscape with its venting flames. From the cadence of Rutger Hauer’s famous monologue to the fluorescent tube umbrellas, everything feels disturbingly offkilter.

Any Blade Runner comic written now is coming at the story with over 40 intervening years of cyberpunk stereotypes. The trick is to avoid writing a generic story in a generic cyberpunk setting, and I’m happy to say that this is a trap that Blade Runner 2029 avoids falling into.

The story revolves around a group of replicants led by Yotun, a defective Nexus 6, who has plans for Los Angeles. Ash, meanwhile, is trying to stop the uprising, while saving her lover.

Here Johnson and Guinaldo both manage to capture the character of the original, giving the story a sufficiently noir feel without it coming off as derivative. This is particularly noticeable in the speech patterns of Yotun, which have a slight otherworldliness to them. This is all helped by the colour work of Marco Lesko, who brings the comic to life, with the city shining in its upper levels and swimming in rubbish and rain below.

Telling any story in an iconic setting such as the Los Angeles of Blade Runner is always a difficult balancing act, but it’s one that Blade Runner 2029 succeeds in.