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Blade Runner 2019 Vol. 3: Home Again, Home Again
Publisher: Titan Comics, Alcon Publishing
Story: Mike Johnson
Creative Consultant: Michael Green
Art: Andres Guinaldo
Colors: Marco Lesko
Letters: Jim Campbell

Having so recently reviewed another cyberpunk-themed trade, I was immediately struck by the difference in the tone and worldbuilding of Blade Runner 2019. While Cyberpunk 2077 Trauma Team also offers a bleak outlook on a future with corporations run amok and American society in a state of inexorable decay, everything about writer Mike Johnson and artist Andres Guinaldos‘ iteration of the Blade Runner universe is much more muted. Both books present a very nuanced and thematically layered interpretation of the genre, although Trauma Team is decidedly more vividly expressed and seemed more exaggerated. Where Cyberpunk 2077 is a night out at a flashy, upscale dance club, Blade Runner 2019 is like coming home to a dusty, cluttered apartment. It’s not the Ritz, but it’s home. 

And that’s the thing about Blade Runner: the juxtaposition of bleeding-edge technology and bioengineering intrinsically interwoven with the inescapable mundanity of everyday life has always been a part of the franchise identity, going back to Ridley Scott’s 1982 original film. Lawrence G. Paull’s production design delivered on Scott’s vision with one of the most grounded, believable science fiction aesthetics ever conceived. The film was a seminal achievement that, in large part, birthed the concept of cyberpunk into mainstream consciousness and Guinaldos’ presentation in Home Again, Home Again nails that conceptual fusion perfectly. It is immediately familiar and eminently Blade Runner, no doubt owing to contributions from creative consultant Michael Green, who is credited on screenplays for Blade Runner 2049 and Logan, and previously collaborated with Mike Johnson writing DC’s Supergirl.

I haven’t really encountered the franchise since my write-up for Blade Runner 2049, so I came into Vol. 3 of this series with what I hope is a more objective eye than if I was more invested in this particular story. We begin with a brief flashback to Los Angeles in the year 2000, with future Blade Runner Aahina “Ash” Ashina as a child accompanied by her Nani. A seemingly simple interaction with local authorities becomes a life lesson that exemplifies Captain Harry Bryant’s iconic line from the film: “If you’re not cop, you’re little people.” From here we can glean some of the impetus for Ash’s career in law enforcement. Home Again, Home Again really is presented, at least in part, as an anecdotal flashback tour of events that set her on her path through the series.

Johnson establishes that Ash’s role as rescuer and protector for Cleo Selwyn against the exploitative machinations of her father, Alexander Selwyn, has a foundation in her childhood. However, he also lays out how some of her more subversive and ethically ambiguous personality traits have led her to become a hunted fugitive. Calculating and uncompromising in her quest to free Cleo from her father’s relentless pursuit, Ash is not so far removed from the biased expectations she once harbored for the replicants she hunted as a Blade Runner. Unsurprisingly, her myopic focus as the driven protagonist comes with sacrifice. She receives far more compassion and empathy from fugitive replicants fighting the institutional oppression of other replicants than she would have extended to her targets as a Blade Runner.

Blade Runner has always kept the subtext of fear and exclusion as an important theme, even more so than its incisive commentary on dystopian corporate malfeasance/exploitation and oppressive law enforcement. The idea of the replicants being more human than the cold, cynical humans who would use and hunt them without compunction is integral to the franchise. These concepts broaden the IP’s value as a cornerstone of our science fiction and pop culture consciousness. Blade Runner 2019 Volume 3: Home Again, Home Again continues in that vein, delivering a sobering noir detective story with some intense bursts of action.  I will admit, I was more taken in by the thoughtful delineation of Ash’s experiences and motivations than by the gunplay, so I appreciate the surprisingly hopeful conclusion to her story.

Christian Davenport
cable201@comicattack.net