Blade Runner Origins #5

Blade Runner Origins #05

Titan Comics 2021

Written by K.Perkins & Mellow Brown

Illustrated by Fernando Dagnino

Coloured by Marco Lesko

Lettered by Jim Campbell

On the trail of an escaped experimental Replicant, Detective Cal Moreaux becomes the hunted.

For someone who wasn’t impressed with the films this series has become one of my cannot miss reads. Time and time again it makes my best of the week as it’s that well put together and executed. For me this is where it's at as we not only learn about how the Blade Runner Division came into being and introduces us to the Replicants responsible for its formation. It has this excitement that is inherent to the story itself and pulls the reader in and grips the mind, imagination and creativity of the reader in some of the most wondrous ways imaginable. Personally I am loving Cal and what we see of him throughout this as we explore his past and present with hints of his future. He’s a sensational character who could end up being one of those influential people that fans flock towards to see what they are up to and what they will be up to next. So yeah this potential that I see within these pages makes me incredibly excited for what’s to come.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is incredibly well rendered. That we see so much personality coming from those we know and those we just meet, Ms. Stahl and Desiree are superb examples of this, it is utterly amazing with so much depth. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and the twists and turns we see leaves us breathless and wanting more.

I’m a huge fan and appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How we see the layers and different aspects of the story add this much depth, dimension and complexity is mindboggling. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

The interiors are stunningly brilliant to behold. The linework is so clean, crisp and strong plus how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilsied to create this level & quality of detail work throughout the book is simply astonishing. I’d like to see more backgrounds because the ones we do see enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is magnificently rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works. This is gorgeous stuff folks and I appreciate how it adds so much oomph to the work. The creativity and imagination we see within these pages is gorgeous, that wallpaper we see or the backsplash in the opening is to die for.

​

For diehard fans of the franchise this is simply a reminder of how amazing it is and for those like me who aren’t fans of the films it’s a perfect stand alone series that takes science fiction to a new level of greatness. With such stupendous writing and this amazingly intelligent characterisation with this mind numbingly beautiful interior artwork it is no wonder why I hold this in such high regard.