Blade Runner 2019 #3 Review!

Blade Runner 2019 continues with cyborg enhanced Blade Runner Ash Ashina trying to find Isobel, the wife of rival corporation and her child, and unwinding the corruption around them.  The cover of the third issue has art by Butch Guice showing Ash holding up her gun in the rain next to the close-up of an eye and the running forms of a mother and daughter.  The creative team is Michael Green and Mike Johnson with art by Andres Guinaldo.  Ash is busy trying to bring her spinner into a controlled crash.  Interesting visuals by Guinaldo showing close-ups and the action of the crash.  She brings it down in an unoccupied district and then stumbles away before the spinner explodes.  The underground contact, Bones, is sneaking away Isobel after one reports shooting down the blade runner. 

Ash wakes up in a hospital bed, arm in a cast, and her cyborg right eye exposed.  Her fellow officer, Wojcjech, notes that the case is taken away with Ash’s failure.  On the rainy Los Angeles streets, Ash picks up a taxi to the Tyrell Corporation.  She is welcomed into the cavernous halls of Tyrell and meets with Ms. Elo who is expecting her.  Ms. Elo explains that Isobel is a replicant who has found out that the girl has a mutation that can extend her life.  It is a sci fi staple to have a special child which reminds me of Children of Men (2006).  She was given to Selwyn when the real Isobel died and she has taken away Cleo. This is a fascinating mystery, we are getting pieces of the story, and it’s implications to this future.  Ms. Elo shows Ash to a new spinner which is now given to her to find Cleo and Isobel.  

The missing family members are heading in a van to cross The Border.  This is interesting to see a peek into the world outside of Los Angeles.  There was some shown in Blade Runner 2049 (2017).  Ash returns to the shop of Bellingham, the replicant she dealt with last issue, and finds drawings, one of which is an ocean side arch.  Ash hears a department call and goes to see a brutal blade runner about to torture a replicant.  She hits him with a taser gun and then asks the replicant about her suspects.  The replicant points out a beach.  Bones announces they reached their destination at night, an arch by the sea.  He waves a signal and boats approach them.  They are rowed to an island, called The Santctuary, we get a splash page of a woman in a toga who greets Isobel as a fellow replicant!  This is an interesting refuge for persecuted replicants like in Time Machine.  Ash heads to the beach on her spinner.  It looks like the two groups on the run and trailing the other will find each other soon! 

Four Spinners out of Five! 

#BladeRunner2019, #Wolcjech, #TyrellCorporation, #MsElo