There are a few old threads about specific aspects and developments around Blade Runner, but maybe just having one general thread, at least when there's no really current, really big story might work.
Anyway... over the last couple of days I've worked my way through the thirteen (so far) trade paperback collections of Titan's various Blade Runner comic miniseries. That's nine volumes about the new character Ash (2019, 2029, and 2039), three of Origins, and one of Black Lotus. The first couple issues of Tokyo Nexus are out and will be collected eventually, and there should be more Black Lots as well. And what a read. I've read a fair number of issues as they came out but this is a better experience.
The comics draw on the full history of the Blade Runner movies, with the occasional guest character from the movies, one crossover character from the Black Lotus anime series popping up in one of the other comics, and a bit of crossover between Origins and the Ash stories as well. Someone's making an effort to develop a consistent and coherent fictional universe that relates to all the filmed Blade Runner material. Is it canon? Does it matter? By telling stories mainly about new characters, they're pretty close to free from worries of being overwritten. If you like the BR filmed universe as a whole and haven't tried the comics, you're missing out.
Anyway... over the last couple of days I've worked my way through the thirteen (so far) trade paperback collections of Titan's various Blade Runner comic miniseries. That's nine volumes about the new character Ash (2019, 2029, and 2039), three of Origins, and one of Black Lotus. The first couple issues of Tokyo Nexus are out and will be collected eventually, and there should be more Black Lots as well. And what a read. I've read a fair number of issues as they came out but this is a better experience.
The weakest so far is Black Lotus, following on from the anime TV series with a fairly generic story that swipes from westerns and Mad Max, as Elle heads into the desert after leaving LA. It's not actively bad but with just one four issue arc it doesn't get to go as deep into plot or character as the others do. The Ash series is really good, following the character arc of someone who starts out as another cynical blade runner but sees her life change dramatically. She even gets to spend some time in the offworld colonies. And we get to see the world of the first movie gradually becoming the world of the second. Origins is a somewhat twisty tale that centres on the issue of identity -- a cop from the slums seen as a traitor to his roots, a character whose consciousness was duplicated against her will and placed in a replicant body, a trans character who built the body they always thought they should have, an ex-soldier turned drag queen. Characters' loyalties and sense of themselves change too. There's a lot to keep track of, as characters are introduced some time before it's made clear who they really are.
The comics draw on the full history of the Blade Runner movies, with the occasional guest character from the movies, one crossover character from the Black Lotus anime series popping up in one of the other comics, and a bit of crossover between Origins and the Ash stories as well. Someone's making an effort to develop a consistent and coherent fictional universe that relates to all the filmed Blade Runner material. Is it canon? Does it matter? By telling stories mainly about new characters, they're pretty close to free from worries of being overwritten. If you like the BR filmed universe as a whole and haven't tried the comics, you're missing out.
