Blade Runner 2029 Reunion: 4 In 1 Edition (Spoilery Comic Book Review)

Want to read the first 4 issues of Blade Runner 2029, but you don’t want the hassle of putting down and picking up individual comic books? Well, Reunion is the solution for you.

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion is a graphic novel collecting the first 4 issues of the Blade Runner 2029 comic books into a single, easy to read volume. Mike Johnson is the writer for this graphic novel. Michael Green (Blade Runner 2049, Logan, Murder on the Orient Express) is the creative consultant and co-writer. Andres Guinaldo is the artist. Finally, Marco Lesko and Jim Campbell are the colorist and letterer respectively. Oh, and Titan Comics is the publisher for this graphic novel, as they were for the comic books.

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion will go on sale on July 6, 2021. You can get hardcover copies of this graphic novel at your local comic book store. Or, if you’re fine with the digital version, you can get it on Amazon for either ComiXology or Kindle. Whichever one you want.

Warning: spoilers for Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion and by extension Blade Runner 2029 #1-4 below. If you have any interest in reading about the prequel to Blade Runner 2049, stop here and come back once you’ve passed the Voight-Kampff test.

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion ~ Plot Summary

Being a collection of the first 4 Blade Runner 2029 comic books, the graphic novel shares the exact same story. The story begins 12 years before the present day in 2017, when an escaped Replicant named Yotun just wanted to disappear. Sure enough, he finds someone who can make him disappear. Unfortunately for him, that someone meant it literally, with a Blade Runner named Ash lying in ambush. Fortunately for him, he’s a lot stronger and faster than either of them had anticipated. That someone pays the ultimate price, Ash is injured, and Yotun escapes; only pausing to tell Ash that to tell her bosses that a Replicant beat her and showed her mercy.

Fast forward 12 years later to 2029, Ash is still a Blade Runner. However, Ash is now one who saves innocent Replicants from death, helping them disappear with new identities, in a complete reversal from her earlier attitude. Furthermore, Ash now has a Replicant girlfriend named Freysa, who serves as a deuteragonist. Ash’s job is never done though, as a tip that a Replicant is working on the local seawall shows. Ash shows up at the site, chases after a worker who runs, and then said worker leaps to his death with parting words of “Yotun redeems.”.

With those words in mind, Ash digs deeper into the mystery here. The mystery only deepens when the “Replicant” who committed suicide turns out to be fully human. Or at least, has no serial number. Meaning that this is either a human, or a womb-born Replicant. Meanwhile, a Replicant servant murders his employer/master, and takes out one of his eyes. Why? Well, that’s later in Blade Runner 2029.

Ash discovers another lead at a secret Replicant club she likes to visit: a redheaded woman. She tries to follow her, but the redhead escapes, but not before leaving behind a clue that leads to her apartment. Ash’s rabbit hole ends up with the redhead following her back to her own apartment, where she then knocks out Ash, throws her into a Spinner, and lifts off with Freysa yelling uselessly after the Spinner. Ash wakes up tied to a chair where a Replicant crony of Yotun monologues to her. Later, a Replicant Ash saved tries to free her, but dies from a bullet to the head before he could do so.

Meanwhile, the missing eye turns out to be necessary for Yotun and a group of his cronies. They use that severed eye to get into an airship full of the Los Angeles’s rich elite. They hijack the airship, use it to destroy the seawall, and then kills everyone in it. Why? Revolution, of course. And so ends Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion. To find out what happens next, read the Blade Runner 2029 #5.

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion ~ The Good

Blade Runner 2029 is the prequel comic book to Blade Runner 2049, and it’s just as good. The comic book does full justice to the universe, and is pretty faithful to the source material. The story feels very much like it could’ve come right out of the films.

The artwork is fantastic. There’s a dark gritty feel to it that also feels just as faithful to the films. The way light sources produce almost blinding flashes of light also call the films into mind. You can practically hear the soundtrack of the original 1982 film playing in the background.

The characters are also pretty interesting. Ash herself is one of the most interesting, being a Blade Runner who is technically also a traitor to her organization by helping innocent Replicants escape. Her romantic relationship with Replicant Freysa is also a nice touch, and provides a believable explanation for the Heel-Face Turn even without any formal explanation. The importance Freysa has to the story itself is also a nice touch, allowing her to become a strong deuteragonist. Plus, it’s a yuri story between the 2, so that gets a plus from me as a yuri fan.

Finally, specific to Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion: collecting the first 4 comic books into a single graphic novel makes the whole story easier to read. There’s a seamless transition between the issues, such that you can’t tell where one issue ends and another one begins. I hope the next 4 issues also gets a similar treatment.

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion ~ The Bad

I definitely struggle to find anything bad to say about Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion. I really have to nitpick here. I wish it was longer? Like, maybe Titan Comics should’ve waited until the comic book series had ended before collecting them all into a single graphic novel? Then again, we don’t know how long the comic book series will go on for. If they had done that, it might’ve resulted in a doorstopper of a graphic novel. Not that I would mind, but I guess they thought it might be too much.

Conclusion

Blade Runner 2029 Vol. 1: Reunion from Titan Comics collects the first 4 issues of Blade Runner 2029 into a single handy graphic novel. Want to read those issues of the comic book without having to constantly switch from issue to issue? Or have you not read this before, and want to read the comic book prequel to the 2017 sequel to 1 of the greatest sci-fi/cyberpunk films ever? Then this might be the graphic novel for you.

Source: Titan Comics