In the shining utopia of Tokyo, a disappearance may be just the thing to bring the hidden darkness to the surface. Your Major Spoilers review of Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1, awaits!

BLADE RUNNER: TOKYO NEXUS #1

Writer: Kianna Shore
Artist: Mariano Taibo
Colorist: Marco Lesko
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: David Leach
Publisher: Titan Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 31st, 2024

Previously in Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus: In 2015 artificial beings created by the Tyrell Corporation, known as replicants have been used as slave labor off-world. Those who escape and make it to Earth are then hunted down by Blade Runners, meanwhile Tyrell is waging war against those who are trying to make knock-off replicants.

THE NAIL THAT STICKS OUT GETS HAMMERED DOWN

Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1 opens with a P.I. named Mead confronting a group of thugs trying to set up a protection racket. Things go south, and she has to fight her way out. Her partner, Stix, arrives just in time to help put the rest of the gangsters down. Later the two meet up at a bar and are approached by a woman saying her sister has gone missing. Stix wants nothing to do with it, but Mead decided to follow up on this. Stix heads down to an underground area filled with refugees, where he helps out. While down there, he’s approached by an old associate asking if he’s heard any sort of information about a certain replicant causing problems. Mead starts investigating the woman’s missing sister and reveals there’s a connection to Tyrell. She continues her investigation and uncovers a grisly crime scene.

STRONG OVERALL, WEAK MOMENT TO MOMENT

Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1 is what you want from a Blade Runner comic. It’s atmospheric, has plenty of noir trappings, establishes tension between classes quickly, and has subtle glimpses of the more science fiction elements that exist in this universe. Brooding narratives and questionable alliances also add to the classic Blade Runner feel, and they’re both here. The setup for the central mystery is straightforward enough to leave room for eventual complexities while also having enough strangeness to it to make it feel not so run-of-the-mill. There are some cracks, though, and they start to show in the panel-to-panel sequencing. Often times things don’t flow well, leaving pages feeling disjointed and nonsensical. In multiple places, a page will start with a panel depicting an action, and then the next panel will be the result of that, leaving far too many blanks for the reader to fill in.

STRONG SENSE OF PLACE

The art in Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1 is a stark departure from much of the other stories set in the Blade Runner universe and this helps establish Tokyo as being vastly different than the locales we’re familiar with. While much of the universe is steeped in dark and rain-soaked neon landscapes, this comic drapes its events in an almost blinding light. Things here are very pretty and clean, which does a lot of work to help drive home some of the more brutal elements of the story. Even though it’s only the first issue, it feels like a lot of the themes that are going to play out in this story can be divined just by the way things switch from light to dark and who is operating in those two arenas.

BOTTOM LINE: A GOOD OPENER, HAMSTRUNG BY TECHNICAL ISSUES

Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1 gets a lot of things right when it comes to establishing a neo-noir sci-fi story set in such a revered universe. From the tone to the pace to the hallmarks of the world, this issue nails it all. Where it falters, though, is the actual storytelling using the comic book format. Pages are poorly laid out, and sequences aren’t fully fleshed out, leaving things feeling a bit confusing and lacking good flow. 3.5 out of 5.

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