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Blade Runner 2039 #6 brings us to the midpoint of this final volume of new Blade Runner comics. As such it feels natural, along with the general theme of this arc, to revisit the past. Ash is stuck with Cleo again, becoming her sort of surrogate mother again. Meanwhile, a Replicant of Ash has hit the streets and is acting very much like how we first met Ash all that time ago.
Ash’s Rash In Blade Runner 2039 #6
Rash, the Replicant of Ash, is drawn by Andres Guinaldo in a way that evokes in the reader the first appearance of Ash in Blade Runner 2019 #1. This combined with the way Mike Johnson writes her dialogue, makes Rash come across as eerily similar to his namesake while also being different.
For instance, each of her actions are in direct contrast with her partner Luv. When they try to get information out of a girl in a shanty town, Luv has no patience and starts getting aggressive. Meanwhile Rash is calmer and even offers the girl money in exchange for the information.
This parallels how back in the first volume of these Blade Runner comics, Ash felt attuned to life on the streets. She felt out of place among the rich and even her other officers, this is in part a result of her upbringing. Rash has no such upbringing, she emerged fully formed as the instrument of Wallace’s will. Yet in Wallace’s search for the next step of Replicant kind, Ash’s personality has been filtered into Rash and it pops up from time to time.
Later in Blade Runner 2039 #6, Rash is interrogating a few people and remarks to Luv that she finds reading humans easy, it is like playing with children. Unlike the real Ash, she seemingly has a cap on her empathy. This is further compounded by her first retirement being the direct opposite of her progenitor. She killed a replicant copy of a human, Hythe, rather than an original creation Replicant that was Ash’s first retirement. She sees anything other than her and Wallace as parts, just things to use.
This is both a reflection of early Ash’s response to Replicants in the first volume and a contrast to Ash as we know her now.
Ash’s Past
While Rash is going through Ash’s own past via character traits, the real Ash is literally coming face to face with her past. Cleo was injured in the last issue, so in Blade Runner 2039 #6, Ash has to take care of her. It is reminiscent of their time off world together which is even referenced by the issue itself.
Whereas when Cleo first showed back up in this series, Ash was a little harsher than usual, probably due to having suddenly that maternal responsibility slung back onto her, here she is far softer. One of my biggest criticisms of the older volumes with Cleo was how Ash seemingly gave up her motherhood of Cleo. We do hope Blade Runner 2039 #6 is the first step to bringing that back to the forefront.
The other thing Ash comes face to face with is the person sheltering her and Cleo. Turns out he was an older Replicant model that malfunctioned and lived beyond the limited lifetime limit. And Ash was sent to retire him, he even quotes her old attitude to Replicants, viewing them as things, just parts. This is the basis of the cliffhanger for Blade Runner 2039 #6 so we won’t see this facing the past theme resolved till the next issue, but we find it interesting how the team has essentially taken the main character, split her in two, and have both go through similar yet contrasting arcs in the same issue.
Blade Runner 2039 #6 Is An Interesting Trip Into Memory Lane
Blade Runner 2039 #6 goes in the direction of reflecting on the past through a few different means. While we have hit the midpoint of this volume, it manages to keep the pace up along with taking a trip down memory lane.
