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Blade Runner: Origins #6 is attempting something quite interesting in this franchise. It uses the Replicants and their search for identity as an allegory for the Trans community. This has been an undertone throughout the series but really came to the forefront in the last issue. And here in this issue, we can see it solidifying into something really note-worthy. But this issue must also juggle several plot threads and not lose sight of its characters or larger goal. Can the series keep afloat with the many themes it is juggling?
Replicants As A Trans Metaphor
The dynamic between Asa and Marcus is fascinating in Blade Runner: Origins #6. Marcus thought he lost his sister to either a suicide or a murder only to find out that they had put their consciousness inside a Replicant body. A Replicant body that is based on something Marcus and his sister made when they were younger. And now, in this issue, Marcus has to deal with the inherent bias that has been bubbling underneath the surface. Asa is his brother, the person that was once his sister but has now transitioned to their new form and taken a new name. Not only does Marcus have to handle the shock of this but also with the realization that his sister both literally and metaphorically killed herself so that they could become their true self.
I’m a cis-gendered straight man, so I have no experience coming out to my family or any such thing like that. But I have friends in the Trans community who have told me of the anxiety and pain that comes from knowing that their family will possibly not accept them for who they are. Marcus isn’t a bad person; he is simply trying to figure things out; it isn’t an easy thing to ask anyone, especially considering his circumstances.
When Divina talks to Marcus, I think Blade Runner: Origins #6 skyrockets in its quality thanks to the genius creative team K. Perkins, Mellow Brown, and Fernando Dagnino. The impact and nuances of that scene wash over you as both the reader and Marcus are confronted with this backward thinking of believing that Asa is still Lydia. They or rather he is a new person, and we must learn to live with that because what he did was deeply personal and brave. Divina is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters in this series. Their profession as a Drag Queen makes them the perfect person to understand the duality of being a Replicant. And their personal skills, no doubt picked up by the nature of their profession, make them the perfect voice of reason for the other characters.
Cal Confronted With His Contradictions
While Marcus is confronting his feelings on his brother, Cal is also coming to terms with his family in a way. Cal is back in Sector 6B, the slums of the city, it’s where he grew up. And yet, many people feel like he has betrayed them and the Sector by joining the police. Sure, he is no longer a detective and is working solely for Tyrell as a Blade Runner, but he is still working for the upper-class white people that look down upon the residents of Sector 6B. So when he returns, they see him not as one of their own returning home at last, but instead an enemy to be feared.
I like how the creative team has decided to move this story in a direction that really touches on Cal as a person. The last arc was about him becoming disillusioned with the system and so deciding to leave it. Now, this arc is about him confronting on a deeply personal level how his past decisions affected those around him and, as the saying goes, “you can’t go home again.”
This is compounded further with his distrust of Replicants; considering his past experience with them in combat, it’s hard not to understand his fear. Now the Replicant he is tracking may very well be his sister, the sister that he is doing everything for. So now he is being confronted on how he betrayed his own people and how the people he hunts now may have become his people. It’s a clever little tapestry the team is weaving here; it’s all about confronting one biases, acknowledging them, and trying to work through them. With this careful balancing act, let’s hope they can keep up the momentum that Blade Runner: Origins #6 has.
Blade Runner: Origins #6 Is A Wieghty Issue
Blade Runner: Origins #6 does some interesting things with the arc. It furthers its overall themes in a way that is quite touching and relevant to our times. It also manages not to let that outweigh the necessities of character and plot, further all of those in a way that is sure to lead to a fantastic conclusion of the arc. Also, Fernando Dagnino’s two splash pages throughout the issues in which it is just two characters slowly progressing across a landscape are beautifully done. In a way, it can be read as a metaphor for Marcus and Cal crossing the “landscape” of their ideology and coming to a new opinion.