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Blade Runner 2029 #8 and #9 continue the overall arc of Yotun and his violent revolution while showing us the consequences and fallout on a personal level. From Replicants caught in the crossfire to humans sympathetic to the plight of the Replicants, everyone has something to answer for and something to hide. But, sooner or later, everyone must take a side or be caught in the crossfire. And no matter what they choose, battle lines will be drawn, and they will pay for their choice one way or another.
Blade Runner 2029 #8
Blade Runner 2029 #8 sees Yotun take out the Las Angeles Police Department building in order to make a statement. The police use Blade Runners; they are the enforcers for the oppressors, at least in his mind. So, he burns it to the ground as a symbol that a new world must be born from the ashes of the old one. But this new world isn’t exactly the utopia he professes it to be.
He believes that Replicants mustn’t be servants anymore, that they are living beings and should be treated as such. An honourable goal until he sneaks in what this revolution of his is really about. The Replicants are to be Gods, to lord over all humans and show them what it was like to live hand to mouth, under someone else’s boot. That’s not justice, that’s not retribution, that’s not freedom, it is pure revenge. Nothing more, nothing less. A petty man lashing out at a world that doesn’t care in the only way he knows how. The cycle of violence continues, the history of the oppressor and the oppressed repeats itself, this time with a different face.
To really seal the deal on how Yotun sees this as a justified act of violence is the way he treats Freysa. She calls him out on leaching on his followers, sacrificing Replicant lives to prolong his. His hypocrisy is massive; to believe he is any better than the humans that treat them like cattle. For her insolence, he cuts out one of her eyes. She is a Replicant herself and the leader of the Replicant Underground. Yet because she opposes the absolute authority of Yotun, she must suffer from the “lesser” humans. Additionally, the original movie had this concept that the Replicants were the better angels of our natures, that their souls were pure and the window into the soul is the eyes. In effect, Yotun ripped out part of Freysa’s soul out of pure spite.
Blade Runner 2029 #9
Blade Runner 2029 #9 sees us jump six months ahead; the attack on the LA and the destruction of the LAPD building was in the past but is still very much on everyone’s mind. The walls are closing in for everyone. It’s not just Replicants versus humans in a revolution anymore. Now it is Replicant versus Replicant versus humans, a three-way battle with everyone stuck in the middle. And we see how these effects everyday life in two interesting ways.
First is Ambrose, a Replicant doctor who is being persecuted by his bosses for being a Replicant. His record is spotless, his patients love him, he’s a good doctor, a people person. But because he is a Replicant, he must be tested and then executed for the crime of existing. So, he runs, attempting to be free and live out his life as not only himself but as a doctor that he was born to be. But now, the already complicated situation gets worse. He is now stuck between joining the violent revolutionaries of Yotun or the non-violent Replicant Underground. They both want him, but for different reasons. No one asked him what he wanted; they just assumed.
Then you have Ash, a Blade Runner who secretly works for the Replicant Underground. People suspect her, especially her bosses. If she is outed as a Replicant sympathizer, or that she took one as a lover, then her life is over. So, they are putting her under more surveillance. They want her to slip up, and they know the more pressure they apply, the more likely it is to happen. Everyone has something to hide; everyone lies, even the innocent. But you apply enough pressure, people will admit to things they didn’t do, or if they did, they will slip up. Surveillance doesn’t always mean security; it can also be a fear tactic.
I’m not so sure about this six-month time jump, I would have liked to have seen Ash and Freysa come to terms with what happened over time rather than skip past it. Ash having been healed by the man that wounded her lover has got to weigh heavily on the both of them. But Mike Johnson and Andres Guinaldo have a plan; the Yotun arc has been their most ambitious arc, even including the previous volume. And it perhaps can serve as an interesting metaphor for how as time passes from an event, we scale things up to prevent it from ever happening again and, at times, take it too far.
Blade Runner 2029 #8 And #9 Takes The Yotun Revolution To Its Next Stage
Blade Runner 2029 #8 and #9 are not the companion pieces that the previous two were. However, #8 provides some wonderfully visualized action and Yotun being called out for his hypocrisy which I can more than get behind. And #9 is an issue that attempts to look at a more sinister side of security by using the overall arc as a piggyback towards that goal. I’m interested to see where this series goes; it has definitely improved as it has gone along.