Blade Runner 2029

Blade Runner 2029 is a comic book series. The sequel to Blade Runner 2019, the series launched on on December 16, 2020.^[1]

Plot

Volume One: Reunion

In 2029, Aahna "Ash" Ashina has returned to her career as a Blade Runner, but instead of retiring replicants, she secretly helps them escape. After the Los Angeles Police Department receives an anonymous tip about replicants working on construction of the Sepulveda Sea Wall, Ash is assigned to investigate.

Ash reaches the construction site and sees a replicant, who immediately runs from her. When she catches up to him, the replicant says "Yotun redeems" before jumping to his death. Sensing a familiarity in the name Yotun, Ash conducts research, finding records of a replicant who managed to overpower her and escape in 2017.

Ducasse, a replicant who works as a servant, poisons Hyman and Genevieve Bask, taking one of the man's eyes, which is to be used as a key for "redemption."

Ash examines the body of the replicant she chased, but her colleague Pearl suspects he was human, due to the lack of a serial number in his eye. Ash's leads in the case lead her nowhere and she makes her way to The Diamant, a secret club for replicants. There, she asks the bartender if she knows anything about the name Yotun, which piques the interest of Lelia, a woman sitting at the bar. The woman leaves and Ash follows her.

Ash tracks Lelia down to a cab, but she throws one of the doors off at Ash, allowing her to slip away. Freysa, not far behind, comes to Ash's aid and notices that Lelia dropped her purse. An address inside the purse leads Ash and Freysa to a high-rise. Inside, they find a multitude of glass tanks containing replicants.

Yotun and Kalia observe tanks containing replicants, reflecting upon Eldon Tyrell's flawed legacy, noting that while Tyrell profited from creating life, Yotun restores life to redeem it. Yotun grows weary, so Kalia suggests a rejuvenation.

Ash returns to the LAPD precinct, where she learns about the death of Ruskin, a Blade Runner. Ruskin, who was in the middle of an investigation into the murder of Hyman Bask, was found dead in his apartment with his spine torn out by hand. Believing Ruskin's murder to have the same perpetrator as Bask's, Ash's captain puts her on the Bask case. She begins this investigation at Ruskin's house, finding his files on the case, learning of the missing servant Ducasse.

At a ceremony, Yotun requests a sacrifice of life by one of his followers, in order to further extend his own. Yotun readily provides Yotun with some of his own life. Afterward, Lelia approaches Yotun to tell him that she has found Ash. Yotun asks her to find Ash again.

Returning home, Ash finds Lelia waiting for her. Lelia asks Ash to accompany her to Yotun, but Ash refuses, instead asking for Yotun's location. Due to Ash's refusal, Lelia attacks her, knocking her out and taking her outside to a spinner, taking off just as Freysa is arriving home.

Yotun and his entourage go to an airship where a party attended by Los Angeles' elite takes place. Incapacitating the front security, the group gains entry by using Bask's eyeball. Upon commandeering the ship, Yotun tells the attendees that he and his group have come to teach them a lesson.

Ash wakes up, strapped to a chair. Kalia explains to Ash that Yotun is indeed alive well-past his expiration date, referring to his longevity as a "miracle," assuring Ash, too, will soon believe in such.

Aboard the airship, Mayor Chen requests Yotun to reveal what he demands, which simply seems to be the Sepulveda Sea Wall. While highlighting what he sees as hypocrisy in the human elite, he points out that the wall was built by replicant hands, by his own arrangement. Yotun then detonates explosives planted along the wall.

Ash is freed from the chair by Jac, a replicant she rescued the previous year, but had returned to the city upon believing in Yotun's goals. Jac shows Ash that Yotun has been reviving Nexus-8s that had never shipped, but he is killed by Lelia before he can fully explain Yotun's intentions.

Volume Two: Echoes

Yotun's group leaves the airship and destroys it, with Yotun remarking "Los Angles is dead. Long live Los Angeles." En route to the group's base, they fly over Los Angeles, Yotun pondering on the thoughts and future of the city's denizens. He is interrupted when police spinners approach their vehicle, prompting him to disable one and hijack another.

Meanwhile, Ash manages to escape Kalia and Lelia, finding herself lost in a massive trash dump until Yotun arrives. She attempts to fight him, but is incapacitated by her spine.

At a restaurant, Freysa consults with Dyson in her search for Ash. She is then introduced to Silka, a recent replicant escapee who informs her that she knows where Ash is.

Yotun takes her back to the base, where a group of replicants she previously retired show themselves to her. As mercy for these lives she retired, Yotun has Ash placed in a tank, promising her "new life." As Yotun reflects upon his hopes for Ash's reawakening, a group from the Replicant Underground manage to shut down the power to five sectors.

Silka, Dyson, and Farhad introduce themselves to Yotun, presenting Freysa as their hostage. They state that they have turned on her in favor of Yotun's planned revolution, presenting their power shutdown as proof that they support Yotun's cause. Suspecting the group to be acting out a ploy to rescue Ash, Yotun decides to play along, but takes Freysa with him on a mission outside of the city.

As the power shuts down across Los Angeles, the Replicant Underground members are shown to the living quarters at Yotun's compound. They easily manage to knock out Lelia and make their way to the tanks, breaking Ash out. However, as the group is attacked, Ash notices that although her spine is missing its brace, it is functioning perfectly, apparently healed by the rejuvenation tank. As the group escape, Silka is killed, with Dyson and Farhad explaining that Yotun took Freysa. Ash, having been able to hear Yotun speak of his plans, believes he is headed to the LAPD headquarters.

Waking, Ash notes the lack of pain compared to every previous morning in her life and the fact that her eyes have also been healed, no longer requiring the use of glasses. As the Replicant Underground plan their next move against Yotun, Ash heads off alone to save Freysa, asking the rest of the group to not follow her.

Yotun takes Freysa to the LAPD headquarters, where his group is beginning their attack. Freysa tries to convince him that this is a suicide mission, but he assures that he will be successful, claiming the attack to be Eldon Tyrell's legacy. As the police retreat to the ground level, Yotun reminds Freysa about the Battle of Mesa Echo Erebus, where she had been wounded, telling her that he was responsible for her rescue after being in an explosion. Yotun suddenly cries out in pain, his companions offering their blood to him, prompting Freysa to discover this is how he had lived past his expiration date.

Meanwhile, Ash obtains a motorcycle and makes her way to the LAPD headquarters, where she dispatches several of the revolutionaries as Yotun broadcasts a message to Los Angeles, announcing his group's takeover of the city. However, Freysa stops the broadcast and Yotun retaliates by attacking her, ultimately removing her right eye.

Ash discovers that the building is bombed and is caught in an explosion. Continuing through the building, she encounters Yotun, who manages to slip away. She then manages to find Freysa and the pair are rescued by the Replicant Underground as the LAPD headquarters burns.

Volume Three

Six months after the attacks, Blade Runner Hendriks subjects Ambrose, a nurse for Heidecker-Vostro, to the Voight-Kampff test. Ambrose admits he is a replicant, but despite his pleas of innocence, LAPD officers aim their guns at him. He manages to escape and finds Ash and Freysa. Pekka confronts them, demanding they hand over Ambrose. When they refuse, Pekka summons more of Yotun's followers and after a scuffle, they escape with Ambrose. Freysa examines one of the dead attackers, noticing his skin is considerably wrinkled.

Ash reports back to her sergeant, unwilling to reveal her leads, knowing this would compromise her. Because of this, she is told she will be partnered up with Marlowe if she fails to bring any new leads. Meanwhile, Ambrose wakes in Yotun's new hideout and is greeted by the wheelchair-bound Yotun, who implores him for his support.

Ash and Freysa eat downtown, both at a standstill concerning the search for Yotun and fear of the Underground being caught. Meanwhile, Ash's sergeant, suspecting her of helping replicants, assigns Marlowe to investigate her.

Free Comic Book Day Special

Ash responds to a call, finding a replicant man in a statue workshop, where freshly dismembered body parts also lay. Knowing Ash was sympathetic to replicants, he asks for her to spare him, but she remarks that she does not rescue killer replicants such as him. He attacks her, so she retires him. As she leaves, Ms. Setter asks Ash if the replicant was retired, recalling that she once had a replicant, adding that she always thought they were a bad idea.