Blade Runner: Origins uncovers a replicant conspiracy 10 years before the original film

The untold story of the Blade Runners continues this August with Titan Comics' Blade Runner: Origins #5. This issue is the beginning of a new four-part arc by writers K. Perkins and Mellow Brown, with art by Fernardo Dagnino.

"LAPD detective Cal Moreaux has teamed up with an escaped experimental replicant, who has been uploaded with the memories of a dead Tyrell Corporation scientist, whose suicide he was sent to investigate," reads Titan Comics' description of the issue.

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Blade Runner: Origins #5 covers

Set 10 years before the events of the original film, Blade Runner: Origins follows the founding of the Blade Runner police division, and their initial attempts to understand the rise of replicants. While the world hasn't reached the dystopic state you're familiar with from the films, Blade Runner's 2009 is on the precipice of that - with those financially able to evacuate to Off-world colonies doing so, leaving others behind.

In Blade Runner: Origins, LAPD detective Moreaux, who suffers from PTSD, uncovered a vast conspiracy involving the replicants when he first began investigating the death of Lyda Kine, the Tyrell Corporation bioengineer who helped create a new version of replicant dubbed 'Nexus-5'.

By the end of the first arc of Blade Runner: Origins, Moreaux discovered a rogue replicant killed Kine but she was later revived - sort of - with her memories uploaded to a male replicant named Asa.

Blade Runner: Origins #5 goes on sale on August 11. A collection of the first four issues goes on sale on August 17 as Blade Runner: Origins Volume 1.

Of course, the Blade Runner comics are available digitally as well as in print. Check out our list of the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)