In this review of Blade Runner: Black Lotus – Las Vegas #4, the Las Vegas chapter of Elle’s story comes to a close, as the Paradise erupts into chaos and infighting. Also, Elle and Davis come to an understanding.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus – Las Vegas #4
Writer: Nancy A. Collins
Artist: Jesús Hervás
Main Cover: Raymond Guy
Variant Covers: Clark Bint, Jesús Hervás
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: March 4, 2026
This review contains spoilers
Back to the arena, where Elle and Davis are faced with a whole group of Replicants that they must both battle their way through. During the fray, the leader of the Roman faction calls out Cleopatra and Nefertiti on their decision to allow Elle in there in the first place, feeling that she’s only brought ruin to Paradise and that he should make the decisions from now on.
Which leads to a breaking of the peace between the Romans and Egyptians. The human slave assigned to Elle beckons her and Davis over, sowing more chaos in the form of releasing the animals into the arena. She says that she can point them in the right direction to retrieve Elle’s bike. But she opts not to go with them; the bike is with the Semita, and she feels a bit safer with the Replicants that aren’t guaranteed to outright kill her.
In the tunnels, Elle and Davis discuss why Davis is in Vegas in the first place, and Elle learns that both the Wallace group and the Brekker group are hunting her down.
Speaking of the Brekker group, they and the Wallace group have a run-in, with the Doll Squad being the survivors. And as the Doll Squad hunt for Davis, they encounter a group of Romans intent on taking them back to the Paradise…before learning that the Paradise is on fire.
Davis asks Elle why she saved her, and Elle explains that she got sick of the violence, knocks her out, drops her off somewhere that the Doll Squad might find her, and goes to find the Semita.
She finds a trap, first. But upon learning that she’s the owner of the bike that came their way, and that she’s got no apparent loyalty to the Queens, the Semita happily welcome Elle. And thus ends the Las Vegas chapter.
A thing I appreciate about this one was the fact that both leads got to explain a bit of themselves to the other. Davis now knows that the woman she and the rest of the Doll Squad had been hunting has no intention of being a real threat to them…but also just wants to be free. With her telling the rest of the squad that she has no idea if the Black Lotus made it out of the fire, there’s a possibility that the Wallace group will call off their hunt…but given how obsessive Niander is about finding her, I wouldn’t put it past him to eventually send in a recovery team to look for remains.
During Elle’s explanation of what the Wallaces did to her, the flashbacks are shown in a more faded sort of art style. It’s simple, but effective. And seeing that definitely helps explain why she’d be on the run and so desperate to be free. A lot of psychological manipulation in her past.
The fights were well-done, I think. Between the flow of action in the arena, and the brief-but-brutal scuffle between the Doll Squad (particularly Marlowe) and Brekker’s mercs, we’ve got some nice compositional stuff happening.
The whole thing leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger, though, when Elle arrives at the Semitas’ place. On that last page, I was sort of anticipating a “To Be Continued”, only to find out that it was actually a “The End” situation, with the confirmation of a future follow-up. The caption near the end is making me wonder exactly how things will go awry with the Semita. They welcome Elle upon learning what she is and that she’s rejected the queens. They’re already established to be hostile toward humans. But just how vicious would they be overall?
I guess that’s coming up in the next chapter.
Final Thoughts
A solid conclusion to the Las Vegas arc of Black Lotus’s story, I think. We’ve got some good action, some decent character stuff, and a tease of what’s next.
