Jeff Lemire is known for his quirky vision. Well, for this project with Valiant Entertainment, he gives us a washed-up grunt who was once the deadly assassin, Bloodshot. In Lemire’s hands, Valiant’s Bloodshot is truly reborn.
Lemire writes it and shares the artwork duties with Mico Suayan. All in all, it is a satisfying offbeat story placing a broken man in direct contrast with the large-than-life force that he used to be. And this sets the tone for the big guy’s return back into the game.
What will set something like this apart requires a great leap of faith since we’ve been down this road before. If the creative team is committed to the project, then readers will respond. The fact is, these type of adventures do sort of write themselves up to a point. You need the vision that Lemire can bring to make it special.
You’ve got all your goodies here: a lone wolf character who has been controlled by Project Rising Star, a shadow government agency. He was known as Bloodshot, all white skin and red eyes, like the scariest ripped clown you’ve ever seen. And all these little nano robots flowing through his bloodstream keeping him alive and in line. And then he escapes. And that wasn’t so good as life off the grid usually goes. But there was that one woman, Kay, the Geomancer, who believed in him.
Take all this Valiant universe stew and let it simmer for a bit. And here’s where you add the quirk. Bloodshot goes incognito. He ends up in the middle of nowhere in Colorado. He takes the name Ray Garrison and now works as the facility guy at the Red River Inn. He sort of becomes friends with Gene, the widower, and her grandson, 12-year-old Toby. But the whole time, he knows something has got to give.
Before too long, things do fall apart. Before we end this first issue, our hero is way in the thick of trouble. And what gets us there is done with good pacing and a certain style. And that’s because a decent story does not write itself! I think Lemire is on to something with his take on Bloodshot. The whole look of the comic is very promising. So far, it has that type of staying power that reminds me of a good Ed Brubaker pot-boiler.
BLOODSHOT REBORN #1 is available as of April 15. For more details, visit our friends at Valiant Entertainment right here.
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