Review – Bloodshot: Reborn #1 (Valiant)

Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Mico Suayan, David Baron
Released: 15th April, 2015

So if you’re still on the fence about Valiant, and haven’t dived on the many, many jumping-on points that we’ve pointed out to y’all before… well, here’s one more. I don’t suppose – given the hypothetical scenario where you’ve ignored every last one of our ‘you should be reading Valiant’ shout-outs – that there’s any convincing you at this stage. Valiant are throwing so many hooks out right now, for so many different, varied and intriguing characters, that if there’s not at least one of their books on your pull-list, especially after this is out, we’ll just go ahead and start questioning your sanity.

Bloodshot’s resurgence is really no exception – it gives you a swift, elegant run-down of what’s been going on for the character in the last few months, whilst at the same time setting up a new status-quo for the character. It’d remove a fair amount of the fun to give it away here, so I won’t summarise it directly, but suffice to say that it looks like Bloodshot might be moving into the similar territory of heroes occupied by Batman and the Punisher – if you like those, then this’ll like as not tickle your fancy.

Lemire’s writing is slick – but then one could expect nothing less of the man who’s been tapped to continue on from Matt Fraction’s stellar Hawkeye evolution – and the new circumstances that Bloodshot finds himself in allow Lemire to set up a story that’ll certainly explore quite what motivates him into performing heroics, as well as questioning his very sanity. It all works rather rather well, without ever threatening to alienate new readers, which is something of an achievement.

It’s all complimented wonderfully by Suayan’s art work – nicely detailed lines, with some beautiful inking going on, particular in the middle of the book when we find the lines between what’s in our anti-hero’s head and reality blurring. Baron’s colour-work successfully emphasises this, with a shifting, malleable pallette that, whilst occasionally feeling a little too oppressive, consistently captures the mood of both the writing and art, giving the entire proceedings a broody, noir-ish air.

To summarise… well, what’s there to say? Do we really need to give you another reason to get on Valiant’s stable? If you’re wanting your super-hero fix, but want something that’s new and interesting, something that you haven’t seen before, this’ll be your bag. Dark, intriguing and thoughtful, whilst at the same time promising a bloody tale of vigilante justice, there’s no better time, ladies and gentlemen.

Rating: 4/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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