The Hero's Journey -- Bloodshot
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The Hero's Journey -- Bloodshot
I was going over some old files and came upon this one I wrote for fun in 2010 in which I broke down all of VH-1 Bloodshot to correspond with the steps of the Hero's Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell.
It's probably not as good as it could be, but it was just for fun. What do you think?
The Hero’s Journey, featuring Bloodshot, using elements from Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces and David Adams’s Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero as found here.
Departure
Miraculous conception and birth
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #0)
Angelo is reborn when Project Rising injects him with the nanites that transform him into Bloodshot.
The Call to Adventure
The hero starts off in a mundane situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #1)
Upon his escape from Project Rising Spirit, Bloodshot sets out to rediscover his past as Angelo Mortalli.
Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot
Not applicable
Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, their guides and magical helpers appear, or become known.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #0 – Geoff – and Bloodshot #4 – Gilad –)
Geoff McHenry and Gilad Anni-Padda
The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #1 – Bloodshot #3)
(#1) Bloodshot faces against Speedshots sent by Hideyoshi Iwatsu, the man responsible for his rebirth.
(#2) Bloodshot faces against Ax.
(#3) Bloodshot faces against the HARD Corps.
Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #6 – Bloodshot #7)
Bloodshot becomes an agent of British Intelligence under Neville Alcott as Michael Lazarus.
Initiation
The Road of Trials
the road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #4 – Bloodshot #5)
When Benito Carboni claims to have kidnapped his sister, Bloodshot teams up with Gilad to rescue her, only to discover that she is an actress hired by Gino Canelli.
The Meeting with the Goddess
this is the point when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all-encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with their mother. This is a very important step in the process and often represented by the person finding the one they love most completely.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #8 – Bloodshot #9)
Jillian Alcott
Woman as Temptress
This step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since lust from his spiritual journey often tempts the hero-knight.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot accepts to help Tanaka recover a missing device in exchange for the return of his missing memory.
Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront, and be initiated, by whatever holds the ultimate power in their life. In many myths and stories, this is the father or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot confronts and kills Hideyoshi Iwatsu, who has become a powerful Speedshot.
Apotheosis
When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, they move beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #12)
After six months of endless fighting, Bloodshot decided to take a vacation in Puerto Rico.
The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot fails to acquire his boon when Tanaka reveals that he does not possess his missing memories.
Return
Refusal of the Return
having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #13–Bloodshot #26, Secret Weapons #9–#10, Bloodshot Yearbook)
Having failed to recover his missing memories, Bloodshot continues his journey as a British agent.
(#13) Bloodshot agrees to safeguard a Weaponeer agent from Dr. Silk’s assassins.
(#14) At Don Carboni’s request, Bloodshot recovers a file that details all the intolerable acts he committed.
(#15) Bloodshot confronts Cinder and Glyder.
(9–10) Bloodshot helps Geoff and Gilad recover three parahuman suits from the Weaponeer’s hidden vault.
(#16) Bloodshot suffers a fatal wound to the head while protecting a Russian dignitary.
(#17) Bloodshot recovers from his coma while in the custody of the HARD Corps.
(#18) Bloodshot stops Bhutu Hassan from acquiring a nuclear device.
(#YB) Bloodshot has an affair with Anna Trebecci, the wife of a reputed drug lord.
(#19) Bloodshot comes across Uzzi the Clown.
(#20) During the Chaos Effect, Bloodshot engages the Immortal Enemy in a fight.
(#21) Bloodshot confronts Ax for the second time.
(#22) Bloodshot faces against a group of mercenaries that the Immortal Enemy sent to kill him.
(#23) Bloodshot faces Cinder, who Glyder, a member of the Harbinger Foundation, takes away with her.
(#24) Bloodshot teams up with Clay McHenry, Geoff’s uncle, to defeat the Immortal Enemy.
(#25) Bloodshot travels to Florida to apprehend Uzzi the Clown.
(#26) With Carboni’s help, Bloodshot stops a developing company from destroying Uzzi’s circus.
The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot
Not applicable since Bloodshot fails to acquire his boon (his missing memories)
Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, oftentimes they must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #27 – #29, Secret Weapons #20 – #21)
When Tanaka captures Bloodshot to complete his programming and transfer Iwatsu’s memories into his mind, he becomes a rampaging behemoth who sets out to kill Neville Alcott. With help from Ninjak and the Secret Weapons, Bloodshot purges Iwatsu’s programming and returns to normal.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #30 – #45)
Having achieved a greater understanding of his abilities because of Tanaka’s programming, Bloodshot employs his newfound powers in his continuing battle against evil.
(#30) Bloodshot faces Proteus, a robot sent from the future to destroy anything that employs nanites.
(#31) Bloodshot captures Proteus in a glacier in Antarctica.
(#32) Bloodshot faces a group of people infected with a virus that makes them believe they are Vampires.
(#33) Bloodshot rescues Malcolm from the virus’ victims.
(#34) Urged by Tanaka’s programming, Bloodshot creates a duplicate of himself called Rampage.
(#35) Bloodshot attempts to stop Rampage from completing his programming.
(#36) While in New Orleans, Bloodshot faces Papa Juju, a drug dealer who seemingly kills.
(#37) Bloodshot uses Juju’s own paralyzing toxin against him and leaves him for the coroner to autopsy.
(#38) Bloodshot faces a team of mercenaries gathered by Rampage.
(#39) Bloodshot kills Rampage.
(#40) Bloodshot joins the US military to help them capture Julio Cortez, a Columbian drug dealer.
(#41) Bloodshot uses his nanite-enhanced blood to save Jillian’s life.
(#42) Using a set of computer discs he took from Cortez, Bloodshot recovers a memory of his father.
(#43) With Bloodshot’s help, Jillian completes her transformation into Death Angel.
(#44) Bloodshot and Jillian confront Goro Sanada after Project Rising Spirit injects him with nanites.
(#45) Bloodshot, Death Angel, and Goro team up to destroy Musashi Labs and Project Rising Spirit.
Master of Two Worlds
this step is usually represented by a transcendental heroes like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot: Last Stand, Bloodshot #46 – #49)
(LS) Bloodshot teams up with Detective Richard Col to track down his father, Bruno Mortalli.
(#46) At Neville’s request, Bloodshot helps Karla Putkin to stop Victor Goda, a weapons dealer.
(#47) While in Alaska for a mission, Bloodshot runs into June Schnieder, the FBI agent who sold him out.
(#48) Bloodshot teams up with a Native American tribe to stop June and Bear, a nanite-enhanced killer.
(#49) When Bloodshot seeks out a device to return Jillian to normal, he enters the Place of Many Alike.
Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. Though known as living in the moment, this is neither the anticipation for the future nor the regretting of the past.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #50 – #51)
(#50) Bloodshot teams up with Yoshi Iwatsu to destroy Proteus.
(#51) Bloodshot seemingly dies alongside Jillian and Proteus in a massive explosion in Antarctica.
It's probably not as good as it could be, but it was just for fun. What do you think?
The Hero’s Journey, featuring Bloodshot, using elements from Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces and David Adams’s Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero as found here.
Departure
Miraculous conception and birth
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #0)
Angelo is reborn when Project Rising injects him with the nanites that transform him into Bloodshot.
The Call to Adventure
The hero starts off in a mundane situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #1)
Upon his escape from Project Rising Spirit, Bloodshot sets out to rediscover his past as Angelo Mortalli.
Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot
Not applicable
Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, their guides and magical helpers appear, or become known.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #0 – Geoff – and Bloodshot #4 – Gilad –)
Geoff McHenry and Gilad Anni-Padda
The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #1 – Bloodshot #3)
(#1) Bloodshot faces against Speedshots sent by Hideyoshi Iwatsu, the man responsible for his rebirth.
(#2) Bloodshot faces against Ax.
(#3) Bloodshot faces against the HARD Corps.
Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #6 – Bloodshot #7)
Bloodshot becomes an agent of British Intelligence under Neville Alcott as Michael Lazarus.
Initiation
The Road of Trials
the road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #4 – Bloodshot #5)
When Benito Carboni claims to have kidnapped his sister, Bloodshot teams up with Gilad to rescue her, only to discover that she is an actress hired by Gino Canelli.
The Meeting with the Goddess
this is the point when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all-encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with their mother. This is a very important step in the process and often represented by the person finding the one they love most completely.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #8 – Bloodshot #9)
Jillian Alcott
Woman as Temptress
This step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since lust from his spiritual journey often tempts the hero-knight.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot accepts to help Tanaka recover a missing device in exchange for the return of his missing memory.
Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront, and be initiated, by whatever holds the ultimate power in their life. In many myths and stories, this is the father or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot confronts and kills Hideyoshi Iwatsu, who has become a powerful Speedshot.
Apotheosis
When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, they move beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #12)
After six months of endless fighting, Bloodshot decided to take a vacation in Puerto Rico.
The Ultimate Boon
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #11)
Bloodshot fails to acquire his boon when Tanaka reveals that he does not possess his missing memories.
Return
Refusal of the Return
having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #13–Bloodshot #26, Secret Weapons #9–#10, Bloodshot Yearbook)
Having failed to recover his missing memories, Bloodshot continues his journey as a British agent.
(#13) Bloodshot agrees to safeguard a Weaponeer agent from Dr. Silk’s assassins.
(#14) At Don Carboni’s request, Bloodshot recovers a file that details all the intolerable acts he committed.
(#15) Bloodshot confronts Cinder and Glyder.
(9–10) Bloodshot helps Geoff and Gilad recover three parahuman suits from the Weaponeer’s hidden vault.
(#16) Bloodshot suffers a fatal wound to the head while protecting a Russian dignitary.
(#17) Bloodshot recovers from his coma while in the custody of the HARD Corps.
(#18) Bloodshot stops Bhutu Hassan from acquiring a nuclear device.
(#YB) Bloodshot has an affair with Anna Trebecci, the wife of a reputed drug lord.
(#19) Bloodshot comes across Uzzi the Clown.
(#20) During the Chaos Effect, Bloodshot engages the Immortal Enemy in a fight.
(#21) Bloodshot confronts Ax for the second time.
(#22) Bloodshot faces against a group of mercenaries that the Immortal Enemy sent to kill him.
(#23) Bloodshot faces Cinder, who Glyder, a member of the Harbinger Foundation, takes away with her.
(#24) Bloodshot teams up with Clay McHenry, Geoff’s uncle, to defeat the Immortal Enemy.
(#25) Bloodshot travels to Florida to apprehend Uzzi the Clown.
(#26) With Carboni’s help, Bloodshot stops a developing company from destroying Uzzi’s circus.
The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot
Not applicable since Bloodshot fails to acquire his boon (his missing memories)
Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, oftentimes they must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #27 – #29, Secret Weapons #20 – #21)
When Tanaka captures Bloodshot to complete his programming and transfer Iwatsu’s memories into his mind, he becomes a rampaging behemoth who sets out to kill Neville Alcott. With help from Ninjak and the Secret Weapons, Bloodshot purges Iwatsu’s programming and returns to normal.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #30 – #45)
Having achieved a greater understanding of his abilities because of Tanaka’s programming, Bloodshot employs his newfound powers in his continuing battle against evil.
(#30) Bloodshot faces Proteus, a robot sent from the future to destroy anything that employs nanites.
(#31) Bloodshot captures Proteus in a glacier in Antarctica.
(#32) Bloodshot faces a group of people infected with a virus that makes them believe they are Vampires.
(#33) Bloodshot rescues Malcolm from the virus’ victims.
(#34) Urged by Tanaka’s programming, Bloodshot creates a duplicate of himself called Rampage.
(#35) Bloodshot attempts to stop Rampage from completing his programming.
(#36) While in New Orleans, Bloodshot faces Papa Juju, a drug dealer who seemingly kills.
(#37) Bloodshot uses Juju’s own paralyzing toxin against him and leaves him for the coroner to autopsy.
(#38) Bloodshot faces a team of mercenaries gathered by Rampage.
(#39) Bloodshot kills Rampage.
(#40) Bloodshot joins the US military to help them capture Julio Cortez, a Columbian drug dealer.
(#41) Bloodshot uses his nanite-enhanced blood to save Jillian’s life.
(#42) Using a set of computer discs he took from Cortez, Bloodshot recovers a memory of his father.
(#43) With Bloodshot’s help, Jillian completes her transformation into Death Angel.
(#44) Bloodshot and Jillian confront Goro Sanada after Project Rising Spirit injects him with nanites.
(#45) Bloodshot, Death Angel, and Goro team up to destroy Musashi Labs and Project Rising Spirit.
Master of Two Worlds
this step is usually represented by a transcendental heroes like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot: Last Stand, Bloodshot #46 – #49)
(LS) Bloodshot teams up with Detective Richard Col to track down his father, Bruno Mortalli.
(#46) At Neville’s request, Bloodshot helps Karla Putkin to stop Victor Goda, a weapons dealer.
(#47) While in Alaska for a mission, Bloodshot runs into June Schnieder, the FBI agent who sold him out.
(#48) Bloodshot teams up with a Native American tribe to stop June and Bear, a nanite-enhanced killer.
(#49) When Bloodshot seeks out a device to return Jillian to normal, he enters the Place of Many Alike.
Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. Though known as living in the moment, this is neither the anticipation for the future nor the regretting of the past.
Angelo Mortalli – Bloodshot (Bloodshot #50 – #51)
(#50) Bloodshot teams up with Yoshi Iwatsu to destroy Proteus.
(#51) Bloodshot seemingly dies alongside Jillian and Proteus in a massive explosion in Antarctica.
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