Bloodshot #0 Discussion

[Blood of Heroes]

They didn't show his body being extracted at the end of Harbinger Wars and BS#0 established that they can't use somebody who's already dead.

Dead? Dead?!

"Tis but a scratch,
...I've had worse."

You lie!

[400yrs]

This issue was like the first several issues in the series. Crazy, bloody and awesome!

[lorddunlow]

They didn't show his body being extracted at the end of Harbinger Wars and BS#0 established that they can't use somebody who's already dead.

Dead? Dead?!

"Tis but a scratch,
...I've had worse."

Maybe he's just mostly dead.

[MoonChild]

Finally got a chance to read this. Very suprised at all the positive feedback. If its the true origin of bloodshot I feel its a far inferior origin than that of the first two encarnations

[Jace]

The new episode of my Comic Vlog is out discussing Bloodshot 0. Watch it and tell me what you think please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoGMQhmjcfA

[Dallow Spicer1]

Finally got to read Bloodshot #0, excellent read as many have mentioned and yes it raised plenty more questions but I think it's way too soon to know all there is about this character. I think the writers should tease out bits of detail over the coming months/years.

Great art too by ChrisCross, hope he does more work for VEI.

4/5

[betterthanezra]

I finally read it...

Loved the art and the pacing but feel underwhelmed by the whole issue, just felt like something was missing from it. There is ton of meat in the issue but raising more questions than answers depressed me a bit.

I can see why VEI picked up Matt as a writer he is very good...

-Brian

[Carson]

I thought it opened up a world of possibilities with all of the previous iterations of the Bloodshot project, and the scientists story in this issue explained why this bloodshot finally went so haywire and was able to break free of PRS mind control (with a little help from Kuritech of course).

I look forward to learning more about the previous bloodshots!

[Shadowman99]

I thought it opened up a world of possibilities with all of the previous iterations of the Bloodshot project, and the scientists story in this issue explained why this bloodshot finally went so haywire and was able to break free of PRS mind control (with a little help from Kuritech of course).

I look forward to learning more about the previous bloodshots!

As do I, if ever they get to feature again in the comic for any reason. That Afroshot definitely looked like a bad mother-*SQUEE*-er! I thought it was pretty cool getting to see previous incarnations of the Bloodshot project, and the progressions in the technology involved. (Hey, it's just occurred to me, wouldn't it be cool to see Afroshot cause a pain in the arse for Harada in the "Harbinger '69" comic?!)

I really liked that the issue was super rich in 'maybes' and 'what ifs', and left a lot more to be explored in the future of the comic. I understand that the lack of 'answers' provided in the comic might have frustrated some people, but I think that it was a good decision to maintain the mystery in the character, as this is currently the primary fuel for the comic and can keep it running for a good period of time yet.

And I thought that the final page was quite poignant too, with the scientist looking into Bloodshot's eyes to see if he could find a shred of humanity in there in the final moments of his life to see if his efforts have been worthwhile despite his personal outcome.

Really liked the #0 issue overall, and really enjoyed the art. Wish we could see art of this standard a bit more regularly.

[Carson]

Agreed! ChrisCross is a silly name, but damn the guy can draw! He creates interesting camera angles and has great flow from one panel to the next.

[ShadowTuga]

I'll just be a lazybasterdattentionwhore and copy/paste this from my blog:

Bloodshot #0 is the latest in the "zero" issues from VALIANT, written by "Mind MGMT" creator Matt Kindt (his first book for VEI, by the way) and wonderfuly drawn by Chriscross (Captain Marvel, Firestorm), with colors by Moose Baumann (X-O Manowar). In case you don't know, these "0" books by VALIANT serve as a sort of origin story for the titular character, but it's not as linear as that: Shadowman #0 focused on the main villain's background, for just an example.

That said, how could an "origin" book work on a series that is surrounded and fueled by the mystery of "who the hell is Bloodshot?"
It's been (one of) the most important point(s) of the book after all, and the reason why Bloodshot has done... well, everything we have seen him do, to be honest.

So, what I truly want to ask is: Would a full reveal ruin the book? Perhaps, but since we didn't get that here, it's more or less of a moot point.

Without going into the plot per se, let's just say that Matt Kindt does a very smart job in keeping the reader invested in this comic; I mean, it's not until the later part of the issue that we finally get a glimpse of Bloodshot's past, and it doesn't feel like we were ripped off, even if it's just that, a "glimpse". Until that point, we are given an history lesson about Nanites and the various stages of our hero's evolution...
And again, we do not get the full story, but it's enough juice to get you wonder just what the hell PRS is all about, at the same time it makes you feel bad for the person that Bloodshot once was (even if we really don't know aything about him).

The entire issue is told through the POV of a Project Rising Spirit employee, and the trick works very well here: that's because Bloodshot is this menacing, techno-filled (in)human being, and we get "that" from the narrator's perspective.


As for the "person behind the nanites", like I said, we still don't know s*** about him, except that

SPOILER

he was an African-American U.S. soldier that suffered a terrible death via mob beating (remember "Black Hawk Down"?) that took place in, we suppose, some Arab country in 1993. That's it.

SPOILER'S END

So, we didn't discover much about WHO Bloodshot is after all, but instead are treated to a "behind-the-scenes" tour of Project: Bloodshot, and it was a great ride. Even if we just saw what "they wanted us to see", if that makes any sense.
Chriscross does an amazing work, I'm not an art expert whatsoever but I felt that his clean style suits the action of this title very well. I sure hope he'll do more VALIANT comics in the future.

4.9/5

[jmatt]

I like your review.

[Carson]

I'll just be a lazybasterdattentionwhore and copy/paste this from my blog:

[ShadowTuga]

Thanks. I actually don't see myself as a reviewer, more like a Sad Clown Valiant worshipper.. .

[Shadowman99]

As for the "person behind the nanites", like I said, we still don't know s*** about him, except that

SPOILER

he was an African-American U.S. soldier that suffered a terrible death via mob beating (remember "Black Hawk Down"?) that took place in, we suppose, some Arab country in 1993. That's it.

SPOILER'S END

I might be mistaken, but I thought that character was just used to harvest a soul from. Now I know that there's a big argument here for how much a 'soul' contributes to what makes up a person, but I didn't think that this particular character provided the physical basis for Bloodshot? Or was it just the essence within the nanites that you were talking about?

For every issue we've seen up until #0, I've been certain that the Bloodshot has been drawn with the physical characteristics of a white person, not to mention the way he's been drawn in his 'false memory' sequences.

I'm not really trying to pick a fight, but I'm more puzzling over the physical basis of Bloodshot. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Blood of Heroes]

I'm not really trying to pick a fight, but I'm more puzzling over the physical basis of Bloodshot. Anyone have any thoughts on this?[/color]

I think we had that fight in the first two pages of this thread.

Is he black? Is he white? Is he the combination of many different people? Does it matter in the long run?
Up until this issue, whenever I've looked at Bloodshot, I've seen a white guy. If you read back through this thread, some people think he's always looked black to them.

One thing's for sure, this book raised more questions than it answered.

[ShadowTuga]

I'm not really trying to pick a fight, but I'm more puzzling over the physical basis of Bloodshot. Anyone have any thoughts on this?[/color]

I think we had that fight in the first two pages of this thread.

Is he black? Is he white? Is he the combination of many different people? Does it matter in the long run?
Up until this issue, whenever I've looked at Bloodshot, I've seen a white guy. If you read back through this thread, some people think he's always looked black to them.

One thing's for sure, this book raised more questions than it answered.

I just think the guy's soul was the "final ingredient" they needed or something like that. But i'm as confused as everyone...

[tchalla8]

I'm not really trying to pick a fight, but I'm more puzzling over the physical basis of Bloodshot. Anyone have any thoughts on this?[/color]

I think we had that fight in the first two pages of this thread.

Is he black? Is he white? Is he the combination of many different people? Does it matter in the long run?
Up until this issue, whenever I've looked at Bloodshot, I've seen a white guy. If you read back through this thread, some people think he's always looked black to them.

One thing's for sure, this book raised more questions than it answered.

I just think the guy's soul was the "final ingredient" they needed or something like that. But i'm as confused as everyone...

It's one thing to intentionally and strategically withhold pieces of information from your readers. It's another thing altogether to do a poor job of communicating something you intended readers to understand. The last third of the book did too much of the latter.

[Shadowman99]

I'm not really trying to pick a fight, but I'm more puzzling over the physical basis of Bloodshot. Anyone have any thoughts on this?[/color]

I think we had that fight in the first two pages of this thread.

Is he black? Is he white? Is he the combination of many different people? Does it matter in the long run?
Up until this issue, whenever I've looked at Bloodshot, I've seen a white guy. If you read back through this thread, some people think he's always looked black to them.

One thing's for sure, this book raised more questions than it answered.

Ah yeah, I remembered it'd be discussed before but I couldn't remember what the resolution was, so I thought I'd just prompt someone into saying the answer again so I didn't have to hunt back through seven pages of text to find what I was looking for

Strange that some people have 'always' seen Bloodshot as white and others as black... I genuinely had always seen him as a white guy, so I have to wonder if this is a bit of a *SQUEE*up by the artists during the current printing period of the book. I love Bloodshot so I'm not knocking it for the fun of it, but as Tchalla8 said, there are some things that really *ought* to be crystal clear... I'd say "this could have been intentional from the start due to his shape shifting abilities", but if certain people have always seen him as one ethnicity since they've been reading the book, and others as another, then to me that indicates that even if this has been intentional it hasn't been communicated clearly enough

Otherwise it has to be a criticism of the art in this particular issue. A single issue that causes a 7-page discussing on the main character's ethnicity has GOT to be a sure sign of incoherent illustration in this issue, comparatively (to the previous issues) speaking.

Well, anyway, I read the issue initially seeing 'white guy Bloodshot' (as usual), so I enjoyed it as I usually do, so at least this ethnicity thing didn't actually get in the way of my enjoyment of the book. That's the main thing

[Baramos]

It just seems moot to me--as someone else pointed out, he's mostly cow protein at this point, so he's really not even "human" on just a cellular level. It is also unclear whether he retains the facial structure of his host or if it is a projection of the "soul" or "souls" contained in the nanites, and why he projects as this particular image over any other he chooses (and why there is a limit to it, although on that point I'd say that in "mimicking" the terrorist in the first issue for instance he also had to provide pigmentation to his skin which probably draws on some of the energy/calories in his body, so that would be one reason why he can't retain a particular look forever and has to revert back to the albino image).

I'd say one theing they get with drawing him as an African American man is it allows Valiant to further diversify its characters (something it is doing and has done in the pst far more than the Big Two, in my opinion), since at this point the only major African American characters are Quantum and Livewire and Shadowman (who is biracial). Again, though, it's only on a surface level, since we're talking about a regenerating "cyborg" at this point, it seems.

With the other characters, their race is going to inform their characterization and how they interact with the world. They have a past, a history. Whereas with Bloodshot it will probably just be an entirely artistic affectation.