Blood rains down in buckets in Valiant Beyond: Bloodshot #1, debuting August 13th by writer Mauro Mantella, artist Fernando Heinz Furukawa, and colorists Brushu Studio and Rocio Zucchi (AKA Dewnoir). Vampires have become a barely contained threat throughout the world – in fact, as the issue begins, the vampire problem is so massive that it has become downright political, with world leaders trying to negotiate with the vampires to give them their own homeland where they can live without being a danger to others. But can you really bargain with a thirsty vampire?
This new version of Bloodshot doesn’t. His name’s Roy Harrison and thanks to his body being inundated with millions of nanobots in an experiment gone awry, he’s the perfect killing machine, a combination of Captain America and Wolverine, able to heal fast and kill others faster. He can take the most banal object and turn it into a deadly weapon with his skill and fighting savvy amplified by the nanobots. I enjoyed the “take no prisoners” aspect of the book. The action sequences felt like something out of The Raid or that legendary hallway sequence in the Daredevil show, with waves of vampires attacking Bloodshot with all manner of edged weapons and Bloodshot parrying, dodging, punching, stabbing and blasting them in satisfying ways.
Valiant
I also enjoyed Fernando Heinz Furukawa and Brushu Studio’s super kinetic art. Furukawa’s fight scenes feel realistic and brutal with nothing ever seeming static or posed. When Bloodshot lands a punch, it just doesn’t stun, it obliterates, and Furukawa warps the recipients’ faces to convey how powerful and disfiguring the blows are while Brushu Studio swathes the panels in shades of blood red to show the carnage Bloodshot unleashes.
What I didn’t enjoy was the fact that the first half of the book was one huge information dump. Granted, this is a new character and setting (part of a joint venture between Valiant Comics and Alien Books to “reboot” the Valiant Universe with new versions of established characters), but there’s so much background information on Roy Harrison, the vampires, the current state of this world and even the Nanobots coursing through Bloodshot’s body that at times it felt more like reading an encyclopedia than a story.
Add to this the fact that there are different types of vampires as well as the fact that drug lords sell a diluted version of Bloodshot’s blood to addicts, spawning another group of murderous maniacs that are rampaging through cities across the world, and it’s all a lot to digest. I’m all for going back to the old days of comics, before the loathsome trend of decompression began (where stories that could easily be resolved in two issues are stretched out over several months), but this issue really tries to do too much in one book and nearly collapses under the weight of it.
Ultimately, it’s still a fun ride and this version of Bloodshot is hilarious at times. There’s one scene towards the end of the issue where he kills a vampire in the craziest way that I guarantee you’ve never seen before (eat your hearts out, Blade and Buffy!). Though I didn’t enjoy this as much as the companion book Tales of the Shadowman (also debuting in August), I think Valiant Comics/Alien Books are off to a great start with these two series and I look forward to seeing what they have planned for their other characters as the reboot continues throughout the rest of the year.
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