Is Bloodshot simply a soulless killing machine or something else? This issue presents us with the secret history of Project Rising Spirit’s Bloodshot program and its most successful soldier.
“They needed me to give him a conscience. But not too much of one” – Rees
There’s a problem with Bloodshot, he’s the perfect killing machine, but a little too perfect. Nothing can get in the way of his mission. If a woman and child are standing in front of a door that he needs to get through then he’ll kill them. Even the US government finds this unacceptable and so they bring in a scientist, Rees, to try and give him a conscience. Rees discovers how to measure and extract a soul along with memories and give it to Bloodshot. What follows is Bloodshot’s origin story in a first person narrative from Rees’ secret journal.
The addition of Matt Kindt on writing duties on any title leads to increased expectations. His creator-owned work such as Mind MGMT is just so good. However, he’s yet to transfer the levels of greatness of his indie work to mainstream titles. In many ways he’s reminiscent of when Jason Aaron first went mainstream. Aaron took some time to completely translate his voice to superhero comics, but now he’s one of the very best. If Kindt manages this transition he could do something very interesting.
As it is, though nicely written, this is slightly lightweight and run of the mill. Whilst in his MGMT work his characters are beautifully drawn, Rees here feels more like a story device. We don’t really know anything about him and don’t particularly care about what happens to him. It’s all still very readable though, just nothing more than that.
More of a plus is the artwork by ChrisCross. It’s all very bloody, with dynamic, exciting panel layouts that keep everything moving forward at a great pace. There are some great action sequences, with some panels involving a bazooka attack on a helicopter particularly standing out for their vibrancy.
All in all then, a decent, solid issue that’s not going to set the world alight but is worth having a flip through if you get a chance.
Matt Kindt (W), ChrisCross (A) • Valiant Entertainment, $3.99, August 21, 2013
Completely missed ChrisCross drawing this but after 10 issues I gave up on Bloodshot. The story just meandered from one action scene to another without infusing much soul into this cliche killing machine.