Comic Review: Bloodshot: Rising Spirit #1

Bloodshot Rising Spirit #1

Valiant Entertainment

Writers: Writer: Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson, Kevin Grevioux

Artist: Artist: Ken Lashley

Bloodshot has been around with Valiant since the 90’s, and for the most part has been a product of the time. Known as Valiant’s Rambo-archetype, Bloodshot is a big gun-shooting guy who can take a beating. All of that changed with The Valiant in 2014, which reenergized the character in a fresh way thanks to Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. The new direction led to some stellar Bloodshot stories by Lemire. Now, Bloodshot is going in a new direction once more with Bloodshot Rising Spirit.

As a fan of the more recent Bloodshot, I have to say that the direction of the new series is rather disappointing. Rising Spirit takes is effectively the beginning of Bloodshot’s story. Writers Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson attempt to further humanize the living weapon. Unfortunately, the debut issue fails to make Bloodshot an easy character for readers to connect to. Instead, Bloodshot Rising Spirit is choppy, with poor pacing and a mostly uninteresting story.

Instead of humanizing the character, Bloodshot Rising Spirit just embraces what the character used to be. Nadler and Thompson’s script mostly reads like a summer action movie and trades meaningful development for cool experiences. Bloodshot Rising Spirit succeeds in delivering fun action, but I would credit this success to the art more than the script.

Artist Ken Lashley perfectly captures the tone that the writers are going for. While the writing left a lot to be desired, the panel structure and art allow for the issue to be more fun than it should be. Action shots are this series’ strength, and readers who just want dumb fun will love what they see. There are some inconsistencies in facial expressions, which sometimes takes away from the immersion. These poor moments are often followed up with an impressive panel, which makes these minor gripes easy to overlook.

Bloodshot has seen a lot of character development since The Valiant, but this debut issue fails to humanize the character. Choppy pacing and uninteresting developments make this a hard issue to recommend to those who aren’t already fans of the character.