Sometimes life can be simple. Dogs you can trust, people you can’t. The lies told from humans are part of our programming for survival. And if you have nanites running through you, while being hunted on an island with seemingly no way of escape, don’t trust anyone. Not even yourself. Told mostly in black and white “Bloodshot Island†could be described as the worst form of groundhog day imaginable. But that wouldn’t begin to describe the horror faced by Ray Garrison and the other bloodshots who are trapped.
Once again deceived by his own senses, Ray falls back on his one failsafe. But the nanites aren’t telling him what he needs to know – that once again he is being manipulated. The organization that is responsible for all this chaos is Project Rising. They’re doing what they have from the beginning, testing yet another weapon. At this point the reader has to wonder where’s the humanity? Of course it never existed for those in charge of this corporation. They have no soul, you can’t to have people go through unspeakable acts so many times that all sense of when it all started in the first place is lost. This makes for the best of narratives. Jeff Lemire has crafted the Bloodshot we know into such an unimaginable corner that you don’t know how he’s going to get out of it.
What’s more the dominance of black and white throughout the comic heightens the tension. It’s a jungle on an island, yet there is nothing distinguishable for the audience in the beginning. Essentially it could be a paradise where he reunites with Magic or a grave. Still this is Bloodshot:Reborn and if nothing else this inescapable place is a battlefield – especially when you see the mortar shells going off. Most of all Lemire plays with our fears. A big one is being completely out of control of your own circumstances. For Ray, no matter how strong or a master strategist he may be, his choices are taken away from him. Think about being in surgery and the anesthesia doesn’t take quite the way it should. You’re immobilized but conscious. People are making decisions for you and you have no say. However, it’s worse for Ray and artist Mico Suayan Et. Al. pulls you into that personal terror with economical uses of red. The familiar palette of Bloodshot is turned against him and it makes for great artistic irony.
This is “Bloodshot Reborn: Bloodshot Island†the director’s cut and with a title like that comes extras. It’s an interesting look into the process of creating a world where there never seems to be a way out for our hero. At this point you feel for Ray while simultaneously rooting for Lemire to put him into another inconceivable predicament. At one point this all must end, but come on don’t you want to see if Ray makes it off the island?
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