There’s just no time to take a breath in the Valiant universe. Floating on a raft, yet determined to reach a destination the Bloodshot crew is just about to turn on each other when Ninjak shows up. In the rest of this world Colin King is dreaded. That’s because by the time he arrives the world is on the verge of ending. But in the first issue of BloodshotUSA he may actually be a beacon of hope. Things start off well as Bloodshot thanks Ninjak for his and Livewire’s help in rebooting his consciousness. Or else he would still be on a continuous loop of dying by the hands of Deathmate on an island, in the middle of nowhere. But the hope doesn’t last for long and things only get worse.
Project Rising Spirit’s plan for world domination is ludicrous enough to work. They essentially want to murder just enough of the population to be the world’s only savior from the killer nanites. Of course New York City is the place where it all goes down and the most effective way to spread this germ is through the air. Anytime a virus can be spread through innocuous contact panic will ensue. What Jeff Lemire has done once again is give Bloodshot a near impossible situation to get out of. Being issue one, the reader can’t help but believe that there will be casualties. That table of contents page that gives the lineup of everyone from Unity to agent Diane Festival seems more like a tally sheet of who’s going to have an X through their name by the second issue. Bloodshot is not the type of comic to stay clear of bloodshed, but it’s not gratuitous violence, its worse – its violence with a purpose.
There are times in this narrative that alludes to the bigger picture in the lives of these characters. When Vietnam Bloodshot gets into near fisticuffs with WWII Bloodshot there’s an important message in what is said. Both men are right as well as they are both wrong in their ideological thinking. Blind hope can lead to being trapped in the middle of the ocean, but hopelessness is worse. Hope gives you a chance. In the end of the last comic Bloodshot believed that Magic had to be out there alive. This belief gives him hope. Has he seen her since he was recaptured by PRS – no. Still, he holds onto this idea to persevere. And by doing that he forms a plan. Its why these men who have been used by an organization that don’t see people, who don’t care who gets killed, who only want what they believe to be power are in the middle of the ocean in the first place. Despite what they have been through they have hope. But that may not be enough.
What will Lemire’s endgame be? For all the philosophical undertones this comic book has enough action to make you forget that this is a miniseries within a larger story arc. You wonder who will survive, who will the airborne nanites take next and will we ever find out the origin of the Bloodshot dog.
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