Bloodshot (comics)
Bloodshot is a superhero created in 1992 by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton, appearing in comic books published by the American publisher Valiant Comics. The Bloodshot character has had different origins and incarnations, but he is consistently a character empowered by experimental nanites injected into his bloodstream, a procedure that leaves a red circular scar on his chest, hence the name. This gives Bloodshot enhanced physical traits, the ability to repair damage to his body, an internal database of weapons and hand-to-hand combat training, and a mental connection to computers. A side effect of the use of his powers is that his skin becomes chalk-white and his eyes become red. Other powers vary with each incarnation.
The original Valiant Comics character was a mafia hitman named Angelo Mortalli who is experimented on by Project Rising Spirit. After Acclaim Entertainment bought Valiant Comics, writer Len Kaminski with artist Sal Velluto rebooted the character in 1997, now depicting him as a covert operative named Raymond Garrison who uses the cover identity of Angelo Mortalli while infiltrating the mafia. Garrison dies and is then resurrected and empowered by nanites, though this leaves him with amnesia. After Valiant Entertainment bought the character rights in 2004, Bloodshot was rebooted again in 2012 under the direction of Duane Swierczynski, Arturo Lozzi and Manuel Garcia. This version of the character remains in publication. The current Bloodshot is a man who dies in battle and is then resurrected by nanites, making him the latest in a long line of resurrected super-soldiers the Project Rising Spirit has been creating since World War II. Believing himself to be military officer named Raymond "Ray" Garrison, Bloodshot regularly goes on covert missions and is specially trained to fight people born with superhuman powers. He learns his superiors have regularly manipulated him by altering his memories, some of which are the recovered memories of dead soldiers, including two named Raymond Garrison and Angelo Mortalli. No longer sure if he was ever Ray Garrison and not wishing to be a living weapon, Bloodshot goes rogue, hoping to find his own life outside of PRS and the military.
Publication history
Original Valiant Comics version
Bloodshot was created by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton during a wave of popularity for Valiant Comics. The character's name was suggested by artist David Chlystek. The character first appeared in three panels on the last page of Eternal Warrior #4, before making his first full appearance in Rai Zero. a week later. The character got enough fan interest to earn his own series Bloodshot in 1993, initially written by VanHook with artwork by Don Perlin. The series lasted 52 issues, concluding in 1996 just as Acclaim Entertainment bought Valiant Comics.Acclaim Comics version
In 1997, Acclaim Entertainment rebooted the Valiant Universe. The new series Bloodshot, written by Len Kaminski with art by Sal Velluto, introduced a slightly altered version of the character and lasted 16 issues, ending in 1998. When Acclaim went out of business in 2004, Valiant Comics was rebranded as Valiant Entertainment and bought the rights to Bloodshot.Valiant Entertainment version
In 2012, Valiant Entertainment rebooted the Valiant Universe again with a new line of comics. Bloodshot introduced a new take on the Bloodshot character, written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Arturo Lozzi and Manuel Garcia. The series lasted 27 issues, though it was temporarily rebranded as Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps after Valiant's Harbinger Wars crossover in 2013, then regained its original title after the Armor Hunters crossover in 2014.In 2015, a new ongoing series titled Bloodshot Reborn began under the direction of Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan, lasting 18 issues and concluding in 2016, and supplemented with a miniseries titled Bloodshot U.S.A. and the one-shot Bloodshot's Day Off. In 2017, the 12-issue series Bloodshot Salvation was done by Lemire and Suayan, along with Lewis LaRosa. From 2018 to 2019, Valiant published a prequel 8-issue series titled Bloodshot Rising Spirit written by Kevin Grevioux, Lonnie Nadler, and Zac Thompson, with art by Ken Lashley. A new series set in the present began afterward, simply titled Bloodshot, written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Brett Booth.
Plot summary
Original Valiant Comics Version (1992)
Bloodshot Volume 1Angelo Mortalli is a ruthless and arrogant hitman climbing the mob ranks and about to marry the daughter of mobster Gino Canelli, head of one of New York City's major crime families. When it is discovered Mortalli is having an affair, Canelli takes revenge by framing him for murder. Mortalli offers evidence in exchange for federal witness protection rather than prison. But Canelli learns about this further betrayal and buys off an FBI agent to kidnap Mortalli. Rather than kill the former hitman, Canelli delivers him to be a new test subject for Project Rising Spirit, an illegal and clandestine attempt to turn people into living weapons, headed by the corrupt scientist Hideyoshi Iwatsu.
Mortalli's body is injected with microscopic technology called nanites, leaving a blood-red circle scar on his chest. The nanites rebuild his brain and body, making Angelo superhuman but erasing his memory in the process. When Angelo uses his superhuman abilities or his nanites detect combat situations, his skin becomes paler, often turning chalk-white, and his eyes turn red.Image:Bloodshot40.jpg|thumb|Cover image of Bloodshot #40. Art by Jeff Johnson.
Escaping from the lab, Mortalli takes the name "Bloodshot" and determines to learn who he was and how he was altered. While fighting and killing many members of the New York mob, Mortalli joins forces with the "Eternal Warrior" called Gilad. They had been enemies before but Abrams does not hold a grudge because he believes Mortalli metaphorically "died" the night Bloodshot was born. Mortalli is later disillusioned after learning about his past actions as a hitman. Having no desire to remain in New York or return to his old life, Bloodshot goes to Europe and uses his powers to fight corruption. He soon learns that his wife Mary was murdered by a powerful woman named Crago. He goes after Crago but before killing her Crago reveals that she is his wife. He kills her and with the help of Abrams, he creates a new cover identity for himself, "Michael Lazarus," and operates as Bloodshot when he deems it necessary. He battles a variety of villains and criminals, some of who are "psiots" or "harbingers". One of his enemies include Ax, a psiot obsessed with attaining advanced technology such as Bloodshot's nanites and the alien armor of X-O Manowar.
Readers learn that in the future, the heroic line of Rai warriors adopt a similar appearance to Bloodshot to remember his heroism in the 20th century. The 43rd Rai, as well as the 44th Rai, even inherits Mortalli's nanites.
Acclaim Entertainment Reboot (1997)
Bloodshot Volume 2This incarnation of Bloodshot permanently has alabaster skin and red eyes, whether he actively uses his powers or not. Instead of a mobster who was captured and experimented on while alive, he is Raymond Garrison, a secret operative for the Domestic Operations Authority. He is sent to infiltrate the Canelli crime family by using the cover identity "Angelo Mortalli." While living as Mortalli, Garrison begins a romantic relationship with Gina DeCarlo. When the mobsters realize "Angelo" is a traitor, they kill him. The D.O.A. brings his remains to its secret experiment known as Project Lazarus, where Dr. Stroheim resurrects him with nanites, turning him into a superhuman "angel of death."
Garrison suffers partial amnesia as a result of his resurrection, and initially believes that his real name was Angelo Mortalli. He investigates his past and the circumstances of his death and transformation, bringing into conflict with the mob and the D.O.A. To fight and retrieve Bloodshot, D.O.A. Director Simon Oreck sends out the Special Circumstances Division, a team of mercenaries equipped with advanced technology. While eliminating evidence that could lead back to them and Project Lazarus, the D.O.A. kills Garrison's former lover Gina DeCarlo.
Bloodshot finally learns he was once D.O.A. operative Raymond Garrison. Dr. Stroheim reveals Garrison was his first true success and the process cannot be replicated unless a "prime assembler" unit implanted in Bloodshot is removed. Rather than allow others to be transformed into undead soldiers as he was, Bloodshot destroys Stroheim's lab and leaves.
Valiant Entertainment Reboot (2012)
''Bloodshot'' (Volume 3)
Starting with the 2012 Valiant Entertainment relaunch, the Project Rising Spirit Program is said to have regularly created different super-soldiers since the days of World War II. The Bloodshot super-soldiers, later collectively known as the "Bloodshot Squad," are distinguished by nicknames: Tank Man first served in World War II, described as an "animated Frankenstein"; the science greatly improved for Viet Man, who served in the Vietnam War and was "fully repairable and adaptable to his environment"; Cold Man was an operative who could adopt a more human appearance and blend in, helping him act as a covert agent during the Cold War. At some point, there was also a dog test subject nicknamed Bloodhound. All of these subjects were near-mindless weapons with little restraint against causing civilian casualties. Starting with Quiet Man, who served in the Gulf War, the Bloodshot project uses nanites to transfer memories from dead soldiers, providing the super-soldier with emotional restraint as well as motivation factors that can be manipulated to ensure control.One Bloodshot cyborg who has multiple false identities implanted over time eventually becomes insane, forcing the program to destroy him in 2010. The techniques and technology used on him are improved on for the next Bloodshot, who is nicknamed Every Man and serves in many Special Ops missions, including in Syria and Afghanistan. Bloodshot follows the life of Every Man, who at the start of the series believes he is Raymond "Ray" Garrison, a soldier with a wife and son back home.
In 2007, Dr. Emmanuel Kuretich discovers P.R.S. Director Simon Oreck is using Bloodshot super-soldiers to capture "psiots" or "harbingers", rare people born with superhuman abilities. Alarmed, Kuretich leaves and joins Toyo Harada's Harbinger Foundation, secretly making plans to stop P.R.S. Years later, while on a routine mission in Afghanistan, the modern-day Bloodshot soldier is captured by the Harbinger Foundation. Intending to expose Project Rising Sun to the world, Kuretich forcibly extracts mental records of his missions. The process causes Bloodshot to realize he has repeatedly been given false memories of different lives and identities in order to motivate him and control him. He believed he was Ray Garrison but now sees conflicting memories of other families, lives, and names.
After escaping from Kuretich, Bloodshot learns P.R.S. is willing to destroy him if necessary and evades them too, realizing all his memories may be lies. Bloodshot later finds a P.R.S. facility known as the Nursery, built to house captured psiot children. Freeing the captives, he confronts the Nursery's sadistic jailer Gamma as well as an "outdated" cyborg hit squad called Chainsaw. His actions at the Nursery help lead to the Harbinger Wars crossover. Several free psiots join together to oppose both the Harbinger Foundation and P.R.S., calling themselves the Renegades, including a hacker activist named @x.