In Bloodshot #0, we find Ray Garrison, aka Bloodshot, in Siberia. Here he works on a pipeline that will transport Siberian oil to Europe. We meet him in a bar, where he drinks to forget the terrible events that occurred in the Harbinger Wars 2 series, and how he was used as a weapon by people he formerly trusted.
There's even a memory, provided by artist Marc Laming, of Bloodshot fighting in HW2, along with Livewire, Ninjak, and this blog's namesake X-O Manowar. As it's a memory, colorist Andrew Dalhouse renders it not just in muted tones, but as if filtered through the nanites that swim through his bloodstream.
While drinking in a bar, we are reminded of the Bloodshot Reborn series, when Ray Garrison had been separated from the nanites. Without their presence in his bloodstream, and their influence on his consciousness, he often drank to forget. But since the nanites' return, he can only drink in moderation to dull the pain of his memories. If he drinks too much, the nanites will flood his system, and return him to full alertness.
We also learn that he is currently working under the name Ray Janus. This is an interesting touch by author Tim Seeley. While Bloodshot cannot remember his name before he was created to be a living weapon in a laboratory, he goes by the name Ray Garrison. Garrison evokes a group of soldiers, and Bloodshot's nanites transform him into a one-man strike team. The name Janus harkens back to the Roman god of gateways and beginnings, and the month of January was named after him. Clearly, Ray is trying to make a new beginning. Will he be allowed to break with his past? This is the question that drives this issue.
After returning to his rented apartment, there's an intriguing image of Bloodshot reminiscent of The Terminator reference in the Q&A section of the Bloodshot 2019 FCBD Special. While Ray looks weary of life, at the same time he looks like a humanoid machine, ready to snap into killing mode in an instant.
The trigger comes when an agent for the Global Agency For Threat Excision, or G.A.T.E., contacts him. The agent is tracking the disappearances of locals, and asks for Bloodshot's help. But his memories of HW2, and his involvement with G.A.T.E. in that conflict, are too fresh, and Ray declines. He's through with his old life, tired of being controlled and used as a living weapon.
Although published later, I had remembered events in this issue as following the Bloodshot 2019 FCBD Special. But actually they come before it. The events that spur Ray to help the G.A.T.E. agent, and uncover the reason behind the locals' disappearance, mobilizes him to return to the world as Bloodshot. This time, there will be no trying to live an ordinary life, as in the latter issues of Bloodshot Reborn, and in the following Bloodshot Salvation series. This time, there will be no more working for others. This time, there will only be Bloodshot, working for the good as he sees it.
It is this Bloodshot, this Ray, that the military figure watches on his control room monitors in the Bloodshot 2019 FCBD Special. And it is the events in this issue, Bloodshot #0, that forge that man.
Dragon Dave
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