Bloodshot 8 Review: Those Caught Between

Cover A by Tyler Kirkham

 In Bloodshot #8, super-powered beings--once normal people--roam the Earth.

Meanwhile, writer Tim Seeley reminds us of an ongoing conflict that most ordinary Americans have forgotten about, but still impacts our world.

This conflict originated with the Saur Revolution of Afghanistan, before morphing into Soviet-Afghan War. Sometimes called Russia's Vietnam, the prolonged conflict weakened the USSR, and left the Taliban in charge of Afghanistan. Of course, we all remember the thousands who died in New York on September 11, 2001, and how the Taliban enabled that act of terrorism. Despite American efforts to support a representative democracy, the Taliban remains a very real power in Afghanistan in 2020.

As in Vietnam, many outside powers got involved in the Soviet-Afghan War. These nations, including the United States, aided the Taliban with training and armament.

Just how high tech was this armament? In a world where biological and chemical weapons are developed and deployed, Tim Seeley suggests that countries such as the United States supplied the ultimate in bio-tech weapons. These are called the Glorymen, just one of the superhuman bioweapons Bloodshot inadventently released from a Black Bar facility in Bloodshot #7.

Pedro Andreo's pencils and Andrew Dalhouse's coloring demonstrate just how much power is coursing through these enhanced human soldiers. Their words--translated from Arabic by letterer Dave Sharpe--reveal a hatred for their former masters equal to their superpowers. 

The words of the leaders who altered them--who fashioned them into tools of the powerful--reveal how much they valued these soldiers as individuals.

The late Terry Pratchett, remembered the world over for his Discworld novels, once said, "Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things." This has certainly proven true for Bloodshot, a man who has forsaken any semblance of a normal life. He will always be sought out, and used--willingly or unwillingly--by nations, and less-well-known organizations, such as Project Rising Spirit, Omen, Black Bar, and The Burned. 

Like the Glorymen, he was fashioned into a tool. Whether he likes it or not, he remains a weapon to be wielded by those who can control the nanites, or tiny machines, that course through his bloodstream.

Chronologically, this series began in Russia, with Bloodshot #0. There, in a poor Siberian town called Veles, Bloodshot launched onto his current mission to help ordinary people caught amid the conflicts created by powerful factions and nations. 

In Bloodshot #1, he moved to Hodeidah, Yemen. In this port city, crucial to the importation of food, he foiled soldiers who would have let the Yemeni poor go hungry.

You know, just in case the wrong people--drafted into fighting for a faction in the ongoing conflict--wanted to eat.

Cover B by Diego Bernard and Candice Han

In Yemen, Bloodshot met Mina Nez, a psiot acquired by Project Rising Spirit, and sold to Black Bar. As psiots who survive activation are difficult to find, she has also forgone any hope of a normal life, and goes by her new name Eidolon.

Cover C by Cryssy Cheung

Bloodshot #8 features a guest appearance by Aric of Dacia. Like Bloodshot, the 5th Century Visigoth was captured and used by others, and thrust into our modern world. In X-O Manowar #1 by writer Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum, Aric's desire to safeguard those caught in the conflicts of powerful factions and nations take him to the Ukraine. There, amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, Aric tries to quell the fighting, and make life safe for ordinary Ukrainians.

Cover D by Shawn Crystal

These are interesting times at Valiant, with converging stories and themes, and superpowered heroes fighting in ongoing conflicts for ordinary people like you and me. It's important to stay informed, lest you get caught up in the fighting, and events overtake you. To learn the latest about the forces shaping our interconnected and complicated world, pick up Bloodshot #8, in stores today.

Dragon Dave

P.S. The world-shaking events portrayed in Bloodshot #8 were overseen by the editorial team of Drew Baumgartner, Lysa Hawkins, and Robert Meyers, in consultation with X-O Manowar editor Heather Antos.