Bloodshot Unleashed #2 Review: Frankenstein Squared

 

Bloodshot Unleashed #2 Cover By by Nicole Rifkin

Taking place after the death of his wife and daughter, Valiant's Bloodshot Unleashed series finds our hero battling depression. Like Aric of Dacia on the Planet Gorin (in writer Matt Kindt's 2017 X-O Manowar series), Bloodshot finds a compelling cause, and dedicates himself to it. Again, like X-O Manowar, Bloodshot blames others for his new direction in life. Nevertheless, it is his pursuit of a worthy mission that helps him move on, and leave the past behind.

 

 

Bloodshot's mission--chasing down insane supersoldiers who escaped from a military prison--takes an unexpected turn in Bloodshot Unleashed #2. As in the 1990 movie Robocop 2, scientists and businessmen have removed the brain from a man and housed it in a powerful metal body. Now this RoboSoldier, malfunctioning and leaking radiation, has returned to the only home it remembers, a small town's abandoned automobile factory.

 

 

The bleak nature of the storytelling, bled of any vibrant coloring aside from red, casts a pall on the irradiated landscape. Everything seems dead or dying. Only Bloodshot--also dead in a strict sense of the word--can venture into this danger zone to battle his malfunctioning foe. Both combatants are experiments, reminiscent of the monster created by Victor Von Frankenstein. Bloodshot is the intelligent, reasoning creature of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. The RoboSoldier, once a skilled jet pilot, better resembles the monster that growls and lumbers from one act of violence to another in the story's more popular big screen adaptations. 

 

 

In writer Tim Seeley's 2019 Bloodshot series, General Grayle proclaimed Bloodshot a god. In Bloodshot Unleashed #2, our hero seems more godlike than ever before. As in the 2020 movie starring Vin Diesel, Bloodshot seems unconcerned about injury. He knows his nanites can harvest any form of nearby protein--whether they be the carcasses of dogs or people--to repair the worst injuries. Thankfully, Bloodshot is a benevolent god, who does not often feast upon living, virtuous people, and regularly seeks to save humanity from its worst mistakes. 

 

 

Bloodshot Unleashed #2 conjures reminders of classic tales of characters like Frankenstein, Robocop, and even Pinocchio. The story highlights the flawed nature of humanity, such as failing to build adequate safeguards into our most dangerous creations, and our preference for beliefs over facts. Ultimately, the issue reminds us of the Biblical promise that those who live by the sword--and profit from its use--will die by the sword. That's a timely reminder, in this era of pandemic and war.

Dragon Dave

BLOODSHOT UNLEASHED #2 is written by DENIZ CAMP, features art by JON DAVIS-HUNT, colors by JORDIE BELLAIRE, letters by HASSAN OTSMANE-ELHAOU, and covers by JON DAVIS-HUNT (Cover A), NICOLE RIFKIN (Cover B), ALEX GARNER (Cover C), TRAVIS ESCARFULLERY (Cover D) and DEXTER SOY (PreOrder Cover).