Bloodshot #12 Review: Story

 

Cover B by Jimbo Salgado

If you only check in with this blog occasionally, you're probably wondering why I'm getting to Bloodshot #12 so late. If so, I'll let you page back to yesterday's post for the explanation. Right now, I'm ready to dig into Tim Seeley's story in this spectacular final issue.

 

Valiant readers may remember that X-O Manowar stepped into this series in Bloodshot #8. He warned Bloodshot at the time that he would not tolerate a nanite-infestation to endanger the world. Now that's happened in Washington D.C., the capital of the United States. After defeating the Knights of the Black Grove, Aric heads off to check out the situation.

As we all know, superheroes don't always get along. I love how X-O Manowar has left this threat hanging. Bloodshot knows that if Aric feels he has to put him down to ensure his nanites don't endanger others, the determined 5th Century Visigoth will not hesitate to do so. (Or at least try).

 

 

Somehow, Tim Seeley finds the humor in even the most extreme situation. While it didn't surprise me to see Wilfred Wigans cracking jokes, I love how Mr. Tull is trying to show off a sense of machismo here. It's as if he's determined never to be branded with the nickname "Dull Tull" anymore.

I wonder if Mr. Tull, Peter Stanchek's old nemesis, will turn up in the new Harbinger series coming this summer.

 

 

While Tim Seeley started this series reluctant to reveal Bloodshot's thoughts, I'm glad he's revealing them here. Even when he's being attacked by KT, Bloodshot is assessing Harmony, who is spurring KT into action. While forced to defend himself against an attack by his friend, it's clear to Bloodshot that he needs to go after the puppet master.

 

Oops! Did I call her Bloodshot's friend? After the way he's been used by his friends in the past, Bloodshot's not fond of that label. Even when he needs their help to take on Harmony, everyone's still only a coworker or colleague right now. 

This most definitely includes X-O Manowar, and suggests that Bloodshot probably won't participate with the Unity superteam anytime soon.

Of course, if Doctor Tomorrow faces another universe-ending crisis, that's another matter.

 

I apologize if you're tired of me reusing the same panels for my reviews, but these early introductory scenes really plant the clues for the action that will occur in the rest of the issue. Here these shadowy government types reveal how little Harmony (aka Rampage) means to them. This will blossom later into how Rampage remade himself, and prove instrumental in Bloodshot taking him down.

It also ties in with the underlying themes of the much maligned Bloodshot Rising Spirit series. If you loved that series, you're not alone. (Just severely outnumbered by fans who couldn't perceive its greatness!)

 

 

This issue seems so prescient. Bloodshot #12 addresses how the rich and powerful regard, treat, and drive the masses toward the actions that make them more rich and powerful while making the masses only think they are better off. Bloodshot, existing outside the system, serves as our mentor and guide here. As for Rampage/Harmony, he's only deluded himself into thinking he matters.

If only more people would read Tim Seeley's Bloodshot, and take the ideas behind the series to heart, we would live in a better world.

Tim Seeley has planted so many seeds in this series. I hope he returns to nurture and harvest them. He's enriched the Valiant universe with characters like General Grayle and Eidolon, as well as organizations like Black Bar and The Burned. He's made us aware of other dangers, such as the Knights of the Black Grove. I want to know more about them, as well as all the other organizations that X-O Manowar seems to be fighting when he's not busy with billionaire media moguls and power-crazed Ukrainian warlords.

 

In some ways, it's the everyday people that I'll miss the most from Tim Seeley's series. Most recent of those was Zealot, an ordinary Black Bar soldier who gets little more than a reference and a panel in Bloodshot #2. Bloodshot dramatically affected his life without meaning or intending to.

While we got to see some of that transformation in Bloodshot #11, it is Zealot who sees a different side of Bloodshot in this final issue. It was a wonderful human moment, one of many in an all-too-human superhero series.

Thanks for writing such a great Bloodshot series, Tim Seeley. Please come back and write more!

Dragon Dave

Bloodshot #12: Lettering

Cover B: Jimbo Salgado with Andrew Dalhouse

 

Letterer Dave Sharpe has a long history in comics. I've recently seen a corporate floor chart on Facebook, from back in the glorious 1990s (when Valiant Comics started), showing where everyone in the Marvel Bullpen sat and worked. Valiant Comics Senior Editor Lysa Hawkins was on that chart, as was Letterer Dave Sharpe. Now the duo are together again, combining all their experience on Valiant's premier title Bloodshot. 

 

I love when characters from separate series team up or clash with each other. It helps us feel like we're seeing more of the world all our heroes inhabit. Here letterer Dave Sharpe makes a subtle link with writer Dennis Hallum's X-O Manowar series by placing Shanhara's part of the conversation inside a red dialogue balloon. This hooks Bloodshot #12 in with recent changes to Shanhara reflected in Valiant's other flagship title. Nice touch, that.

 

Writer Tim Seeley always keeps the action and drama going in Bloodshot. One page takes place in the past, another in the present, then he'll switch to different setting. Dave Sharpe keeps us abreast of all these changes with his blocky white blood-splatter lettering. It's become a hallmark of this series I really appreciate, especially when Tim Seeley's rapidfire changes in time and place leave me feeling as if I've just stepped off a rollercoaster.

Hey, I like rollercoasters! (Sometimes my head doesn't anymore though. Ugh.)

 

 

Through the use of bold type, Dave Sharpe reminds us of issues central to the "One Last Shot" plot arc. It also helps us sense the pride Mr. Tull clearly feels in his grandiose pronouncement. Mr. Tull believes he has Bloodshot, and freedom in the good 'old USA, beat.

We'll see, Mr. Tull. We'll see.

 

Here's another interesting touch: a red monologue box to share Bloodshot's thoughts with us. Not only does this link Bloodshot with X-O Manowar, but it relates to the power that fuels Bloodshot. As mentioned in the Bloodshot movie, the nanites aren't just in his blood, they are his blood. With Shanhara adopting a red color scheme and red dialogue balloons, this nicely pairs the two heroes together with their separate sources of power.

I also love the way the sound effect slides right down this panel, following the visual effect of KT's blow. It makes me wonder if Dave Sharpe drew in the yellow arc of the KT's blow. The lettering certainly looks like it belongs. The nature of the sound effect, as well as that visual tracing of movement, is one factor that makes comics a distinct form of art and storytelling. That's something you'll never see in a movie, or on TV, for example. 

Well, unless it's a comic book-style movie or TV show. I guess we have a few of those nowadays.

In Bloodshot #12, Senior Editor Lysa Hawkins and Letterer Dave Sharpe combine their extensive comics history to bring us one last entry in writer Tim Seeley's Bloodshot series. Their experience shows.

Dragon Dave

Bloodshot #12: Two Exciting Covers

 

Cover A by Adelso Corona

I had wanted to talk about the early issues of this series earlier this week. I've got a review copy of Bloodshot Book 1 I'm reading through, and there's so many good things to talk about. But right now, I'm excited and saddened by the imminent end of this current Bloodshot series by Tim Seeley. As my mind seems more geared forward than back right now, I thought rather than wait for Valiant Entertainment to send me the review package, I'd see what covers were out there in Internetland that I could share with you.

If you remember my post on Bloodshot #11, you'll remember Adelso Corona painted a beautiful Cover A for Bloodshot #11. Now, this former inker on early issues of this series (contained in the trade paperback Bloodshot Book 1) gives us another Cover A for the final issue. I don't know if Bloodshot is standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff, or falling through a cloud of debris. But whatever's going on, he's tackling the situation head-on, like he usually does. 

Go Bloodshot!

Cover B by Jimbo Salgado

Jim Salgado has done covers for Marvel, DC, IDW, Zenoscope, Titan, and Boom! His previous covers for Valiant Entertainment include the series War Mother and Harbinger Wars 2, as well as a Savage #1 variant cover for Exchange Collectibles. Now he contributes his talents to this magnificent Cover B.

Searching links on Jimbo Salgado's Twitter account, I found a great Black and White version of this sketch. He's posted lots of his sketches on Instagram, and if you're a Twitter person, you can find them like I did through his links there. 

This is another great cover, with Bloodshot leaping out of a burning building. Has a bomb gone off? Was he trapped inside this building? Was it surrounded by enemy troops, and he opted to fight his way out? Did he in fact set off the explosion? Most importantly of all, is that red circle in the sky symbolic, or has there been a celestial event like an eclipse? This cover asks so many questions. 

I can't wait to read Bloodshot #12, and discover if Covers A and B tell their own stories, or tie into the events in the final issue of Tim Seeley's outstanding series.

I'll post the Pre-order cover by Jim Towe, and talk about that, when I receive the Bloodshot #12 review package from Valiant Entertainment.

Dragon Dave

Here's a link to Jimbo Salgado's uncolored sketch for Cover B