Bloodshot Reborn #10 Cover Reviews 

Some Very Familiar Elements Make Their Way Into “Bloodshot Reborn #10” [Review]

By | January 28th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

After the harrowing events of “The Hunt”, Jeff Lemire decides to switch gears and show a story of our shooty bang bang protagonist thirty years in the future. So begins “The Analog Man”.

Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Lewis Larosa

ALL-NEW ARC! ALL-NEW JUMPING-ON POINT! WHO OR WHAT IS…”THE ANALOG MAN”?

Many years from now, Los Angeles has become a post-apocalyptic wasteland and the once unstoppable killing machine known as BLOODSHOT has become THE ANALOG MAN. Hopelessly outdated, Bloodshot’s taken on a new role as the protector of a small town, eking out a subsistence existence with the great love of his life – Magic – and protecting a group of stragglers who’ve weathered the storm. But when a gang of marauders arrives, the settlement’s survival is threatened, and Bloodshot is forced to bring justice to the distorted and disjointed badlands of the Valiant Universe!

Blockbuster artist Lewis LaRosa joins New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire for a gasoline-soaked storyline two years in the making right here for “THE ANALOG MAN”!

I find it incredibly hilarious that Valiant decided to release this issue on the same week it released “Faith #1”. You can’t deny they want to cater to multiple audiences. That one is a sweet, fun and adventurous tale about a young superheroine trying to find her way in the world. So what’s this one about? Well, “The Analog Man” takes place a long distance in the future where a grizzled old former superhuman is trying to live a family life in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world when an old comrade helps him receive a call to ac-Hey, get out of my way, “Old Man Logan”! I’m trying to review “Bloodshot Reborn” here!

Oh.

Well this is a bit of an awkward situation, isn’t it? There are a lot of parallels between the beginning of this story and the Wolverine story. Bloodshot instead of Logan. The Shadowmen instead of the Hulk Gang. Old Man Ninjak instead of Old Man Hawkeye. And yes, in some places, the issue does feel derivative (not helping is that this issue was also released the same day as Marvel’s “Old Man Logan” ongoing…also written by Lemire). So, I guess it will only be fair to talk about differences. One of the aspects that “Bloodshot Reborn” has all its own is seen right in the arc’s title: “Analog”. The theme of technology marching on and that the nanobots that give Bloodshot all his useful and incredible abilities in 2016 are obsolete and rundown by 2046 is very prevalent. That’s because the world (or at least the world that isn’t a dry cracked ruin) runs on “Goo-Tech”, self-replicating nanobots all controlled by a Master A.I. belonging to G.A.T.E. (because you only knew it was a matter of time before those guys went full-on dystopian despotic) and, of course, are the descendents of Bloodshot’s own tech. Lemire also uses their introduction to do some world and history building, such as the unmanned X-O Drones powered by Goo-tech, the attempts to utilize the stuff to grow food only created famine, and the walls that surround Los Angeles being made out of the stuff. And for as gone to hell as this world is, Lemire doesn’t skimp on showing to warmth. For living out in a village that is so desperate for water, Bloodshot and Magic were able to carve a small and happy existence together.

While it was good to see a load of world building in this issue, it does come at a price. Specifically, there is a looooooooooot of inner-monologue in this issue from our dear crimson eyed soldier. On some pages, it’s tolerable, but then you have pages where we see the X-O drones and the backstory on the Goo-Tech and it feels like there’s more text boxes on the page than actual art. And I know someone is going to come at me for actually complaining about there being too much information in a 20-page comic, but it does screw with the flow of the story. You have this wonderful two-page spread of the desolate wastes, which is immediately followed by a wall of exposition.

Now let’s talk about the awesome art.

Continued below

I have no doubt that my colleague Alice is hooting and hollering at Lewis Larosa doing interiors and rightly so. The man brings the grit and roughness of this world. There is such a heavy attention to detail, which is not the same thing as over-detailed like some artists fall into. Larosa makes this world look weary and broken, but beautifully broken, from the cold sleekness of guns to the rust on a multi-decade old tanker truck. And when Bloodshot encounters the Shadowmen, Larosa goes balls-to-the-wall with action. Every gunshot, every smashing of cars, every bit of gritted teeth in pain or fury feels kinetic and it does make one feel it would make for an awesome as hell action movie. I also have to give praise to Larosa’s designs of such groups as the X-O Drones and the Shadowmen. They truly do bring out the vibe of what future generations would do to emulate the past, such as the clear perversion of Aric’s image in the Drones or the clear cult-worship of Jack Boniface in the Shadowmen.

Brian Reber on coloring does make an interesting choice with his palette. Perhaps it’s because I am so used to seeing him on books like “Ivar, Timewalker” which are way happier than this book, but he does bring a muddled (in a good way), almost painting-like quality to the book that really sells how bleak the world has become. When we reach the action and violence and explosions, so to does the color explode. The vibrant yellows from explosions and red gore bring a catharsis to the scenery fitting to the brutality.

Final Verdict: 7.5- Despite the surface detail familiarity, Lemire, Larosa and Reber have started a fun and brutal story.


Ken Godberson III

When he's not at his day job, Ken Godberson III is a guy that will not apologize for being born Post-Crisis. More of his word stuffs can be found on Twitter or Tumblr. Warning: He'll talk your ear off about why Impulse is the greatest superhero ever.

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