Written by Tim Seeley
Illustrated by Franchesco GastonExtreme’s zombie-black op-superheroes return! Cabbot Stone is the last unliving Bloodstrike agent, an unstoppable weapon in America’s war on terror! But being dead is a hell of way to make a living, and Cabbot is losing his faith. Will his latest mission be his last? Bloody horror-action with heart by Hack/Slash writer Tim Seeley and Artist Franchesco Gaston!
So far the books of the Extreme Studios relaunch have been met with almost universal critical acclaim. Will the writer of the cult hit “Hack/Slash” be able to achieve the same success?
Follow the cut and see.
Like “Prophet” and “Glory,” “Bloodstrike” is part of the recent Extreme Studios relaunch. Unlike “Prophet” – and, to a lesser extent, “Glory” – though, Tim Seeley has not taken the book too far from its roots. Bloodstrike may now only be Cabbot Stone, and it may be set a few years after we last saw him, but the core concept is still there: Stone is an un-killable assassin in the employ of the United States government, and who still has a mask that could be mistaken for half of the characters from 1990’s Image Comics.
As such, Seeley is at a bit of a disadvantage: the radical departure from the source material that Brandon Graham took with “Prophet” meant that Graham did not have to be too concerned with laying out what happened in the preceding material – in short, you don’t need to have read pre-relaunch “Prophet” at all. Seeley doesn’t have such a convenience, but it doesn’t matter; Seeley does one of the better jobs I have seen of making a good “jumping on issue” while still fully informing the reader. Normally, the best jumping on issues are those where exposition and the like are thrown out the window – the writer understands that knowing who is who can be saved for later, to a point, and that too much expository dialogue can painfully bog down what is supposed to be the more exciting part of the story. Seeley manages to have his cake and eat it, too; the issue has plenty of action, but he also is able to use a psychologist character as a way to lay out the entire Bloodstrike history through dialogue without making it seem like one massive information dump (the only cringe-worthy moment is the cliche “What does that make you feel?”). It’s an effective device, and makes sure that those who were made curious by the success of “Prophet” and “Glory” aren’t instantly scared off.
That being said, perhaps “Bloodstrike” would be better if it strayed a bit more from its source. As is, it is shaping up to be only slightly different than so many government-run superhero stories we hear, and it doesn’t really have anything that helps it stand out. Seeley tries to give the reader a scene meant to establish Cabbot as an emotionally complex character, and while it works in some respects, the response of another character to Cabbot’s words is too extreme to take seriously, and tarnishes that one moment of emotional complexity. The “twist” that follows is relatively interesting, but only somewhat. It may be juvenile to say this, but the best instances in this issue are those that are purposefully over the top, such as “It’s three mummies! With goddamn laser guns!” or the delightful “INITIATE CRY SIMULATION!” If Seeley brings this ridiculous factor more to the forefront while keeping Cabbot just as grim and serious, he’ll have a unique hit on his hands – normally, you find things the either the other way around, or just full-blast ridiculous.
Franchesco Gaston’s art has the same problem. It is far from bad – in fact, he does a great job at evoking the feel of the old Image house style without making his lines as scratchy and busy – but at the same time it only has a few moments of greatness. The action scenes are very dynamic and unique, with the first splash page and the appearance of the Hive Lord sticking out in particular, but any page where characters talk to each other for a prolonged period of time looks terribly dull. The problem is not necessarily a matter of expression – the faces of everyone except the psychologist do a good job of portraying emotion – but one of color. The bold, solid colors in this book work great for the action scenes, but seem to suck the life out of any scene that already lacks in motion. If Seeley moves from here to the more delightfully over-the-top material mentioned earlier, though, expect Gaston’s art to excel.
“Bloodstrike” had the unfortunate situation of following up the critically acclaimed “Prophet” and “Glory,” but just because it is not quite as good as those two does not mean it is not worth checking out. This first (well, twenty-sixth) issue may not have been great, but there seem to be some elements that could explode into an incredibly entertaining read. You might not want to pick it up at the moment, but keep your ears open when the next few issues roll around.
Final Verdict: 6.4 – Give it a try, at least.
