After much anticipation, Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #1 is finally out and let me tell you it does disappoint!
The story
Joe Harris does a fantastic job with Bloodshot in this issue. He does not come off as just another crazed mercenary, but actually shows a great deal of depth and intelligence which I appreciated. His powers are put to some great uses in this issue as well. The scene where Bloodshot accesses M.E.R.O.’s main computer systems to improve their security against the Armor Hunter hounds is not only humorous, but a great indicator of Bloodshot’s character. It’s almost as if we should believe that he is there purely of his own accord, and makes me wonder if he may have some ulterior motives for helping Livewire and the Unity team.
The dialogue is great, and I loved seeing more of Malgam, who is featured quite prominently in this issue. If we get to see Malgam and Bloodshot team up throughout this series, I’m sure there will be many happy Valiant fans.
There is plenty here to satisfy Bloodshot fans, without overwhelming new readers with any back story. In fact, there may be too little back story. My one complaint with this issue is that unlike the rest of the tie-in books which are fairly self contained, Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #1 assumes that you’ve been reading the rest of the event to understand what’s going on. This may only be an issue of timing though, since we’ve already had several other books telling us the story of the Armor Hunter invasion.
The art
Trevor Hairsine does a great job on pencils. His line work is a little more erratic than some of the other Valiant artists, but it doesn’t take away from the book in any way. In fact, Hairsine truly shines in the action panels, and his pencils almost make those scenes come alive. His depiction of Bloodshot is more stylized than I’m used to but I had no qualms with it. His character design for Malgam is truly incredible though and makes the character appear strong and much more powerful.
David Baron on colors really compliments Hairsine’s art well. This book has much more muted colors than most of the other series, but is perfect. The use of yellows through the flashback scenes really works well in setting that story apart from the rest of the story and I always appreciate being able to differentiate the two.
Overall
This first issue sets the pace for what is sure to be another excellent miniseries from Valiant. I’ve been slightly disappointed by how little we’ve seen of Bloodshot (and Livewire, but that’s for another day) during the Armor Hunters tie-in books, so it was great seeing him action. Joe Harris, Trevor Hairsine, and David Baron do a terrific job here and I cannot wait to read the rest of the mini and jump back into a Bloodshot ongoing.
Armor Hunters has been an excellent event so far, and this latest chapter is one you don’t want to miss.
Rating [author-post-rating]
Nice review Martin, but I have to disagree with you on a few things.
Firstly, that Livewire info dump on Bloodshot. It was geared to new readers only and just felt like yet another recap of what Bloodshot is and what he can do.
Surely Capshaw would know all of that anyway. The problem wasnt that Livewire was giving out this info it was how lazy Harris made her do it. Basically just a bullet point list of ‘What is Bloodshot’.
I thought the flashback scenes were a bit all over the place. To be honest I would have enjoyed this book had they not been there. They werent explained all that well and I dont see the connection between then and now. Its not as though the situations were even that similar.
Yes, the change in colour by Baron was nice, he always does a great job on colours but overall, for me, the art lowered the overall standard set by the previous Armor Hunter books and tie ins. I would have preferred more clean lines and more definition.
Capshaw, one of the winners so far from this event. I love how strong she is. All business and take no crap kind of person but she does have a ‘human’ side too, the ice queen screen breaks a little in this book, but then its straight back to business.
Im enjoying Malgam alot. Still so much to learn about him and the armor at this point, even though he can be a bit ‘doom and gloom’ im still interested in knowing how he came to have the armor and his current relationship with Reebo.
As for Bloodshot, I actually think Harris does a good job with the character. Everything Bloodshot says and does is what you expect from him and there are some nice fight scenes too. The issues does a good job of showcasing most of Bloodshots abilities, from his strength, to healing to his use of Nanites to infiltrate computer systems. Showing all of this is a better way of conveying what he can do rather than have that early Livewire info dump,
Continuity wise, I thought it was good but didnt Lilt go down with the initial landing party during Armor Hunters 2? Here he seems to hold back then go down later. Apart from that the book tied in well to Armor Hunters 2. The last page was used well to get readers to tune in next time. The overall series so far has been impressive. This book felt too confined for me though, a whole book needing to deal with one location over a very short period of time. Hopefully book 2 will see a bit more going on and more story progress.
3/5