Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #2

By Joe Harris, Trevor Hairsine and David Baron

After the stellar first issue, Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #2 picks up right where it left off: the confrontation of Bloodshot and Armor Hunter Lilt. This is a long time coming, especially considering we saw the beginnings of Bloodshot’s intervention back on the main Armor Hunters title, if memory serves.

Boy, that Bloodshot bastard can take a beating. This issue also gives hope to making Bloodshot lose most, if not all, of his face. It’s gruesome, sure, but man does he look badass with no face while he’s still kicking somebody’s ass. Joe Harris writes a really confident, badass Bloodshot and it really just reinforces how unstoppable this guy is. Nothing is too dangerous, no pain is too much in order to win or gain the advantage, and all the while he’s chirping at his opponent. Is there somebody at Valiant that we can harass enough to get Joe Harris on a solo series for Bloodshot?

Early on, maybe three or four pages in, there are a couple of close up panels that really drag the reader out of the fight. If one didn’t know any better, one might think that these two panels are of two different guys trying to be Bloodshot. It’s just a real “yikes” moment that takes a few moments to get past. Thankfully, artist Trevor Hairsine seems to settle down and things get back to the kind of quality we were spoiled with in the first issue. Colorist David Baron keeps up his level of quality, especially when it came to the aforementioned bloody face or bloody skull with skin bits of Bloodshot. Bravo, sir. Way to make that look gross as hell.

While the art slipped in a few places, Joe Harris made up for it with a wicked action-packed issue. It seems like Armor Hunters proper is so much further from this moment, almost making it feel way behind, but it was still great to finally see the showdown between Lilt and Bloodshot. One issue to go and no doubt Harris will impress, let’s just hope that Hairsine has a little more time on the art and we can get back to the quality of issue #1. Regardless of that, it’s another great entry into the fantastic Armor Hunters event.