Bloodshot Reborn

It seems that Bloodshot Reborn has one last gasp: A #0 issue by Jeff Lemire and Renato Guedes that will bridge USA with Salvation, and contains a reveal so shocking that one of the "cover" images Valiant sent us was literally just a red rectangle with the words "Top Secret! Major Spoilers!" written on it. Seriously.

So here's the thing about being a genetically engineered super-soldier with nanite-infused blood that can heal you from even the most devastating injuries. The same thing that makes you great at getting your job done at all costs, surviving mission after mission to fight again? It also makes you great for training an even better super-soldier, because they can just keep on hunting you as you adapt and learn to become an even tougher opponent. It is, by all reasoning, the perfect way to make a killing machine. And that, unfortunately, is what Bloodshot's about to find out firsthand when Valiant releases Jeff Lemire, Mico Suayan and David Baron's Bloodshot Reborn #14, which kicks off "Bloodshot Island," a story that introduces us to Deathmate and shows us just how she got so good at killing. Check out a preview, but be warned: There's a Bloodshot Dog in this (which is great), but there's some bad stuff that's happening to him.

Recently, Valiant Entertainment put out a teaser image proclaiming "DEATHMATE IS COMING," leaving everyone to speculate what Deathmate means and what it might have to do with the 1993 Valiant/Image crossover of the same name. It looks now like the new Deathmate has nothing to do with that crossover, because she's not an event, she's a character. I suppose it's possible she's the daughter of Doctor Solar and Void, who loved up on each other in that story, but given who currently owns what, that seems highly unlikely. In fact, Deathmate seems far less human than even those far-out characters. She appears to be a some sort of incredibly cybernetic (or just robotic) killing machine. She'll make her debut as an antagonist in the upcoming Bloodshot Reborn story "Bloodshot Island," which begins in issue #14, written by Jeff Lemire with art by Mico Suayan. The book goes on sale in June.

Bloodshot is a man who has problems. A lot of problems. In the past, those problems have involved the usual thing where his body is constantly being subjected to ridiculously over-the-top trauma and the nanites in his blood that rebuild him every time, and the fact that he occasionally hallucinates a cartoon child version of himself called Bloodsquirt. But in the upcoming Bloodshot Reborn Annual, there's a far more literal and pressing concern: A gigantic, indestructible slasher named "Jacob," who has been terrorizing a camp and needs to be taken down before he machetes any more unsuspecting teens. And yes: that's Jacob, and not... any other name you might be thinking of. Wink wink.

In his decade-plus as a comics writer and artist, Jeff Lemire has worn a lot of different hats: Indie darling, trailblazing Vertigo comics creator, DC Comics' go-to superhero writer. Now, he's found something like a middle road. He's got a superhero book with an indie flair (Hawkeye), a creator-owned book with big sci-fi ambitions (Descender) and a new Valiant Comics series unlike anything he's ever done before: Bloodshot: Reborn, which is such a vastly new take on the character that plot details are hard to come by. We talked with Lemire about his somewhat daring take on Valiant's most violent character, and also posed some questions about his varied career.

Those of you who have been keeping up with Valiant may have wondered just what's in store for Bloodshot (the character who has the best, most '90s comics name of all time) in the future. He's currently teaming up with the rest of the universe (including Ninjak) in the pages of The Valiant, but that's only a four-issue miniseries, so what comes next? Well, if the art for the new Bloodshot: Reborn ongoing series is any indication, we know exactly what he's going to be doing for the forseeable future. Crunches. Lots and lots of crunches.