Bloodshot Salvation from Valiant Comics is the story of Ray Garrison and his quest to find peace. Created by Project Rising Spirit, Ray has nanites in his body that heal him and give him extra power. He’s been running from the past and has now settled down with his family, wife Magic and their new baby daughter Jessie. Being a family man was never really in the cards.
We haven’t reviewed comics in some time here at Techaeris even though we used to on our sister site MOARGeek when it was up and running. We’re starting off again with our Bloodshot Salvation #10 review and will be continuing with other comics on a weekly basis, so settle in if comics are your thing!
Bloodshot and Bloodhound have arrived in 4002. Valiant fans love 4002, if only for the hope that we may see Rai show up to maybe help Bloodshot out? No? Well, it was a worth a try. What we do get in this issue is Bloodshot being Bloodshot. In other words, he’s a man of action. He loves his sword and his guns, even if it is only some dinosaurs of the future he has to contend with.
In the last issue, Bloodshot made a deal with Baron Samedi to return Jessie to the present in return for doing a job for Samedi in the future. So Bloodshot has to find Samedi’s agent to get the Intel on who he’s got to kill. The agent, shows up in a way that no one is expecting, don’t worry, it works. We don’t really know who the agent is but the conversation between the agent and Bloodshot is well worth the read.
Jessie and Magic have to go on the run from Omen and Rampage. I really hope the character of Rampage has a pay off. So far, I haven’t been too impressed with him and he has been relatively inconsequential so hopefully, that will change. He was billed as being a major villain in the making after all.
We end up meeting a surprising character in the last panels too, which at this point, who knows who it really is? Or was? Or will be? So many questions that will hopefully be answered in the next issue!
The artwork in this book is, as always, beautiful. It looks painted and moody and really pulls you into each panel of each page. For the most part, Valiant is tops at hiring top-shelf art and color artists to interpret what is really the best comic book writing being done in the market today. The art and the writing are what really drew me into the Valiant fold and opened my eyes to so much more than the big two (Marvel and DC).
Bloodshot Salvation #10 was written by Jeff Lemire with the artwork done by Doug Braithwaite.
Wrap Up
This was a great book and a good story arc to jump in at, even though this run is coming to end. If you don’t know, Valiant does running books that have a main story arc, or a few main story arcs, per creative team. The books tend to run a year or two, then come to a conclusion so other characters in the Valiant lineup can also have interesting runs. It makes collecting arcs easier and is really just a better way of storytelling than what the big two do.
This series started off pretty good, but we had some lag time in the middle with the redneck cult family of Magic, and then we had a full-on villain origin story of Rampage that was unneeded, and then the worst issue of any comic book I’ve ever read, known as the dark issue, with no art and all dialogue from a blinded Bloodshot really had me double thinking my comiXology subscription. In the end though, it feels like we’re back to a good place with this issue. Bloodshot “feels” like he is back.
*We reviewed a purchased copy of Bloodshot Salvation #10 for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on June 17, 2018.
