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Back Issues: Diesel brings Bloodshot to life

Valiant comics character keeps coming back

Eiza Gonzalez, left, and Vin Diesel in a scene from "Bloodshot." (AP Photo)

Known to comic book enthusiasts as the voice of Groot and movie-goers in general as the star of a small, indie drama series “The Fast and The Furious,” Vin Diesel looks to launch another franchise this week as Valiant Comics’ Bloodshot.

Introduced in 1992 to a shared universe of original and legacy comic characters, Bloodshot was originally Angelo Mortalli, a mafia hitman who ran afoul of the family and became an unwilling test subject for Project Rising Spirit. This shadowy government organization wiped Mortalli’s memory and infused his blood with microscopic nanites that gave him enhanced strength, senses and reflexes, the ability to communicate with machines and heal from almost any injury.

Many others had been subjected to the same process, but it didn’t work as well for them. Mortalli survived and thrived because he was what is known in the Valiant universe as a Harbinger, or Psiot, a human sub-species with psychically derived powers.

Debuting in the fourth issue of “Eternal Warrior,” Bloodshot initially was a blank slate, save for his knowledge of weapons and warfare. In the first issue of his self-titled series, released a few months later, he brutally dispatches a band of Irish terrorists, less out of heroic motivation than their connection to someone believed to have information about his past.

After finding out about his past life and with a recommendation from the aforementioned Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot got a job with British intelligence tracking down terrorists.

Bloodshot would be connected to and interact with a number of Valiant heroes throughout the original series 51-issue run (well, 52 if you count #0, a trendy marketing gimmick in the ’90s). Among them was Rai, the future guardian of Japan whose mantle was passed down through generations. The original story said Grandmother, the sentient artificial intelligence that controlled Japan, based Rai’s appearance on Bloodshot in an effort inspire others with the memory of his heroism. Later, Bloodshot’s nanite-infused blood was passed along to the 43rd Rai.

Those connections could come into play in the movie, at least as Easter eggs, with “Bloodshot” intended to be the start of a shared cinematic universe.

In 1996, Valiant was bought by Acclaim Entertainment, who rebooted the comics and parlayed many of the characters into video games (the most successful being “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter”).

A new “Bloodshot” series ran for 16 issues and featured Raymond Garrison, an agent of the U.S. government’s covert Domestic Operations Authority who attempted to infiltrate the Cianelli crime family in the undercover guise of Angelo Mortalli. When he was killed, the D.O.A. utilized nanotechnology to revive him as Bloodshot, but he believed he actually was Mortalli.

A new company, Valiant Entertainment, eventually acquired the rights to the Valiant characters and brought Bloodshot back in 2012.

It was a fresh start that played on his history, with his memories as Ray Garrison, Angelo Mortalli and others revealed to be constructs designed to manipulate and motivate him on missions. New characters and versions of characters from previous iterations figure in as Bloodshot tries to find his place in a conflict between Project Rising Spirit and the Harbinger Foundation, led by the powerful psiot Toyo Harada.

Finally freeing himself of both their influences, Bloodshot tried to take himself off the grid, but wound up working alongside superhero team Unity to fend off an alien invasion. Following a battle against a malevolent force called the Immortal Enemy, Bloodshot was purged of the nanites that granted him his powers.

Such depowerings don’t tend to last any longer in comics than deaths. In “Bloodshot Reborn,” which launched in 2015, the man now living as Ray Garrison was drawn back into action, regaining the nanites in an effort to stop a group of killers who looked just like him.

Especially with a movie out, kids may be curious about Bloodshot, but everything I’ve read with him is very violent and not appropriate for younger readers.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

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Recommended Reading

* “Bloodshot: Blood of the Machine” — Collects the first eight issues of the early ’90s series and adds a never-before-seen story by the original writer and artist, Kevin VanHook and Don Perlin.

* “Bloodshot Definitive Edition” — Bloodshot is rebooted for the 21st century in this hefty collection of the first 14 issues of the 2012 series.

* “Bloodshot Reborn Vol. 1: Colorado” — Rid of the nanites that granted him his powers, Bloodshot is trying to live life as Ray Garrison when a group of killers who look just like him draws him back into battle.

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