Bloodshot Reborn, Vol. 4: Bloodshot Island

Bloodshot Reborn

by Jeff Lemire (Writer), Mico Suayan (Artist), Tomás Giorello (Artist)

Welcome to Bloodshot Island!
Stranded on a mysterious desert island, Bloodshot is running for his life! But as he tries to make sense of his surroundings, he's quickly discovering that this is no ordinary tropical getaway... Surrounded by decommissioned relics of the same bloodstained project that created him - World War II Bloodshot, Cold War Bloodshot, Vietnam Bloodshot, and other antiquated experiments - Bloodshot is about to find out where Project Rising Spirit sends its old soldiers to die. Can this seasoned band of killers trust each other long enough to survive the threats that lie in the jungle around them...and unlock the secret at the heart of the island's existence before they're each permanently retired? And who or what is the sinister force called Deathmate that now hunts them at every turn?
Superstar creators Jeff Lemire (Extraordinary X-Men) and Mico Suayan (Bloodshot Reborn) send Bloodshot screaming into his most action-packed adventure yet as Bloodshot Island ups the ante for the Valiant Universe's most formidable soldier!

Collecting: Bloodshot Reborn 14-18, Annual 2016

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Mystery, Graphic Novels Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2017

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloodshot wakes up on a tropical island with no memory of how he got there – no, he wasn’t on a stag do! Before he can even contemplate bronzing up that alabaster-white skin and downing some tropical drinks with tiny umbrellas, he’s quickly on the run after being shot at by Deathmate, a flying Angel of Death! He’s also not alone – meet the Bloodshot Squad, made up of earlier Bloodshot prototypes who’re also being used as moving targets! But who is Deathmate and can Bloodshot and co. survive the island and escape?

Bloodshot Reborn is probably Valiant’s best title at the moment which unfortunately isn’t saying much. The first two books were quite decent and, surprisingly, the series is getting better with Bloodshot Island being the best volume so far!

Like previous books in the series, the storyline loosely takes its inspiration from a popular movie - the Colorado story arc was The Bourne Identity, The Analog Man was Mad Max: Fury Road, and Bloodshot Island is Edge of Tomorrow. The Bloodshots get hunted by Deathmate, they inevitably die, they’re resurrected overnight, and the hunt begins again the next day, ad infinitum.

But it’s fun to see Bloodshot rally the squad and fight the seemingly invincible Deathmate – everyone loves the underdogs! Their tactics are interesting and the action is exciting. Jeff Lemire also has a surprise up his sleeve for who Deathmate really is (even if it’s a confusing reveal if you’ve read The Valiant and totally meaningless if you haven’t). He also cleverly works in the history of the Bloodshot program, as well as the new characters’ backgrounds, into the action so there’s a nice balance between the two.

I’m glad Mico Suayan’s back to draw Bloodshot again – his solid-looking realistic art is fantastic, impressive and expressive. Deathmate’s design is a little uninspired though, being a cross between the T-1000 and The Authority’s Engineer.

Also included is the Bloodshot Reborn Annual which has a great opening story, The Silver Lake Slasher, and an amusing piss-take of Marvel and DC event comics. A crisis-type event features The Anti-Beyonditor (a cross between the Anti-Monitor from DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Beyonder from Marvel’s first Secret Wars) and Faith holds the body of a fallen superhero a la Superman and Supergirl. Look at the credits and there’s even a dig at Alan Moore: “Written by The Original Writer”, which is how Moore asked to be credited on the Miracleman reprints (pretentious tosspot).

The epilogue of Bloodshot Squad backstories was an unnecessary and uninteresting conclusion and some of the Annual was weak (the awful Ray Fawkes unfortunately contributes a story), but Bloodshot Island is mostly a chicken dinner. It also sets up the next arc, Bloodshot USA, which looks tantalising. Jeff Lemire is winning me over with his take on this character – if Bloodshot USA is anything like Bloodshot Island, I can’t wait!

[Jon Von · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cast of this book is like 80% Frankensteins

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every chapter of Lemire’s Bloodshot Reborn is a banger.

This one is no different. Most of it is this crazy arc involving a bunch of Bloodshots... and then the last issue is an annual with a bunch of cool 8 page stories that range from awesome to funny. Definitely a great read.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take away the elseworld and side stories at the end from the annual issue and the rest is really solid. This wasn't quite as much fun as The Analog Man volume, but it was still solid.

Apparently I need to read Bloodshot USA next because it comes before the new Bloodshot Salvation coming out this week.

Special note: The artist on Bloodshot Reborn #18 was someone named Mico Suayan and his was was AMAZEBALLS. It's my understanding he'll be part of the creative team for Salvation and that's fantastic news.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to see the back stories on most of the Bloodshots. This really makes them more human. Some of them are discouraged by their circumstances, but Ray gives them a purpose: to survive and take revenge.

Ray woke up in a facility in the last story. It's on an island surrounded by an impenetrable force field. He soon meets others who look just like him, living with the fear of being hunted by Deathmate. They have different generations of the Bloodshot technology even from WW2 when the project was created. Project Rising Spirit is using them as training dummies for Deathmate.

Ray comes face to face with Deathmate who turns out to be Kay. The hound helps Ray hide in a spot where his nanites can't be tracked. He finds the people who collect the dead Bloodshots and put them in regeneration tanks. He is determined to escape, but he wants to save Kay too. She isn't able to recharge after Ray destroyed her pod, so she is weakened, but Rising Spirit orders her to leave the island where the testing was done. The Bloodshots escape via boat while Rising Spirit moves on to phase two: infecting a large number of people with the Bloodshot virus.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the revelation at the ending of the last volume, Bloodshot finds himself on a remote island filled with..other bloodshots? It seems the government has been working on the Bloodshot project since the 40s (probably longer) and Bloodshot finds the past Bloodshots on the island, such as a Bloodshot from WWII, Viet Nam, a dog bloodshot, etc. There's also a surprising villain hunting the Bloodshots down Before things are over the Bloodshots find themselves in a life raft stranded at sea.

Art and story were very good, although a couple of stories in the annual were just silly. This remains a great series.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fresh off of the cliffhanger ending of volume 3, Bloodshot finds himself trapped on an island with every other Bloodshot ever created from across history. Each day they're hunted by an unstoppable killing machine named Deathmate - but Bloodshot doesn't do well with rules or being contained, so it's time for a breakout.

This one's really good. Think Predator, with unstoppable killing machines on both sides, and a dog. There's a real sense of urgency and agitation here, and each page drips with suspense when Deathmate is on the prowl. It's fun to see Bloodshot turn up and immediately screw with the bad guy's plans, although the cliffhanger ending for issue 2 was the biggest gut punch I've read for a while so maybe the joke's on me.

Like Volume 3, this one's building to something bigger as well, namely Bloodshot USA, but it's a hell of a ride to get there. The four issue Bloodshot Island story is a nailbiter, and then issue 18 features flashbacks to each of the Bloodshots (except Blood Hound, which I was disappointed by) so that we get a sense of who they are.

We get Mico Suayan back for Bloodshot Island, and his super-detailed pencils are what make this series great. The way he manages to go back to basics for the Bloodsquirt stuff sometimes in the same panel as his usual art is astoundingly good. Tomas Giorello does the flashback issue, and while his work isn't as polished as Suayan's, it's similar to Lewis LaRosa from volume 3.

The only thing letting this volume down is the annual shoved into the back here. Jeff Lemire's lead story is pretty great, and humanizes Bloodshot once again, but the rest are a bit of a mess. Ray Fawkes' story is completely incomprehensible because the art's just colours thrown at the page, while the Bloodsquirt story gets too meta too quickly, and the final story is just totally bonkers and not very much fun.

Yank the annual out, and this one's a real treat. Add the annual in, knock a star off.

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you took out the annual at the end of this collection, this would be a five star book. Lemire closes out the Reborn title (he has one more volume to go under the title Bloodshot U.S.A.) in style as we get some new looming questions, some closure to previous storylines, and a fun Kind Of Deserted Island scenario where we encounter several of the previous iterations of Bloodshot.

This volume could be read on its own (again, without the annual at the end), and it would be a perfectly accessible and enjoyable action hero book. It's not Great Literature but it's Great Fun and totally worth the read.

The annual starts well, placing the Bloodshot mythos in a slasher film scenario, but the short stories that follow it are hokey, or a bit too meta. Close the book at the end of the slasher story, and this is one of the best books in the Valiant Universe so far.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice rebound from the last, poorly-developed collection. This is as good as that was bad (except for a couple of goofy shorts from the Bloodshot Annual included at the back). Bloodshot teams up with a bunch of other nanite-enabled soldiers (his predecessors--one from WWII, one from Vietnam, etc.) on an island enclosed within a force field to battle against the seemingly-unstoppable Deathmate, another creation of Project Rising Spirit. Every day they fight, and lose, and the next day, they're ready to go again, until Ray comes up with a way to, maybe, fight back. Great artwork and a well-written story that is leading to even bigger things in the next story arc.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Bloodshot Reborn #14-18 and Annual #1 (March 2016-October 2016). Bloodshot finds himself on an island, trapped, and hunted. When he encounters a group of other “Bloodshots”, he discovers that he’s just the latest in a series of experiments by Project Rising Spirit to create the perfect soldier. Now, a creature called Deathmate is being tested by the Bloodshots…but Bloodshot is about to discover that Deathmate could be a piece of his past that he hopes he can save.

Written by Jeff Lemire, Bloodshot Reborn Volume 4: Bloodshot Island is a Valiant Comics superhero comic book collection. Following Bloodshot Reborn Volume 3: The Analog Man, the collection features art by Mico Suayan. The collection also features Bloodshot Reborn Annual #1 (March 2016) with stories written by Lemire, Ray Fawkes, and Michel Fiff with art by Kano, Joe Bennett, Belardino Brabo, Jay Fabares, and Benjamin Marra. Issues in this collection were also included in Bloodshot Reborn Deluxe Edition—Volume 2.

When Valiant relaunched, I was kind of surprised by Bloodshot. In the 1990s, he seemed like the completely generic Punisher-esque guy with a gun. I liked the initial volume with him in battle with his nanites and the weird symbiotic relationship to them…but I fell off. I heard great things about Bloodshot Reborn and always thought I’d catch up before I read it, but I never caught up and left Bloodshot Reborn sitting. While I’ve enjoyed Bloodshot Reborn, I found this collection even more memorable than other collections.

The story feels like a combination of Cabin in the Woods, Lost, and Battle Royale. Despite borrowing from these stories, it still feels original in its construction. Deathmate’s reveal as Kay (the former Geomancer) adds more levels to the story. Like Lost, I’m not quite sure why they would go to all this trouble to test Deathmate or what it has to do with Project Rising Storm’s plan to infect people with the Bloodshot nanites, but it is still enjoyable.

The annual included has its moments, but like many annuals, it wasn’t what I wanted. The Bloodshot Island storyline ends on a big cliffhanger and sets up the next storyline. The Bloodshot Reborn Annual is a throwback with a less inspired story. I like the core story which is set up as a Friday the 13th story, but I feel that it wasn’t explored as much as it could have been…and the Bloodsquirt Crisis on Infinite Earths parody story just left me a bit empty.

Bloodshot Reborn 4: Bloodshot Island “wraps up” the Bloodshot Reborn series and sets up the final battle. The series has been a fun ride and it sets up a great storyline. I recommend this series if you are getting into Valiant and it might make you want to check out some of the other titles. Bloodshot Reborn 4: Bloodshot Island was followed by Bloodshot U.S.A.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

An island populated by all the previous versions of Bloodshot are hunted and killed daily by a mysterious entity named Deathmate.

Again, Lemire manages to make not only our main Bloodshot an emotionally charged character, but all the other versions as well. Which is really interesting as before this, his characterization was pretty one dimensional. I think the way that writers got around this is by keeping his past a mystery and making the supporting cast the emotional fodder. However, Lemire does the opposite. Here we have Bloodshot aware of his past life, so that mystery is gone, and the only supporting characters (for the most part) are other Bloodshots. Even in an issue where they are simply on a raft telling origins or stories about themselves, there is an emotional context to it that was missing from previous writers, and Lemire, being a master at that internal struggle of a character that he is, manages to make them all sympathetic and more rounded out overall.

The mystery regarding Deathmate is really compelling as well, even if the name is terrible. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice to say that past events are coming back around for Bloodshot and dealing with those head one is really entertaining to read.

This volume comes with a annual that was a lot more lighthearted than the main storyline. I really enjoyed this too as it broke the fourth wall and was pretty damn funny at times. I mean how can you not like this interaction by Bloodshot and a kid:

"kid: How come your eyes are so red?

Bloodshot: allergies

kid: How come you don't wear a shirt?

Bloodshot: It chafes me. You done asking questions pipsqueak?"

A fun way to poke at the overall concept of the character... I think Lemire is a fantastic writer for this title and his art team is always top notch. If you are a fan of the character, this run is highly recommended.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this free from Valiant in their campaign to give away digital back issues while the coronasniffles were going on, and it was a very timely freebie. Not only because it was entertaining, but it reminded me of a time when Bloodshot comics were good – that he was once not the perfectly unbeatable, unthreatened, one-note rubbish of 2020. That job is taken up here by the baddie he first encounters when he awakens on a jungly tropical island with no idea of what's going on in his life, but we can live with that. The flaw in this package might be that the five-part arc leaves so much hanging, with no resolution in sight (a perfect freebie, then), but we also get a full annual as bonus, too, which again suffers none of the bullcrap of recent monthlies. And in fact, the piss-take of the Crisis of Infinite Squirt Crises bollux is worth the price of admission alone, even if our hero is nowhere present, and even if what follows is an awful 70-styled Marvel-does-head-comics crossover nonsense. All told it's a great package, and as for all my reviews the fact it was a freebie has no bearing on the star rating. A solid four stars here.

[Jimbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last volume of BLOODSHOT REBORN is a history lesson for Project Rising Spirit and the Bloodshot program. Thirty years had not gone by, Ray was under heavy medication and these were implanted false memories, just like when he first became Bloodshot. He wakes to find himself on what is know as Bloodshot Island with relics of the Bloodshot Program. Long before there were nanites, there were other Bloodshoots. All of them reprogrammed with nanites and used as daily test dummies for a new weapon, Deathmate. Each night after being killed in many horrible ways by Deathmate, they are put into their pods so that the nanites and rebuild them.

These are great characters and you get to know most of there backgrounds: World War II Bloodshot, Cold War, VIetnam, and Bloodhound, a dog. They help Bloodshot escape the Island and are heading to find Project Rising Spirit and save Magic.

The book also has extra stories about Bloodshot from the Annual Bloodshot #1. A mixed bag, with one story that is outstanding--another Bloodshot program that failed.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloodshot Island. Lemire's Bloodshot has been on an ever-improving arc, and this may be its height. More Bloodshots! Bloodhound! Deathmate! It's an amazing mishmash of characters supported by a great action plot and some nice mystery. The "Castaways" issue that ends things isn't quite as good, but it's nice to learn who some of these Bloodshots really are. [5/5]

2016 Annual. The shallow stories in Valiant's annuals are rarely more than mediocre. This one has a pretty good story by Lemire about "Jacob" and is otherwise what you'd expect [5/10].

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloodshot: Reborn is my favorite ongoing comic book, the story of someone designed to be nothing but a gun struggling towards humanity and redemption amidst awesome gunfights. This is the prelude to the first season's climax, and it not only expands Valiant's lore in interesting ways, it does so while reclaiming one of the most infamous comic concepts of the 1990s. In other words? Bloodshot Reborn is seriously good stuff.

[Lukas Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty fun little TPB. I'm glad we got the story of the island and where all of these 'bloodshots' came together and I actually found their CUBE-like storyline engaging. The final part, the annual, was surprisingly emotional at points. Great stuff.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The action ratchets up in Lemire's ongoing story! Read and reviewed here as part of the Bloodshot Reborn Deluxe Edition 2

[jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this comic is done very well. I like the plot line. I love the ridiculousness added with the bloodsquirt, and the other characters. The art is fun. Well done.

[Jamie Connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Although the annual issue at the end was fun but kind of a waste. The main story was fantastic though.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloodshot Reborn

Vol. 4 of Bloodshot is great. We get to see other Bloodshot on Bloodshot Island. Tank, Cool Man ,Vietman, Quietman and the hound. Can't wait to read the next book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way better than it should have been.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bloodshot Island story is solid...and Ray is a leader!

But the Castaways and Annual are not as strong.

[Thomas Maluck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fifth star fetched by Bloodhound.