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Valiant Masters
Valiant Masters: Bloodshot, Volume 1: Blood of the Machine
"Blood of the Machine" - the first in an all-new library of Valiant classic! Collected for the first time anywhere, the best-selling title of the 90s is back! Re-presenting the first arc of his original adventures in the VH1 Valiant Universe, Bloodshot comes armed to the teeth with bullets, nanites - and questions! With all of New York as his battlefield, Bloodshot wages a one-man war for the secrets to his past. But with the whole of New York's mafia underground hot on his trail, he'll soon realize that some questions are better left unanswered! With appearances from Ninjak, Eternal Warrior, Rai, and more, no fan can miss this essential piece of Valiant history!
Collecting: Bloodshot 1-8, and featuring an all-new, never-before-seen story by the original creative team of Kevin VanHook and Don Perlin!
Collecting: Bloodshot 1-8, and featuring an all-new, never-before-seen story by the original creative team of Kevin VanHook and Don Perlin!
200 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 25, 2016
Today we have the return of "Small Press Comics that You Probably Didn't Know Existed Day!" Ok, it's Valiant, so I may be stretching a bit. I know Valiant because they their initial runs in the early 90s were a big deal. And I was newly a teenager who read Wizard, which talked about them all the time, so I read them all. I'm actually not sure how large Valiant actually is, or ever was. Just that they were everywhere for a short time.
This is the original run of Bloodshot, one of the Valiant comic lines started in '93. Surprisingly, this Valiant Masters edition appears to be the only collection of the series, and this only captures the first 8 issues out of the 51 issue run. Seems that you have to find single issues if you want anything more of this original series. So practically, it might not even be worth it to pick this up unless you just have Valiant nostalgia like I do.
Let's briefly talk about this comic that you probably won't read. :p
Bloodshot is a combination of Punisher and Wolverine. He has a healing factor and heightened senses like Wolvie, and carries around a lot of guns a la Punfisher.
His other powers include nanites in his blood that allow him to control electronics in come cases. He can read computers by touching them, affect electronics in guns somehow, and if you have nanites, he might can control them. Somehow. Don't worry about it too much.
That's what he can do, but who is he? Bloodshot was a mobster and overall bad man, who was betrayed and delivered to some guys doing experiments on humans. That experiment gave him his powers, turned his skin white and his eyes red, and gave him amnesia, because plot! I told you he had some Wolverine in him.
The plot is a little random. After the origin story, Bloodshot tries to figure out who he is and seeks some revenge for what was done to him. But there is also a contract job involving stopping some people who are attacking couriers. It works pretty well, but I'm not always sure what the series is going for.
Along the way, we meet various other members of the Valiant community, including the Eternal Warrior, the current Geomancer, and the first appearance of Ninjak, who then got his own series.
We even get some flashes into the far far future with Rai, who has interesting ties to Bloodshot. I wouldn't say any of this is great, amazing, you must read comics. Especially since you can't get more than the first 8 issues without resorting to single issues printed twenty years ago. But they're action packed and fun. And a great reminder of what comics were in the early 90s.
This is the original run of Bloodshot, one of the Valiant comic lines started in '93. Surprisingly, this Valiant Masters edition appears to be the only collection of the series, and this only captures the first 8 issues out of the 51 issue run. Seems that you have to find single issues if you want anything more of this original series. So practically, it might not even be worth it to pick this up unless you just have Valiant nostalgia like I do.
Let's briefly talk about this comic that you probably won't read. :p
Bloodshot is a combination of Punisher and Wolverine. He has a healing factor and heightened senses like Wolvie, and carries around a lot of guns a la Punfisher.
His other powers include nanites in his blood that allow him to control electronics in come cases. He can read computers by touching them, affect electronics in guns somehow, and if you have nanites, he might can control them. Somehow. Don't worry about it too much.
That's what he can do, but who is he? Bloodshot was a mobster and overall bad man, who was betrayed and delivered to some guys doing experiments on humans. That experiment gave him his powers, turned his skin white and his eyes red, and gave him amnesia, because plot! I told you he had some Wolverine in him.
The plot is a little random. After the origin story, Bloodshot tries to figure out who he is and seeks some revenge for what was done to him. But there is also a contract job involving stopping some people who are attacking couriers. It works pretty well, but I'm not always sure what the series is going for.
Along the way, we meet various other members of the Valiant community, including the Eternal Warrior, the current Geomancer, and the first appearance of Ninjak, who then got his own series.
We even get some flashes into the far far future with Rai, who has interesting ties to Bloodshot. I wouldn't say any of this is great, amazing, you must read comics. Especially since you can't get more than the first 8 issues without resorting to single issues printed twenty years ago. But they're action packed and fun. And a great reminder of what comics were in the early 90s.
December 30, 2017
A blast from the past in the form of Bloodshot, a 90's killing machine with nanites in his blood and pouches on his clothes. This is a tale told in the Rambo/Chuck Norris action movie vein with some freaky sci-fi tech and James Bond notes thrown in as well. Overall Don Perlin's art is clean and the storytelling is crisp. Kevin VanHook writes a nice story although some of the subplots related to other Valiant books of the time seemed pretty jarring out of context. Bloodshot is a type of character that doesn't resonate with me so even though this book is well done I didn't enjoy it as much as I did say X-O Manowar or (my favourite) Archer & Armstrong.
June 18, 2015
Bloodshot is such a '90s concept, that I hadn't expected this volume to be particularly good, but I was surprised. It's got strong writing under VanHook and an interesting character. At times, the comic is a bit all over the place, never seeming to settle on Bloodshot's place in the world. Despite that, it goes interesting places. The mob story is nice backstory, while the interactions with Gilad, Ninjak, and harbingers all nicely tie it in to the Valiant universe. It's also great to see hints at the through-line that runs to the future of Rai.
August 20, 2013
Great action comic. I was there in the early to mid-90's when Jim Shooter helped to start up Valiant Comics. Bloodshot soon became one of my favorite characters. Just begging to made in a blockbuster sci-fi action thriller! Now prose short stories featuring several Valiant characters are available as part of their Kindle World series. Bloodshot is featured in Bloodshot: Better Angels. But there are short stories based on: Harbinger, Shadowman, and X-O Manowar.
July 6, 2025
The thing about this series is that it started after “Unity,” a chain-wide crossover that placed many Valiant characters on a sort of battleworld where all of time had collapsed onto itself, so you had knights fighting robots while riding on dinosaurs. It was cool, but it was also really wild. When the event ended, Aric of Dacia was in the past, The Harbinger and Renegades continued their fight, and some technological revelations — specifically the creation of the Rai — was accelerated by a couple thousand years. Bloodshot, née Angelo Mortalli, was a former mafioso who was betrayed by his mob, and was kidnapped by a shady organization named “Project Rising Spirit.” PRS replaced all of Mortalli’s DNA with Nanites, and Mortalli lost his memories. Now, he’s Bloodshot, a terrorist-hunting, gun-toting anti-hero hellbent on righting his wrongs.
There’s a mix of the punisher here with the Weapon X-era of Wolverine, with a bit of a fear of really committing to both of these ideas. In an effort to carve his own path, the writers and artists for this initial 8 issues experiment with him fighting psi-ot (Mutants of the Valiant Universe) villains, The mob, and teaming up with the Eternal Warrior twice in the 8 issues. I think in this initial series, the Eternal Warrior and Bloodshot must’ve gone hand-in-hand, because the story written as an add-on bonus for this book, “Tablet”, is about Gilad and Bloodshot teaming up. You don’t really get a good feel for the character besides something has happened and he has loose memories. He teams up with Ninjak (this is actually the first time I’ve encountered the character, funnily enough) and although it’s fun, I kind of wish that this Bloodshot book focused more on Bloodshot and less these team ups.
My time with this book lapsed at the Library, but I had recently bought the Omnibus. I made an effort to read around the books that aren’t collected here but are in the Omni, such as a few Eternal Warrior books, Rai, issue #0 and more. However, by not reading these issues, and going back after I’ve already issued a rating, I found that this collection would’ve benefited from having these things collected. I guess they wanted to have Mortalli’s origin be unveiled over time as Mortalli learns it, too, but a lot of his origin is recounted in Issue #0, narrated by Gilad.
However, I have that Omni now, I ought to the ranking on THIS collection, which is just a lot of action and team-ups, and although it introduces Bloodshot, you don’t really get to *know* Bloodshot. Seems like this was the only “Epic Collection” style of trade Bloodshot was collected in. If they had released more, it would’ve been really cool. I’m glad I have this omnibus to get the fuller narrative, so there are better ways of reading this character than with this Masters collection.
Something I like here is the art. All of the classic Valiant stuff I’ve read have a really interesting way of coloring the stuff. Things don’t pop per se, but I can’t quite put a finger on what I like about it except that I do like it. It’s a change of pace, as though this is early 90s, you’re feeling certain 80s sensibilities really come through. Weird! But fun to think about!
There’s a mix of the punisher here with the Weapon X-era of Wolverine, with a bit of a fear of really committing to both of these ideas. In an effort to carve his own path, the writers and artists for this initial 8 issues experiment with him fighting psi-ot (Mutants of the Valiant Universe) villains, The mob, and teaming up with the Eternal Warrior twice in the 8 issues. I think in this initial series, the Eternal Warrior and Bloodshot must’ve gone hand-in-hand, because the story written as an add-on bonus for this book, “Tablet”, is about Gilad and Bloodshot teaming up. You don’t really get a good feel for the character besides something has happened and he has loose memories. He teams up with Ninjak (this is actually the first time I’ve encountered the character, funnily enough) and although it’s fun, I kind of wish that this Bloodshot book focused more on Bloodshot and less these team ups.
My time with this book lapsed at the Library, but I had recently bought the Omnibus. I made an effort to read around the books that aren’t collected here but are in the Omni, such as a few Eternal Warrior books, Rai, issue #0 and more. However, by not reading these issues, and going back after I’ve already issued a rating, I found that this collection would’ve benefited from having these things collected. I guess they wanted to have Mortalli’s origin be unveiled over time as Mortalli learns it, too, but a lot of his origin is recounted in Issue #0, narrated by Gilad.
However, I have that Omni now, I ought to the ranking on THIS collection, which is just a lot of action and team-ups, and although it introduces Bloodshot, you don’t really get to *know* Bloodshot. Seems like this was the only “Epic Collection” style of trade Bloodshot was collected in. If they had released more, it would’ve been really cool. I’m glad I have this omnibus to get the fuller narrative, so there are better ways of reading this character than with this Masters collection.
Something I like here is the art. All of the classic Valiant stuff I’ve read have a really interesting way of coloring the stuff. Things don’t pop per se, but I can’t quite put a finger on what I like about it except that I do like it. It’s a change of pace, as though this is early 90s, you’re feeling certain 80s sensibilities really come through. Weird! But fun to think about!
April 14, 2022
Blast from the past
Having read the 2012 Bloodshot series as my entry point for the character, it is a weird history lesson in comics to lay eyes in this Valiant Masters collection VanHook and Perlin deliver a great story for its time and the demmands of teenagers looking for "extreme" character, but cram it up with a little more character than your average big gun, big pouches creations.
The 2012 Bloodshot its still my favorite, more layered about its military background than the mob/war on drugs story of the 90's (a product of the evils of the time period), but this is an enjoyable trip to the origins of the character if you like de 2012 revamp.
Having read the 2012 Bloodshot series as my entry point for the character, it is a weird history lesson in comics to lay eyes in this Valiant Masters collection VanHook and Perlin deliver a great story for its time and the demmands of teenagers looking for "extreme" character, but cram it up with a little more character than your average big gun, big pouches creations.
The 2012 Bloodshot its still my favorite, more layered about its military background than the mob/war on drugs story of the 90's (a product of the evils of the time period), but this is an enjoyable trip to the origins of the character if you like de 2012 revamp.
October 28, 2019
I’d never read anything from Valiant before, so I was mildly shocked to realize they didn’t follow the Comics Code at a time when DC & Marvel still did. Bloodshot is, well, bloodier than other superhero stuff, and if nothing else it stands out because of that. It’s still pretty standard gritty 90’s stuff, though. Tough guy narration, amnesia, lots of pouches on costumes, women are basically nonexistent, and so on.
Also, I’m kind of confused why Bloodshot is only occasionally stark white and red-eyed. It seems like combat activates the color change, but it’s never concretely established.
Also, I’m kind of confused why Bloodshot is only occasionally stark white and red-eyed. It seems like combat activates the color change, but it’s never concretely established.
August 30, 2020
Bloodshot
Interesting read. First time reading Bloodshot and I like it. Only read it because of the movie, which I haven't seen yet. Can't wait to read the next series of books in the Bloodshot storylines.
Interesting read. First time reading Bloodshot and I like it. Only read it because of the movie, which I haven't seen yet. Can't wait to read the next series of books in the Bloodshot storylines.
January 15, 2018
Pretty good stuff. Bloodshot reminds me a lot of the Punisher.
November 17, 2019
A nostalgic look back at one of the great Valiant characters. Read in advance of the Vin Diesel movie version.
January 12, 2020
Pretty cool. Very '90s. I'm interested to see how well the Vin Diesel movie does.
January 31, 2020
Original stories about comic antihero Bloodshot.
June 23, 2020
Ah, nostalgia for that much hyped chromium cover of the early 90s. Three stars is probably generous.
January 7, 2015
Reprints Bloodshot (1) #1-8 (February 1993-September 1993). Bloodshot is a man without a past. Suddenly finding himself brimming with nanites in his bloodstream, Bloodshot finds that the computers within him can heal and help him as a mercenary. Seeking out his past, Bloodshot must track down his own identity and may not like what he discovers.
Written by Kevin Vanhook and with illustrations by Don Perlin, Andrew Wendel, and Ted Halsted, Valiant Masters—Bloodshot 1: Blood of the Machine collects the original Bloodshot series published by Valiant beginning in 1993. The hardcover edition is part of the 2012 Valiant relaunch of the comic line.
In 1993, Bloodshot did little to interest me. The Punisher and Deathstroke were big at the time and everyone seemed to have the “mercenary for hire” character. Valiant was the young upstart that got immediate buzz with X-O Manowar and Magnus Robot Fighter leading the way to tons of other series…Bloodshot was just another one of them. When the Valiant line relaunch in 2012, Marvel and DC were struggling with tedious plotlines and constant relaunches and something in the Valiant line connected with me. As a result I went back and read a lot of the 1990s Valiants and found them better than most ’90s comics.
I’m not going to pretend that these issues of Bloodshot are perfect. They are loaded with tons of ’90s mentality with style and art over substance (including the foil cover of Bloodshot (1) #1 (February 1993) which was a big deal). The story is rather typical with the amnesiac Bloodshot seeking out his past which turns out to be bad and then on a bit of a quest to recreate himself.
The second half of the storyline features a crossover with Valiant’s equivalent of Vandal Savage (but good) with appearances by the Eternal Warrior and a time spanning story that connects Bloodshot so the future’s Rai (which also has ties to Magnus). It also serves to introduce Ninjak who went off onto his own Valiant series. Though less of a coherent plot, I do prefer the second half of this collection to the first part which features the origin issues.
In this volume, Bloodshot has a lot of untapped potential. It is obvious that he is meant to be a bit of a combination of the Punisher (guns blazing killer) and Wolverine (superhuman healing ability). The modern take on the character is far more interesting, and readers of the new Bloodshot might find this throwback a bit lacking in character development. I like some of the things introduced in the collection, but like many ’90s books, the writing falls somewhat flat or the writers try to cram in too much background in small spaces to open up the book for more action sequences. Still with prices rising on Valiant back issues, Valiant Masters—Bloodshot 1: Blood of the Machine might be worth picking up for fans of the character.
Written by Kevin Vanhook and with illustrations by Don Perlin, Andrew Wendel, and Ted Halsted, Valiant Masters—Bloodshot 1: Blood of the Machine collects the original Bloodshot series published by Valiant beginning in 1993. The hardcover edition is part of the 2012 Valiant relaunch of the comic line.
In 1993, Bloodshot did little to interest me. The Punisher and Deathstroke were big at the time and everyone seemed to have the “mercenary for hire” character. Valiant was the young upstart that got immediate buzz with X-O Manowar and Magnus Robot Fighter leading the way to tons of other series…Bloodshot was just another one of them. When the Valiant line relaunch in 2012, Marvel and DC were struggling with tedious plotlines and constant relaunches and something in the Valiant line connected with me. As a result I went back and read a lot of the 1990s Valiants and found them better than most ’90s comics.
I’m not going to pretend that these issues of Bloodshot are perfect. They are loaded with tons of ’90s mentality with style and art over substance (including the foil cover of Bloodshot (1) #1 (February 1993) which was a big deal). The story is rather typical with the amnesiac Bloodshot seeking out his past which turns out to be bad and then on a bit of a quest to recreate himself.
The second half of the storyline features a crossover with Valiant’s equivalent of Vandal Savage (but good) with appearances by the Eternal Warrior and a time spanning story that connects Bloodshot so the future’s Rai (which also has ties to Magnus). It also serves to introduce Ninjak who went off onto his own Valiant series. Though less of a coherent plot, I do prefer the second half of this collection to the first part which features the origin issues.
In this volume, Bloodshot has a lot of untapped potential. It is obvious that he is meant to be a bit of a combination of the Punisher (guns blazing killer) and Wolverine (superhuman healing ability). The modern take on the character is far more interesting, and readers of the new Bloodshot might find this throwback a bit lacking in character development. I like some of the things introduced in the collection, but like many ’90s books, the writing falls somewhat flat or the writers try to cram in too much background in small spaces to open up the book for more action sequences. Still with prices rising on Valiant back issues, Valiant Masters—Bloodshot 1: Blood of the Machine might be worth picking up for fans of the character.
June 12, 2020
Read in prep for the movie. I liked the parts after he slowed down the carnage and was interacting with people, esp. the girl in the cafe.
May 25, 2015
This collects the first 8 issues of the original Bloodshot, plus a one-shot from the reboot. The short really displays how much comic art has advanced in the last 20 years, even if the story isn't much. Bloodshot is an excuse for over-the-top violence; sort of a Punisher type except with Nanobots so he can take damage as well as dish it out. The story gets fairly convoluted in the issues collected as crossovers come and go (and there's a throwaway section related to Rai which is 2000 years out of sync with the rest of the comic and has only a tenuous relation to the main plot that's just really out-of-place), but the main story is Bloodshot finding out his past while killing lots of people for various other people. Nothing particularly inspiring, but it does have some decent action sequences. Again, though, it's a comic that doesn't really need returning to; unless you really want to revisit the excesses of the 90's, which this definitely plays to.
February 21, 2015
The least obviously-flawed of the Valiant Masters I've read so far. This one has lots of obvious strengths, but they didn't seem able to decide what this character is for. Is he out for revenge? A hunter of mobsters? An anti-terrorist government agent? Or does he just stumble from adventure to adventure? Invariably, the storylines are likeable enough. The reboot is much stronger and more focused.
September 1, 2016
pretty solid book, but I think I prefer the modern take on the character. There seems to be a bit of confusion of what Bloodshot's motivation is here, and to me it muddles an otherwise fun action book.
November 13, 2014
Wicked if somehow dated character which thankfully is updated and powered up in the reboot series. Still enjoyable reading.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews