By Chris Tresson

This week sees the release of the second issue of Valiant Entertainment’s Bloodshot U.S.A. by Jeff Lemire and Doug Braithwaite. I quite enjoyed the first issue and I’ve been looking forward to seeing where this one would go since the cliffhanger in the last issue. Let’s get going, shall we?

Damn it. The one thing I was looking forward to seeing these characters deal with (I’m assuming you read the last issue but I’m talking about Ninjak cutting Bloodshot’s head the fuck off) was pissed away pretty badly here. There’s absolutely no drama to it. His head is off; his head is back on again. Pretty piss poor resolve. Another thing: this issue really doesn’t do much to advance the story. It’s mostly just fighting and action scenes that fill its pages and more some more cameos from Valiant characters… I wanted a bit more story than I got.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like the action in this issue. Doug Braithwaite has done another amazing job with the art but it has slowed down considerably since the last issue. They kept the breakneck pace of the first issue and neglected the story in favour of showing us action. There needed to be balance and there wasn’t. It’s a shame really.

One thing I will point out which I really liked was the bit of humor in here that I enjoyed from Lemire but a lot of what goes on in the issue was lost on me because, as I pointed out the last time I reviewed this title, I am not the biggest Valiant guy. If half of the characters have shown up in the little amount of Bloodshot I have read, I’ve already forgotten about them… I’m assuming fans will be pleased with it and even though I was disappointed with the lack of progress in the story, I’ll probably hang around for the next issue of it just to see what’s going on.

It’s not a bad issue, the art team are crazy good on this book and I really did enjoy looking at the art. There’s a lot going on that you can soak up and admire here, so I suppose the book has that going for it.

Overall I have mixed feelings about the issue, I thought from the last issue that it was going to be great but instead I’ve come away wanting to know more about what’s actually going on rather than seeing shit blow up and people getting pummeled. I thought the series had something that would set it apart from the rest of the superhero titles on offer but it has just sort of blended in with them with this Bloodshot outing. Hopefully the next issue will have more story to it and I can come back here and tell you how much I enjoyed reading it but for now, I’m left a little disappointed.

Score: 3/5

Bloodshot U.S.A #2
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Doug Braithwaite
Colorist: Brian Reber
Publisher: Valiant Comics