Review – Bloodshot Reborn #10

Bloodshot Reborn #10 – 
Valiant Entertainment
 
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Lewis LaRosa
Colors by Brian Reber
Letters by Dave Lanphear
 
Bloodshot Reborn was one of the first comics I reviewed when we expanded to written reviews for our podcast.  Valiant was on a roll, especially with Book of Death, and did a great job with this storyline.  Now it’s time to start anew and see where Ray and Magic go next.  What I didn’t expect was to be taken to the future.
 
Fast forward 30 years and L.A. is a wasteland.  Bloodshot is obsolete, old and has taken up a role as protector of a small village.  A lot goes into how he and the people are surviving, and we also learn the fate of several other Valiant characters along the way.  If I’m being honest, things did drag along a bit after the first few pages, but I decided to read on.  The action starts to kick in towards the end, and after a quick jump to present day, we get a surprising reveal and conclusion at the end of the book.
 
While I loved this series from Issue 1, this issue seemed to lack a lot of the emotion of the previous issues.  Lemire’s strength is in his dialogue and creating emotion, which I feel was definitely lacking in this issue.  To me this was too much of a Mad Max Fury Road meets Old Man Logan storyline, and lacked to emotion to draw the reader in.  The previous Bloodshot Reborn issues weren’t necessarily filled with action either, but the story was intriguing, and Ray’s internal struggle really made you want to read on.  That’s a big piece that was missing here.  I will say bringing on Lewis LaRosa does kick the art up a notch.  The detail is very good, matched well with Reber’s colors.  To me, this book just didn’t live up to the expectations of previous issues.  I’m hoping that changes in Issue 11, so I won’t give up just yet.
 
RATING:  PICK UP