Image credit: Valiant/Acclaim
In the mid-’90s, the comic book industry was in a strange place. By 1995, the speculative bubble had burst, and gimmick-driven covers, heavy printing, and a focus on style over substance sealed the fate of the industry. The recovery took years, reaching a low point around 1996, but Valiant’s acquisition by video game publisher Acclaim occurred right in the middle of the comic book crash.
Their reboot of the Valiant series (under the weird Birthquake branding, with a story that never spanned between series, even though the branding seems to suggest otherwise) with a more modern-looking comic is even more puzzling in hindsight. Although Valiant’s comics were beginning to look outdated compared to their competitors at the time, they were far ahead of the curve in terms of content. Acclaim’s move to more flashy and overly “extreme” art with less substance really hurt comics like Bloodshot, and suddenly the quality seemed to have dropped significantly.
Issues 30 and 31 told a two-part story that was deeply confusing and horrifying, but issue 32 slightly corrects course.
Although it still doesn’t live up to the previous games in the series, this story about the sudden appearance of vampires in Bloodshot’s world is actually quite interesting and features a nice cliffhanger. As for the artwork, it’s on another level compared to the previous story, but it still feels a little too 90’s for my tastes.
While the recent alternate universe reboot Bloodshot also has precedent for vampires, the Valiant Beyond series has been notably (and rightly) criticized and shunned for its overt transphobia.
It’s good to see Bloodshot recover after such a stupid, self-inflicted stumble. The question is, could Acclaim maintain a little more quality after this issue?
Considering that the series lasted until issue 51, that’s probably what happened. I’ll be sure to check out the rest of the run to find out for myself.
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