Bloodshot (comics)

Cover image of Bloodshot #40. Art by Jeff Johnson.

Angelo Mortalli has become the ultimate killing machine. His memories have been erased and his blood has been infused with microscopic computers called nanites. These nanites allow him to heal wounds quickly, dominate electronic devices, and fully control every aspect of his body to maximize his physical capabilities. A modern-day Frankenstein's monster, he wages a one-man war, taking out the mob, the police and his covert government creators, in his struggle to find out who he was and what he has become.

Angelo Mortalli, a.k.a. Bloodshot

Mortalli is a ruthless killer climbing the mob ranks when his crime family betrays him and has him framed for murder. He goes into federal witness protection but is betrayed by one of the FBI members guarding him. He is then kidnapped and taken to be part of an experimental procedure known as "Project Rising Spirit". His body is injected with microscopic computers called nanites. The nanites quickly go to work, rebuilding his brain and then the rest of his body, unexpectedly reviving Angelo but erasing his memory in the process. The nanites now fully control Angelo's body (manipulating blood flow, adrenaline levels etc.) giving him augmented reflexes and strength, enhanced hearing; the ability to heal rapidly, control of electronic devices, as well as a pre-programmed database containing all martial arts styles as well as weapons knowledge. Angry, violent and unsure of what he has become, he escapes. Taking the name Bloodshot, he begins the process of piecing together who he was.

Don Gino Canelli

Angelo Mortalli's mafia boss and his girlfriend's father is Gino, a ruthless man who will do anything to protect his family. He treats Angelo like a son. When he learns that Angelo has been cheating on his daughter, he orders Angelo set up for the murder of a rival without a second thought.

Hideyoshi Iwatsu

Iwatsu is an old and dangerous Japanese scientist who created the Bloodshot procedure. He is extremely immoral, using unwilling "volunteers" for his experiments, all of whom die as a result. Bloodshot is the first subject to survive more than a few days.

Tanaka

Tanaka is Hideyoshi Iwatsu's aide and right-hand man. More trusted by Hideyoshi than his biological son, Tanaka is a brilliant manipulator. Tanaka's arrogance blinds him, however, and leads to stupid mistakes on his part.

Angelo Mortalli has been subjected against his will to a scientific experiment that has remade him into the ultimate killing machine, an engine of destruction codenamed Bloodshot. But, in the process, his memories were lost. His creators mean to use him as a weapon, an unstoppable assassin. But he breaks free and escapes. In this rendition, the writer, Len Kaminski, elaborates on BloodShot's nano technology. The nanites turn out to be like sentient beings that see him as their God and provoke him to self-induce a trance-like state using a mixture of substances in order to communicate with him directly. Deadly operatives of the super-secret government agency that sponsored his creation hunt him down. Following a broken trail of fragmentary recollections, Bloodshot fights a running battle against them, the mob and the police.

Bloodshot

The first and only success of Project Lazarus, Bloodshot is a miracle of technology, far exceeding his creators’ expectations. Microscopic machines called nanites injected into his blood maximize his physicality, heal his wounds, extend his senses and imbue him with the ability to interface with any electronic device. In his former life as Angelo Mortalli, he learns, he was a rising star in a New York crime family...but the trail doesn't end there. He was someone else before he was Mortalli. Who was Raymond Garrison?

Simon Oreck

The Director in Chief of the Domestic Operations Authority (DOA), a covert operations arm of the United States government. An information trader, his business is knowledge and he has his eyes and ears in every branch of government – all of which is fed to him constantly by the wall of computers and monitors that fill his office. Despite usually preferring his department to remain behind the scenes, Oreck offers to commit DOA resources to helping the FBI extract information on the Cianelli crime family from the brain of recently deceased mobster Angelo Mortalli. But as always, Oreck is hiding his true motives.

Doctor Frederick J. Stroheim

Son of Nazi scientist Klaus Stroheim, the "Mengele of Dachau," Frederick inherited his father's genius and his utter inhumanity. Project Lazarus is his brainchild.

Gina DeCarlo

In the process of eliminating all evidence that Angelo Mortalli ever existed, D.O.A. operatives expunged all documentation, razed his home, and even had phone books reprinted without his name. He also discovers that they coldly murdered Gina, the love of his life, to silence her. As if he didn't hate them enough already....

The Chainsaw

Known as the Special Circumstances Division, codename: The Chainsaw are a highly trained team of mercenaries that work for the Domestic Operations Authority (DOA). Utilizing a state-of-the-art group combat technology called Chainlink, the members of The Chainsaw are provided with instant data and communication tools that allow for perfect combat tactics and strategy. Each member is specialized in one area of covert warfare and utilizes the latest in DOA technology.

Michael Pileggi

A made man in the Cianelli crime family, Michael Pileggi is one of the few who know the truth behind Angelo Mortalli's death. Don Cianelli had ordered Pileggi to fake a funeral for Mortalli in order to prevent the Don's daughter and Mortalli's girlfriend Gina from becoming suspicious. When he hears that someone has been asking questions about Mortalli and killing his men for answers, he becomes paranoid and holes up in his heavily guarded mansion.

There are 25 issues in this volume, including #0.[4] A 2012 relaunch by Valiant Publishing: Bloodshot is a man searching for his identity. He is a weapon, one built for military destruction. Using false memories the government has motivated him to do things while believing to himself that he was protecting an imagined family. But no more. When the weapon awakens, it malfunctions thus beginning a war over the control of Bloodshot's mind. Leaving a trail of destruction he breaks away from the military base he is being held at. A man marked with gray skin and a red mark on his chest, Bloodshot chooses to trust no one as he fights to figure out who he used to be, and what it is he has become. Series written by Duane Swierczynski.[5] The series tied into the Harbinger Wars event with issues 10 through 13. Starting with issue 14, the series was retitled Bloodshot and Hard Corps, with the character as a member of the Hard Corps team. The series crossed over with Archer And Armstrong in a story arc titled "Mission: Improbable".

Relaunched in 2015 by Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan it ran for 18 regular issues, plus a #0, and annual, and the Bloodshot Island 4 issue miniseries. Bloodshot has had his nanites removed by Kay McHenry (Geomancer) and is trying to live a normal life. But when a number of shootings are carried out by men who look like Bloodshot, he must go back into the world he tried to leave behind.

Relaunched again by Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan, this time in 2017 with the addition of artist Lewis LaRosa, it ran for 12 regular issue plus a number of event tie ins. Following directly on from Bloodshot Reborn, Bloodshot must now protect his girlfriend Magic and their daughter from Magic's sadistic family.

In 2018 the writing trio of Kevin Grevioux, Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson, with artist Ken Lashley launched a new volume. It ran for 8 issues and as of January 2020 has not been collected in paperback or hardcover.

Another relaunch happened in 2019, with Tim Seeley writing and Brett Booth on art duties. This is the current ongoing Bloodshot volume.

A film based on Bloodshot, titled Bloodshot, starring Vin Diesel[9] had a theatrical release in the United States on March 13, 2020, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is intended to be the first installment in a series of films set within a Valiant Comics shared cinematic universe.[10] Directed by David S. F. Wilson (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer and a story by Wadlow,[11] the film stars Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, and Guy Pearce.

Bloodshot appears in Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe, portrayed by Jason David Frank.[12][13][14]

• A Bloodshot video game was in development between 1997 and 1998 at Iguana Entertainment UK for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows, but was cancelled by publisher Acclaim Entertainment due to late development issues.[15][16]
• Bloodshot appears as a secret unlockable playable character in the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast versions of Shadow Man.

• Bloodshot #0 (1993 series) was reprinted in 1994 as the first Chinese (Cantonese) Valiant Comics book in Hong Kong.[17] The book was published as part of a collector's box of six Valiant Comics books.[18]
• A limited number of promotional copies of Bloodshot #1 2015[19] were distributed at a press conference in Beijing when Valiant Entertainment announced a new partnership with DMG Entertainment on March 9, 2015. The promotional issue was translated and printed in Chinese (Mandarin).