I’ve been hugely enjoying working my way through the classic Valiant Comics universe, one series at a time. Having recently finished the entire run of X-O Manowar (which, save for a few issues at the end which seemed to devolve into one stupid boss fight after another with typically 90s, splash-page-led art, was absolutely brilliant), it was time to move onto another, and I chose Bloodshot.

For the most part, the first 29 issues of Bloodshot were excellent. Some dodgy politics aside, they were generally well written and the art (though of its time in terms of the colouring, at least) was also pretty impressive too; on the whole, and ignoring advances in technology which make some of the technobabble seem very silly indeed, it’s aged really well.

Which is why issue #30 is such a shocking disappointment. The plot is absolutely nonsensical, and so incoherent that I’m not even confident that I could write an accurate synopsis, which is what I’d usually do after my opening, introductory paragraphs.

And don’t get me started on the art, which does the muddled script no favours either; not only is this comic badly written, but good luck making any sense of what’s going on from a visual perspective. It’s honestly one of the worst issues of comic artwork I’ve seen from a major publisher, ever.

It’s heartbreaking, and even though the signs of incoming decline were there in the previous story arc, nothing compares to the absolute drop off the cliff we see in this issue in terms of its overall quality and clarity. This was published a few months after video game publisher Acclaim purchased Valiant, and their shocking level of quality control is truly evident here.

I’d rather watch the 2020 Bloodshot movie than be subjected to this nonsensical crap again. And given how much I hated that movie, that’s really saying something.

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