In my review of Bloodshot #30, I noted just how suddenly the quality level of the comic dropped from the previous issue. The then-new owners of Valiant Comics, video game publisher Acclaim, had decided to revamp the entire Valiant line with new creative teams and storylines, under a marketing initiative known as Birthquake.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this may have meant some sort of connecting storyline between the various series and characters, given how prominent the Birthquake branding was, but it was merely a gimmick intended to signal the shakeup and supposed modernizing of the comics.

In Bloodshot’s case, that led to the aforementioned, disastrous drop off in quality, which was tragic and entirely unnecessary. The comic had maintained a fairly consistent and high level of quality up until then, and there was no real need to fix something that was definitely not broken.

This issue, while making marginally more sense from a storytelling perspective than #30, still has unbelievably obvious problems with its art and script, and it’s one of the poorest quality comics I’ve seen since, well, Bloodshot #30. It’s also a relief that the two part story concludes here, albeit with a slightly open ending.

How could Acclaim get this so wrong, so fast? It’s a bizarre, unforced error. Surprisungly, such was Bloodshot’s popularity that the series still made it to 51 issues before being cancelled and fully rebooted by Acclaim. Did the quality improve after these appalling two issues? I’ll be sure to find out soon.

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