Bloodstrike: New Ongoing Series from Rob Liefeld

[Bl00dwerK]

I haven't read it so I can't say, but I pretty much know what to expect (that's why I ordered it in the first place). With everything else on the market I think there's a little room for some 90's cheese...

[MarsHottentot]

I haven't read it so I can't say, but I pretty much know what to expect (that's why I ordered it in the first place). With everything else on the market I think there's a little room for some 90's cheese...

This is a bit different than straight 90's cheese. It's like a Deadpool fanfic written by a kid who's free to put in all the boobs, blood and brootality Marvel never would - and that's why he made his own, like, original character, dude! It just happens to be made by Deadpool's creator.

[Bl00dwerK]

This is a bit different than straight 90's cheese. It's like a Deadpool fanfic written by a kid who's free to put in all the boobs, blood and brootality Marvel never would - and that's why he made his own, like, original character, dude! It just happens to be made by Deadpool's creator.

Sounds good to me. I'm not real crazy about what Marvel's been doing lately, so this sounds like a breath of fresh air...

[Scott M Davis]

Bloodstrike #1 was a better first issue then Archie #1.

[Bl00dwerK]

Bloodstrike #1 was a better first issue then Archie #1.

I don't doubt that, like, at all...

[Dark-Flux]

Bloodstrike #1 was a better first issue then Archie #1.

Bwahahahahaha!

[MarsHottentot]

Anyway, let's get back to what REALLY matters:

DEADLOCK. I'm sorry: DEADLOCKe. What I loved about the old book was that he was literally a shade of a character - they never really explained his deal. Readers early on LOVED Deadlock, even though he didn't really do anything other than look like Wolverine in Liefeldian fetish-tech. That budding fandom earned him a push, so we got Deadlock killing rapist / murderers because they killed a woman who HE had planned on murdering ("SHE WAS MY KILL!"). In a bit of really confusing writing, Cabbot agonizes over Deadlock's psyche files (one from his time in 'The Four', another from his time in Project: Born Again - characterization: psychopath with vampiric tendencies) that makes it seem like there's TWO Deadlock's running around. Understandable - who would think the guy who just tore two guys apart and drank their blood because they interrupted his stalker / killer routine was a GOOD GUY? Well, to be fair, Tag does paralyze and, essentially, rape a guy in the next scene (giving him some kind of Zombie H.I.V. - a plot that gets followed for a bit, then dropped - like most Bloodstrike plots) - so maybe that shouldn't have been too shocking.

Deadlock's powers were never defined. Action had him leaping around, baring fangs and slashing with his... clawless fingers. Readers would write in and ask "Does Deadlock have claws" to be answered by editorial "No". Well, the art team didn't get the memo and started giving him claws on those fingers. The coloring team seemingly kept forgetting he wasn't Wolverine and had his costume be sleeveless.

Soon enough, Liefeld, perhaps sensing a Marvel lawsuit in his future, had Deadlock and the rest of the gang, sans Cabbot, get killed once more and not "born again". When he (and the rest) showed back up, he looked like a lame cross between Wolverine and Batman with Mech armor (and claws!) and a gerbil feeder on his forehead. He also turned into a feral gerbil. Okay, I don't know that it was a gerbil, but they never said what he actually turned into so....

I guess the inference was that he was a vampire but then, that would make the whole Project: Born Again resurrection schtick entirely redundant - and he runs around during the day and ARGH!

Deadlock is perhaps the 90'sest character of all of Liefeld's creations - and I love him for it.

[Scott M Davis]

Comic is so epic, it doesn't even need to an issue in October's Image Solicits!

[MarsHottentot]

That's three issues in the can - not bad!

[WeirdSpace]

I found it very entertaining.

[JLS Comics]

His forearm is so pointy

[Scott M Davis]

Bloodstrike is an 80's B-Movie in comic form.

[JLS Comics]

I think I might get this only because it looks so much like New Mutants #98

[MarsHottentot]

Bloodstrike is an 80's B-Movie in comic form.

If Rob watched Stallone's COBRA ten times in a row, chugged Monster energy drinks the entire time while drawing straight inks on his Cintiq that's auto-sending the pages to Image as soon as he finishes them (in twenty minutes, tops), it would be much better.

I have to say, I've been looking at my X-Force Omnibus (40 bux!! Thank you, Liefeld hate!) and, compared to that, Bloodstrike is looking rather reserved. He needs to bring back the cross hatchings, go with eye bleeding psychedelic colors ala Brian Murray (NO GRADIENTS), and just focus on getting that old Liefeldian ENERGY across. Rob can't 'draw' well - what he can do, is put together pages of bristling insanity. His story wants to be crazy, but he's holding back on the art tip. He needs to unleash the Liefeld who sold 5 million copies of X-Force - the guy who didn't care if the swords were in the wrong position from the way Shatterstar was holding his hands, because the 'wrong' way looked more dynamic - the guy who put extraneous gear and pouches all over his characters (seriously, Cabbot looks so wimpy now) - the guy who just put designs, smoke and multicolored shapes in place of backgrounds because who gives a crap about backgrounds when you have a feral wolf freak in clown make-up screaming his brains out shooting a pair of giant hand cannons that could not possibly exist in any reality? He needs to stop trying and just DO IT. MAKE THE HATERS EAT IT RAW! GO BERSERK, ROB!!

RUB THE BLOOD!!!

[pools]

Honestly I didn't really need Rob drawing this, Bloodstrike looked a lot better than Youngblood in the 90s, because Rob didn't have much to do with Bloodstrike. The art here is a lot lot worse than it was back then. I'm also wondering, where are Tag and Fourplay?