Bloodshot
issues:
0,1-51
Bloodshot Yearbook 1
Bloodshot: Last Stand 1-shot
Character Info:
Bloodshot
Real Name: Angelo Mortalli
Current Alias: Michael Lazarus
Powers: Harbinger power to control machines, has the Blood of Heroes in him
The Series:
The story began when a man named Angelo Mortalli was framed for a gangland slaying. Angelo was a criminal who worked for the Mafia Don Benito Carboni. He was engaged to the high-ranking Gino Canelli's daughter, but he was cheating on her. When Canelli found out, Angello's fate was sealed. He went to trial and was conivicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He decided to make a deal to turn state's evidence in exchange for a new life and identity. It didn't work out exactly the way he had planned. An agent protecting him for the Witness Protection Program sold out Mortalli and he was taken to Project Rising Spirit (PRS). Angelo then underwent the procedures that would give him that new life and identity he was looking for, though not quite in the way he was hoping for. His blood was replaced with what would come to be known as the Blood of Heroes, a synthetic plasma containing nanites, which were essentially microscopic computers containing many files containing such information as fighting styles and techniques. The process gave the man formally known as Angelo Mortalli greater strength, speed, and agility, the ability to heal quickly from wounds, and a knowledge of all forms of combat. His memories were also erased. Apparently PRS, a part of Hideyoshi Iwatsu's Iwatsu Coporation, was trying to create programmable killing machines. For some reason, the process wouldn't work right. All test subjects in the past would become "Speedshots" after being infused with the nanites, and would simply wear out and die shortly there after. Angelo Mortalli was the first to successfully undergo the process. Though unknown at the time, the reason that he lived was because he was a Harbinger with the dormant ability to control machines.
The strain of having his blood drained and replaced with the nanites activated his powers, which then took control of the nanites and prevented them from killing him. It appeared that Iwatsu finally had his killing machine, right? Wrong.
During the Unity conflict, Geoff the Geomancer found a computer from the future and looked through the files to try to locate any information on his own fate. Instead he found out about a man called Bloodshot who he was destined to free from PRS. On August 11, 1992, he did just that. Taking the nickname given to him by the project planners, Angelo Mortalli struck out on his own as Bloodshot.
Bloodshot's first mission was to find out about his past. He hunted down Gilad Abrams, a name from the records at PRS. The two were attacked by men from PRS, but had no problem defeating them. It was in this battle that Bloodshot first heard the name Iwatsu. Iwatsu, the owner of PRS, started sending Speedshots to try and capture him, but they too were put down. Bloodshot then encountered Ax for the first time. The battle ended when Bloodshot cut off Ax's arm. Ax was defeated, but a rivalry that would last a life time was formed.
Bloodshot's mission to find out about his past eventually brought him into a confrontation with Benito Carboni, the Mafia Don. After an earlier confrontation between Bloodshot and Gino Canelli, Carboni decided to have Bloodshot killed. It didn't quite work out for him. Bloodshot, aided by Gilad Abrams (The Eternal Warrior), killed many of Carboni's men and could have offed Carboni himself. Carboni was forced to agree to a truce between the mob and Bloodshot. Now a free man, Bloodshot agreed to take a job offered to him by Abrams. And so Bloodshot began his employment under Neville Alcott. Taking the name Michael Lazarus, he began his life anew.
But shortly there after, another part of his past came back to haunt him. A dying Hideyoshi Iwatsu was forced to undergo the Speedshot process to give him more time to live. So PRS needed to know why Bloodshot survived the process so that Iwatsu could also live. This led to the final battle between Bloodshot and Iwatsu. Bloodshot lived, Iwatsu didn't. Bring on the next opponent.
Anyways, Bloodshot continued to work for Alcott and was brought on to help Neville's new Secret Weapons team get started. They became allies and remained so right up until Bloodshot's original programming took control. The Rampage program caused Bloodshot to become the killer assassin he was always intended to be. He ended up fighting most of his former allies, including the Secret Weapons and Ninjak. It took a joint effort between Ninjak and Ax to finally override the Rampage program. Or so they thought. The Rampage nanites eventually created their own body by stealing mass away from Bloodshot's body. The newly seperated being Rampage walked away, leaving a weak and drained Bloodshot behind to rot.
Bloodshot recovered from that drain and was soon back to his old self. He was hounded by a wide range of badguys during his adventures. They ranged from vampires to a speedshot named the Crimson Dragon. He also fought Rampage on several occasions, but this ended when Rampage met his end in a garbage compacter. Ouch. His biggest foe, however, was probably the robot from the future named Proteus. His programming was to come back and destroy all the nanite technology, and that included Bloodshot. More on this guy later.
On a mission to Columbia, tradgedy struck. Jillian Alcott, Neville Alcott's daughter, was shot and was dying. Bloodshot had no choice but to give her some of his blood so that the nanites could heal her. It worked, but she was transformed into a speedshot with a limited amount of time to live. Bloodshot did some research and found out that Jillian had been a subject in the "Hope and Glory" experiment that had created Ninjak. Because of this, she had an anomally in her DNA. After some extensive surgery, the nanites were successfully joined with her DNA. She was now the "She-Bloodshot" codenamed Deathangel. Bloodshot had gained himself a partner.
This was extremely short lived, however. Bloodshot and Jillian soon found themselves in a fight to the death with Proteus in Alaska. The fight had many casulties, including Yoshi Iwatsu, Hideyoshi's son. In the end it appeared that Proteus had them beat, but then Bloodshot fired the missle. There was a huge explosion and when the smoke cleared, nobody was left standing. Proteus was destroyed and Bloodshot and Jillian were nowhere to be seen (except for Bloodshot's bloody hand sticking out of the debris). And with this cliffhanger the series was brought to an end.
After the series:
It is unknown how Bloodshot survived the blast in issue 51. It's not even
known if Jillian Alcott did survive the blast. I'm willing to say that she did
not survive, though. Rai 0 or any other source never mentioned her as being
a target by Harada or Ax or anyone else who may have been after the Blood of
Heroes that flowed through both her and Bloodshot's veins. My guess is that
the blast killed her and the blood inside her was spilled and destroyed in that
arctic grave.
Bloodshot did manage to survive the blast and get out of that snow, however. He went
on to fight crime until the year 2028, when he was confronted by what was left of
the Harbinger Ax on Earth's moonbase. Bloodshot was able to save the people
there, but unfortunately he wasn't able to save himself. Ax took control of the
nanites in Bloodshot's arm, thus stopping him from shooting his gun. He then
proceded to blow off Bloody's hand (a clean cut, so no blood was lost). The
fight finally ended when a laser blast blew apart Bloodshot's head. Ax removed
the Blood from the body, returned to Earth, and went into hiding. Harada's
troops eventually found Ax and killed him (after he copied his brain patterns
into a file in the blood of coarse), but they never found the blood.
The Blood of Heroes, as you all probably know, went on to flow through the
veins of Takao "Rai" Konishi in 4002 and Obadiah "also Rai" Konishi in 4020.
The Same As It Never Was:
Bloodshot vol.2 was about a man named Raymond Garrison who was killed and brought
back to life as a nanite empowered killing machine. He had an extreme case of
amnesia and couldn't remember much of his past. At first he thought he was
Angelo Mortalli, but it turned out that Angelo was just an undercover identity
that he was using when he was killed. This is a very different story from
that of the original, but it does have several similarities.
The Michael Lazarus alias has also been used in this series. Bloodshot continued searching for the truth about himself until he decided to just end it all. He put a gun to his head, pulled the trigger, and his brains landed on the floor. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) the nanites still repaired him and the mission continued. The series ended when Bloodshot killed the antagonist of the series and took his place as the head of DOA. His destiny was fulfilled.
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