We didn’t create new villains or an archenemy.” To Lemire, this was “ground” to do something fresh. “The villain was sort of himself in earlier issues, and then we took to Project Rising Spirit which had been done in the past. “One thing that kind of struck me was that Bloodshot didn’t have a villain,” Lemire says. In one major way, Lemire is giving Bloodshot an actual archnemesis. With Bloodshot: Salvation, Lemire is also adding elements to Bloodshot’s world. Although beautifully illustrated, Lemire’s Bloodshot: Reborn never indulged in violence in the fashion of most mainstream comics. “I thought it would be fun to take this violent hero and subvert it a little, to talk about violence in the media and the world at large,” he says. Second, Lemire mellowed out the character’s violent streak.

There was no one for him to latch on to on an emotional level. First, he stopped focusing on the cool things about Bloodshot, like his nanites, and focused on his human side. So for me it was: How do I take that and make it something that does interest me? Make it something I care about?” That didn’t interest me a lot creatively. “Traditionally, Bloodshot has been a two-dimensional action hero. “Bloodshot has changed a lot as I’ve kind of changed,” he says. He didn’t love the character at first, and it took a relaunch in Lemire’s own image for him to warm up to Bloodshot.

And it was in The Valiant where Lemire first met Bloodshot.

Lemire joined Valiant in 2014 with a bang, writing the acclaimed crossover book The Valiant, in which all of Valiant’s heroes banded together against a common foe. The comics veteran has written for all the big publishers including DC, Marvel, and Image (his Image series Descender is in development as a movie from Sony). Cover of 'Bloodshot: Salvation' #1, hitting comics shelves on September 27.

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