Following his introductory appearances in Rai and Eternal Warrior, a certain nanite-enhanced super soldier spurned a massive demand for his return. He has since become one of Valiant’s bestselling creations with a feature-length film hitting the theaters this Friday, March 23, 2020. Do you know who this is?

Created by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton, Bloodshot made his first appearance in Eternal Warrior #4 before appearing in Rai #0 a week later. There was high anticipation for the premiere issue, Bloodshot #1 in 1993, leading to it becoming a bestselling issue with one million copies sold. Before he was Bloodshot, Angelo Mortalli was a ruthless mobster climbing the ranks, only to be betrayed and framed for murder. He was then forced into an experimental procedure known as Project Rising Spirit, wherein his body was injected with nanites. These nanites effectively erase Mortalli’s memory while giving him superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes, and endurance, enhanced healing, and the ability to dominate electronic devices. 

A modern day Frankenstein’s monster, Mortalli has become the ultimate killing machine codenamed Bloodshot. Completely unaware of his former identity, Bloodshot escapes from the secret labs and wages a war on the mob, the police, and his covert government creators. This happens while he is struggling to come to terms with who he used to be and what he has become. After his escape, deadly operatives involved in his creation hunt him down to retrieve the “Blood of Heroes” (the nanite formula) stored in his body. Unaware of his mobster past, Bloodshot reinvents himself as a force for good. Eternal Warrior Gilad Anni-Padda later helped Bloodshot join the British Secret Service, where he became one of its Secret Weapons. 

In 2012, as part of Valiant’s relaunch, Bloodshot was reintroduced by writer Duane Swierczynski and artists Arturo Lozzi and Manuel Garcia. In this new origin, Bloodshot was an operative working for Project Rising Spirit to eliminate a variety of terrorist threats. He soon discovered that the government was motivating him with fake memories of loved ones and comrades he believed he was sent to rescue. Once free of these falsehoods, Bloodshot escapes and leaves a trail of destruction behind him. This series tied into the Harbinger Wars event, which saw Bloodshot atoning for his crimes by releasing two dozen of the most volatile harbingers from the Project Rising Spirit prison. 

While Bloodshot continues to wage his one-man war within comics, Vin Diesel is prepared to bring the fight to the big screen. Directed by David S.F. Wilson, Bloodshot stars Diesel as the titular hero alongside Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, and Guy Pearce. Intended to be the first installment in a series of films set within a Valiant Comics shared cinematic universe, Bloodshot hits theaters on March 13, 2020.