DC's Bloodlines #1 Won't Redeem The Original

When DC Comics launched the Bloodlines event in the early '90s, it was a story that had a hard [...]

By Russ Burlingame

bloodlines

When DC Comics launched the Bloodlines event in the early '90s, it was a story that had a hard time finding its niche.

The stories told within Bloodlines were all over the place; it was one of a number of DC events of that era that was bookended by one-shots but took place primarily in the publisher's annuals. If bringing dozens of creative teams together wasn't enough of a challenge, Bloodlines insisted that each story should introduce a new character who would drive story in the title going forward.

Out of all the "New Blood" characters created during the series, very few made more than a handful of appearances. Only Hitman, whose first appearance was in an annual for The Demon, would turn out to be anything people really cared about.

Bloodlines suffered under lofty expectations; DC was riding high on the success of The Death of Superman and the collector's market was still in an era of expansion; introducing dozens of first appearances at one time was fantastic bait for speculators. There was a collectible card series branded for Bloodlines.

And it wasn't a hit. While Bloodlines, like nearly every comics event, has its fans, it's generally considered a pretty dim spot for DC. With the failure of Bloodlines and some other similar events, and the massive success of storylines like Knightfall and The Reign of the Supermen, the focus of the company's events left the annuals for greener pastures (themed annuals would soon follow, which was similar but not the same).

More than two decades later, here we are: J.T. Krul and V. Ken Marion have launched a new Bloodlines series, and the reason my review starts 250 words and five paragraphs in is that the series comes with that much baggage.

Both Krul and Marion have done a good deal of work for Aspen in recent years, and this isn't their first time together. It is Marion's first major Big Two work, and for that, it's arguably a worthwhile endeavor. He's a talented artist with a strong sense of visual storytelling who excels at drawing non-superheroes -- something that far too few aritsts at Marvel and DC are strong with these days.

That served him well in this first issue, since nobody developed any powers until the last few pages.

Marion's art -- while excellent in my estimation -- will likely draw some criticism for being as '90s-inspired as it is...especially in a book like Bloodlines. With waifish, beautiful characters, his art calls to mind the work of the late Michael Turner, in both its strengths and weaknesses (sometimes, characters' bodies are stiff and their gazes fix on nothing at all).

It isn't just a few minor issues with generally-good art that prevent Bloodlines from being great, though.

Our biggest problem is that frankly, none of the characters are particularly well-realized or likable. Much of the issue centers on Eddie -- who will become the Hulk-like hero Loose Cannon. In the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe, Loose Cannon was a former police officer who lost the ability to walk during a metahuman attack. Here, he's a teen with a progressive medical condition, who walks with braces.

It begs the question: what about this story demands Eddie be younger? The only answer we have so far is that it takes place primarily in and around Eddie's high school, giving him connections to the other characters. Still, that might be the single decision that most unravels the fabric of Bloodlines.

The characters are broad and mostly unlikable. More than a couple are pretty obnoxious and, frankly, the read less like any believable teenagers than like a middle-aged man feels like teenagers act and talk. You have the selfie queen, apparently Periscoping her dislike for her assigned English reading to the world. You have the pierced and tattooed bad girl who's dating a high school quarterback while working as a mechanic and apparently good enough at it as a teenager that she can get away with mouthing off to the boss. And you have a booze-fueled party for no particular occasion and yet still so off-the-hook that introvert Eddie has to find "the one tree" in a wooded area that doesn't already smell like urine or vomit when he shows up.

There's also a characterization of one of their teachers as a "gloriied attendance taker" who futzes on fantasy sports websites while one of the kids teaches his class for him. That's the kind of over-the-top silliness that probably shouldn't bother me, but every little thing can become a bigger issue when the reading experience isn't great.

One area where I'll praise Krul for excellent execution of a dicey (if not downright poor) concept is in Eddie's self-loathing and self-pity about his condition. It was an element of Loose Cannon's backstory that seemed pretty dated when I recently re-read the Action Comics Annual in which the character first appeared. My expectation was that the new version of the character would ditch the heavyhanded depression about his disability, in keeping with how somebody with partial paralysis would typically be depicted in more contemporary media.

Instead, Eddie retains his downcast and frustrated affect...but it's handled in a way that feels real, human, and that makes him more interesting. He's also not as consumed by self-pity as he was in the '90s; at one point when he makes a joke about his condition, it's one that rings true. That his power set negates his disability, and that he's generally so negative about it, is likely to draw some sharp criticism from certain corners, but I'd say it's one of the few spots in the issue where Krul found the rose among thorns.

Writing: C-
Art: A-
Overall: C+

The Bottom Line: If you're one of the handful of people who really enjoyed the original Bloodlines, don't expect this to be a remake in any important way. The parasites look and operate differently, and the first super-powered character we get seems to come out of the blue. So nostalgic value is more or less out.

It's not a terrible start, and it could easily be a better overall miniseries once these characters start to become a little more likable and the plot gets underway. The art is strong and the layouts are creative. But to revive a property with more baggage than fans, it needed to start stronger than this.

Trending Now: