After Awesome Part 10: Tim Seeley's Bloodstrike

(Welcome to After Awesome, where I take a look at all the subsequent series having to do with the characters from Moore's Awesome Universe.)

Also in 2012, Tim Seeley, known as an artist and writer on G.I. Joe and later on some Batman series, revived Bloodstrike for Image from a mostly-forgotten series. If you do remember it, it's probably for the cover concept of issue #1, where you could "rub the blood" on the gimmick cover.

There was an actual concept to the series, that being the government is bringing back superheroes from the dead and sending them on suicide missions. While the idea was interesting, the execution was about what you'd expect from a Liefeld clone book. This revival is much better.

The main character is a guy named Cabbot. He used to be a hero named Slingstone and is the brother to Battlestone, an Extreme Comics heavy who was too strict for Youngblood. He is also the son of a radical superpowered terrorist standing up for the nu-gene (the Extreme comics' version of mutants) kind.

Seeley decided to keep all of this backstory, but adds a layer of irony and wisecracking that makes the series a lot of fun. But that's not why I recommend the series so highly (I'll get to that in a minute).

The series begins with Cabbot going to Pakistan to deal with some terrorists. But when he gets to Pakistan, the terrorists are dead, having been killed by three Egyptian mummy-looking zombie cyborgs.

Meanwhile, back at Bloodstrike headquarters, the philosophical connotations to what they're doing causes the staff psychiatrist to kill herself and take out the director. The next-in-charge refuses to bring the director back from the dead and ropes in a poor technician named Kendra to help him.

Cabbot fights the mummies and ends up meeting their boss, a religious telepath, who is gathering the undead and the nu-genes to create a new paradise. He intrigues Cabbot and they part in peace.

Meanwhile, Bloodstrike brings the rest of the team back from the dead, including a superspeedster, a strong woman, an invisible killer and a Japanese-inspired warrior. They're sent to kill Cabbot's dad, but accidentally take out some famous rich girl in the process. (There's a nice bit about her being brought back to life that I won't spoil for the two of you who might look up this series.)

There's a whole subplot with Battlestone that doesn't really matter, but then we get to the psychological profiles of the new team. They're an interesting bunch, and Seeley writes them with more personality and depth than you'd expect in a comic like this. Unfortunately it's paired with some hideous, partially-finished Rob Liefeld art that is best left ignored.

There's a nice bit where Cabbot and the tech girl, Kendra, go to New York for a mission. He gets distracted taking out a supervillain, which reminds him of his old Slingstone days, while she completes the mission.

For me, all of this is prologue to the two-parter that ends the series. It starts with Kid Achilles, from the League of Infinity (sort-of), who dies from some brain disease. But he was supposed to be invulnerable.

According to Cabbot, Kid Achilles was in a teenaged supergroup back in the day with Slingstone, Suprema, Twilight and Skipper, called the Young Americans. It's basically the Youngblood team that Suprema and Twilight suggested in the alternate timeline of Youngblood #6. Bloodstrike intends to bring Achilles back from the dead as an operative but Suprema shows up, pissed off, and wants Achilles' body.

What happens next is awesome. We get more about Twilight and Suprema and it's the most Moore-inspired book that has come out since Awesome went kaput.

Tell you what, I'm just going to put the pages up here (until the Image guards come to drag me away like in that scene from the Shawshank Redemption) and let you read it for yourself.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, that was it for the series as, supposedly, Rob Liefeld got a new idea for the series and was trying to sell the movie rights, so he basically shoved Seeley out. It's sad, but I am so grateful for the stories we got!

Seeley was the first writer after Moore who really got the Suprema character and had so much fun with the series. This felt like the best continuation of Moore's Awesome universe that could work with modern comic writing. The series was only nine issues long and you can do a lot worse than going out and digging them up.

Edit: Seeley was nice enough to let me interview him, which you can read here.

Next time, Warren Ellis takes Supreme to a whole different place with Blue Rose.