BLOODFIRE: FOR GOD & COUNTRY, from Blood Moon Comics in December 2023, brings the character back from a long hiatus to find out the doctors who used him for a guinea pig may have unlocked a greater power.
The Details
- Written by: Keith Rommel
- Art by: Gianluca Testaverde
- Colors by: Maury Tanaka
- Letters by: HdEletterpunk
- Cover art by: Gianluca Testaverde
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $4.99 (pre-order now)
- Release date: December 2023 (estimated)
Is It Good?
BLOODFIRE: FOR GOD & COUNTRY marks a return to the Bloodfire character after his creation nearly 30 years ago, and Keith Rommel’s letter in the issue explains this arc is an effort to bring the character back to finish his story in full.
Before we jump in, a quick caveat. We’re reviewing a VERY advance review copy. The retail version isn’t due for release until December 2023, so the version we received has some unfinished bits, namely the coloring and dialog edits. This review takes the early draft state into account. Now, let’s get on with the show.
BLOODFIRE: FOR GOD & COUNTRY shows a lot of promise. If you’re not familiar with the decades-old character, he’s a soldier who received an experimental medical treatment after getting injured in battle. The experiment gave him enhanced strength, durability, and the ability to generate fire from his hands. Sadly, the experimenting doctors went too far and gave Bloodfire HIV in one of his injections.
Keith Rommel’s script starts off with multiple threads to give readers a taste of the past, the far past, and the present to give readers as much insight into Bloodfire’s history as possible. So, if you’d like to get your mitts on a comic about a soldier who loves his country and is willing to accept the good and bad of his condition to serve to the utmost, this is an excellent comic choice.
That said, the comic suffers from a disjointed narrative flow. There doesn’t appear to be a clear beginning, middle, end, or throughline. As presented, Bloodfire’s story is cobbled together from chunks of his history without any connective tissue stringing those chunks together. Again, we’ll extend grace because this is a very early draft, but if there’s one area we could point to for improvement, it’s the order of scenes and the need for a clear way to tie them together into a plot.
The art, at least the finished pieces, looks very good. Testaverde’s lines are exceptionally clean, his panel layouts and compositions are excellent, and Tanaka’s coloring is rock solid. If the finished product looks as good as this early draft, readers will be very pleased with the end result.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with A snippet of Bloodfire heading out on a mission to take down a group of terrorists in 2011. As the mission proceeds, we learn through the narration about Bloodfire’s views on serving the government and his loyalty to his country.
Through a collection of flashbacks at various points in Bloodfire’s history, we see how he gained his powers through an experimental drug used on him after he was wounded in battle. We see how the doctor’s experiments were unsanctioned, and in one batch of drugs, the doctors intentionally gave Bloodfire HIV. Now, Bloodfire is publicly recorded as retired, but the government brought him back to act on their behalf as a covert operative.
We conclude the issue with new drugs, unintended side effects, and a renewed purpose.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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BLOODFIRE: FOR GOD & COUNTRY brings the character back from a long hiatus to finish his story and prepare him for further adventures. Bloodfire’s origin is interesting, and the finished art looks very well done, but the plot isn’t clear, and the scenes don’t transition in a order that makes sense.
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