With the film The Suicide Squad coming up, I thought it would be nice to help use this blog to talk about some of the characters in the film. The film is using quite a few lesser-known DC supervillains in it, one of them being Bloodsport. Who is being portrayed by Idris Elba. I thought, why not take a look at the comic that introduced him? This is Superman #4! I do want to warn you, this comic can be pretty violent, so just keep that in mind before proceeding.
I like the cover. A John Byrne piece, it shows our man blasting the comic's masthead logo to smithereens. I admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for covers that mess with the masthead logo.
"Bloodsport!"
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Karl Kesel
Colorist: Anthony Tollin
Letterer: John Costanza
Editors: Andrew Helfer, Mike Carlin
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano
The story begins with Jimmy Olsen and his then-main squeeze Lucy Lane eating at a fast-food joint. Jimmy is trying to convince her to help him discover some shady goings-on at the airline she works at. Jimmy then hears a man screaming, and the bullets start flying.
Page 8, Panel 2
Bloodsport fires into the crowd of people, ranting and raving about how people are wasting the freedoms he and someone named "Mickey" fought in Vietnam to defend. Bloodsport rides off on his motorcycle, blasting the restaurant one last time in the process. Jimmy summons Superman with his signal watch. The Man of Steel looks into the restaurant, and he is understandably sickened by the sight of the corpses.
Captain Maggie Sawyer of the Metropolis Major Crime Unit (making her debut here) estimates about twenty-five people are dead. She has an APB on him, but it's like the man vanished. Superman is able to pick up the trail with his heat vision. Jimmy Olsen tries to go after the Metropolis Marvel (he wants the scoop on Bloodsport), but his car decides now is a good time to break down.
Olsen's car is equipped with a police band scanner, and it alerts him to Bloodsport rampaging in Kenmoore Lanes, a bowling alley Jimmy used to go to as a kid. He's getting a taxi! Speaking of Bloodsport, the man has decided to fill everyone in the alley with hot lead, except for a hostage. Superman and the murderous madman face off. Bloodsport tries to blast his hostage's head off, but Superman's able to push his gun aside and knock him on his butt, but the psycho has one more trick. He makes a little futuristic pistol appear in his hand.
Page 16, Panel 3
It's like the needler from Halo, but packing Kryptonite. Yup, the gun fired a small sliver of the toxic green alien rock, and as anyone with an ounce of knowledge about the Man of Tomorrow knows, Green K can hurt or even kill Superman with long enough exposure. Anyway, Bloodsport is about to finish off the Man of Tomorrow when an unlikely savior comes to his aid.
Page 17, Panel 1
Yup, Jimmy Olsen has had all he can stands, and he can't stands no more. Even he would be able to hit Bloodsport with that mega-cannon at this range. Despite this, Bloodsport gets away with the aid of a smoke bomb. Olsen is able to get Superman to a hospital. The Man of Steel is weak, but he still has to stop Bloodsport. And since he has access to Kryptonite, that means there's a man behind the man. And that man? One Lex Luthor.
Page 19, Panel 1
Luthor had Bloodsport prepared as a weapon against Superman, naturally. But the man was clearly unstable, and well...all this has been happening. Luthor demands that the plug be pulled on Bloodsport, if you know what I mean. Superman re-engages Bloodsport, but his injured state makes him really unable to bring down the madman. He gets ambushed by a tank provided by Luthor. Interestingly, Bloodsport seems unaware of Luthor being his patron.
Bloodsport materializes a bazooka to destroy the tank, which gives Superman an idea of how to stop him. Superman uses his heat vision to ionize the air around the psychopath, screwing up the teleporter he uses to get his weapons. However, Bloodsport has one last ditch weapon. You see, the bandolier he wore was not just to look cool.
Page 26, Panel 2
It's a bomb activated by a dead man's switch. A bomb powerful enough to blow a ten square-mile crater in the Big Apricot. Another man tries to make one last attempt to try and talk him down.
Page 27, Panel 1
Meet Mickey DuBois. This is the man Bloodsport was ranting about. He pleads with Bloodsport to let this end, as the war in Vietnam is over. It's here Jimmy Olsen reveals the whole story of the DuBois brothers. You see, Robert "Bloodsport" DuBois was a draft dodger. When his number came up to go to 'Nam, he fled to Canada. It wasn't because he was against the war. He fled out of fear. Mickey went in his place, posing as Bobby. When Bobby learned of Mickey's loss of all his limbs in 'Nam...he went insane. Bobby had spent the last decade in mental hospitals in Canada.
The story ends with Bobby hugging his brotherl
I did like this story, although I can understand if some may be turned off by the violence of this story. Considering the epidemic of shootings in the United States in recent years...yeah. I get it.
If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2004 trade paperback Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 3.
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