There are more than eight million people in New York City. And every single one of them just became Bloodshot.

With the flip of a switch, Project Rising Spirit has just infected every man, woman, and child in New York City with a designer “nanite virus,” instantly transforming them into hard-coded killing machines. Now, block by block, the citizens of America’s greatest metropolis are falling prey to their own destructive urges…and Bloodshot is the only soldier tough enough to go head-to-head with the entire Big Apple gone bad! With the humanity of an entire city on the line, Bloodshot is waging a one-man assault on Manhattan to root out the source of this machine-made infection before it hits the heartland… but will bullets and brute force be enough to stop the spread of a pandemic deadlier than anything in human history?

Let’s call a spade a spade, and get this out the way at the beginning; this miniseries can be easily summed up in three words – Valiant Does Zombies. It’s an oversimplification of the story, and the build up that begun way back in Bloodshot Reborn #1, but at the core the nanite-zombie outbreak, and the fight for a cure, is the premise behind the comic.

Last issue saw the infection of one Valiant’s more popular characters, and the immediate impact from that is felt early in the comic with a violently frantic fight scene that spells out the danger of nanite infection better than any text heavy narration box. Once we’re past that, with a reminder of one possible way the nanite infection could be dealt with, we’re treated to a wryly humorous sequence that isn’t quite laugh out loud funny, but should elicit a smile at the very least. The sequence is a nice breather from the End Of The World vibe that the story has had up until that moment.

Jeff Lemire continues to impress with his run across the multiple Bloodshot series and stories, and while the scope of this miniseries feels huge, it’s the little moments that make this standout, and it those same moments that will have you coming back for the next issue.

Bloodshot USA #2 wasn’t a perfect issue, but it was good enough for me to tune out the world for twenty minutes, and that’s all I ever wanted in a comic.

Story: Jeff Lemire Artist: Doug Braithwaite Colours: Brian Reber
Story: 8.5 Art:9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.