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As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page. |
Robert DuBois, also known as Bloodsport, is an aggressive but level-headed mercenary and operative of the Suicide Squad with technology allowing him to teleport weapons to his person.
History
Origin
As a child, Robert and his brother Mickey both dreamed of being soldiers when they grew up. Mickey enlisted as soon as he turned 18, but Robert didn't, not feeling brave enough. At some point Mickey died in war, defending the country. Robert's grief over his brother's death pushed him over the edge, and he became the mercenary known as "Bloodsport,"[1] constructing a teleporter with stolen LexCorp technology that gave him access to an unlimited arsenal of weapons in the field.[2]
Eventually, Bloodsport came into conflict with Superman, against whom Robert used a gun that fired shards of kryptonite, only to be imprisoned in Stryker's Island Penitentiary. Shortly after the death of Superman, he escaped, and, wearing a suit covered in self-assembling guns, attacked a young, new Superman. When his kryptonite-coated bullets failed to fell the hero, Bloodsport was handily defeated a delivered into the custody of the Metropolis Police Department.[3]
DuBois spent time in the nation of Zandia, a political haven for supervillains, where he visited a casino run by Roulette.[4] Joining a group of mercenaries contracted to abduct Solomon Grundy on behalf of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, he shot Grundy's defender Superman out of the sky before engaging and being defeated by Batman.[5] Bloodsport later entered into a shootout with the police in Hub City, during which he was disarmed and bound by the racing Flashes, Barry Allen and Wally West.[6]
Suicide Squad
Bloodsport was eventually incarcerated at Belle Reve Penitentiary, where he was forced to operate as a member of the Task Force X program by Amanda Waller. He was equipped with a protective suit, armed with a cache of weapons, and was sent to different Earths across the multiverse to bring back intel on them, and the multiverse itself.[1]
After several missions, Bloodsport made his way to Earth-3, where he attempted to capture Black Siren for Waller's use. However, he came into conflict with Ultraman, who safely destroyed the bomb in Bloodsport's skull so he could be interrogated on who was supplying him with kryptonite. Waller sent the Suicide Squad to Earth 3 to rescue Bloodsport, and he joined the main team as their new field leader, with their previous leaders unavailable or unfit to lead.[7]
Bloodsport was later confronted by Peacemaker who came to recruit him for Rick Flag's own squad against Amanda Waller. Peacemaker also revealed that he knew that Bloodsport no longer had a bomb in his head but could not understand why he continued to follow Waller's orders, especially when it became clear that she had gone off the deep end with her recent actions.
While initially refusing to cooperate, resulting in a hand-to-hand duel between the two men, Bloodsport eventually confessed to Peacemaker that Waller had planted bombs in every instance of his brother Mickey across the multiverse as leverage against him. Despite winning their duel, Bloodsport decided to spare Peacemaker and accept his offer to help both him and Flag take down Amanda Waller for good.[8]
With orders against killing, he and Flag's Suicide Squad stormed Waller's headquarters on Task Force X Island. Bloodsport and the rest of the Squad attempted to cut off her evacuation point on the beach only to discover that she had already left to seize control of Earth-3, and that the ground on which they stood was in fact the shape-shifting villain Clayface.[9] In their struggle, he inadvertently shot and killed his teammate the Fisherman, though the Squad was eventually rescued by their ally Doctor Rodriguez. Joined by Rodriguez and abandoned members of Waller's Squad, they set out to confront her on Earth-3.[10]
There, however, they found that Waller had secured the allegiance of local superteam the Crime Syndicate, and were quickly overwhelmed. Bloodsport fled with teammates Flag and Mirror Master through a portal created by the latter to recover[11] before reengaging the Syndicate. Bloodsport took up a sniper's position outside Waller's headquarters, killing her aide Agent Parker, and threatening to do the same to her until she teleported in his brother's multiversal counterparts as human shields. Bloodsport rejoined her service[12] with the promise that she would free his brother's duplicates. After contributing to a joint effort to subdue the rampaging Ultraman, Bloodsport was returned by Waller to his own earth with his brothers and Flag's team.[13]
After escaping the destruction of Belle Reve, a contingency measure put in place by Waller, the Squad turned freelance under Flag's leadership while Bloodsport, struggling to accommodate his brother's many counterparts,[13] impatiently urged the team to return them to their native worlds. First, however, the duplicates were infiltrated into LexCorp headquarters in a plot by the Suicide Squad to steal from LexCorp head Lex Luthor. Bloodsport and his teammates launched diversionary attacks on Luthor, engineering their own capture and imprisonment at LexCorp, while spectral Squad member Culebra entered the headquarters by possessing the body of one of the Dubois duplicates. Seizing Luthor's body, she freed the team and attempted to make a withdrawal from her unwilling host's accounts, only to be overwhelmed by the power of his mind. The Squad was eventually able to subdue Luthor, who agreed to pay them a ransom and depart.[14]
Acting on his own, Bloodsport bought into a high-stakes manhunt organized by Roulette for the sake of practicing his skills, preemptively waiving the prize money. After his competitors failed to kill their targets, camping father-and-son Bruce and Damian Wayne, who, unbeknownst their hunters, were the civilian identities of the superheroes Batman and Robin. Bloodsport located their sleeping bags and fired upon them, finding that they were empty. He was then attacked by Bruce Wayne, whose alter ego he deduced from his use of Batman's signature batarang, only for Wayne to seize and reverse his teleportation device, sending Bloodsport to the cache from which he drew his weapons.[2]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Firearms: Bloodsport is a highly skilled marksman, trained in the use of a wide variety of firearms, including handguns, high caliber rifles, and even flamethrowers and Kryptonite guns.[1]
- Gadgetry[1]
- Martial Arts: Bloodsport is a highly experienced fighter, having taken on Metahumans, Atlanteans, and Lanterns head on. He claims to be trained in every form of combat.[1] Even Batman acknowledges him as expert in hand-to-hand combat.[15]
- Surveillance[1]
- Tactical Analysis[1]
- Weaponry[1]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Extradimensional teleporter: Bloodsport uses a teleportation device of his own design to instantly teleport weapons to himself from a cache.[2]
- Protective suit and helmet: While acting as a multiversal scout for Amanda Waller, Bloodsport was given a suit and helmet which protected his brain from the differential vibration of alternate universes.[1]
Weapons
- Guns: After joining the Suicide Squad, Bloodsport was given access to an unlimited arsenal of weapons. However, certain weapon requests, including his kryptonite-based armaments, required Amanda Waller's authorization to be fulfilled.[1]
- Weapons suit: When Bloodsport fought Superboy, he wore a suit with self-assembling guns built into its outer surface.[3]
Notes
- Bloodsport was created by John Byrne, first appearing in Superman (Volume 2) #4. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Bloodsport first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in The Flash (Volume 5) #61 by Joshua Williamson and Rafa Sandoval.
- Bloodsport's protective suit is based on his DC Extended Universe counterpart's from the then-recent film The Suicide Squad.
Related
- 23 Appearances of Robert DuBois (Prime Earth)
- 18 Images featuring Robert DuBois (Prime Earth)
- 2 Quotations by or about Robert DuBois (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Robert DuBois (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Batman and Robin 2024 Annual (Volume 3) #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1
- ↑ The Flash (Volume 5) #62
- ↑ Batman/Superman (Volume 2) #15
- ↑ The Flash #768
- ↑ Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #6
- ↑ Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #11
- ↑ Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #12
- ↑ War for Earth-3 #1
- ↑ Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #13
- ↑ War for Earth-3 #2
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #14
- ↑ Suicide Squad (Volume 7) #15
- ↑ Batman and Robin 2024 Annual (Volume 3) #1
Suicide Squad member |
Secret Society of Super-Villains member |
Superman Villain(s) This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category." |
Crime Syndicate/Society member This character is or was primarily a member of the the CSA (Crime Syndicate of America • Crime Syndicate of Amerika • Crime Society of America), in any of its various incarnations, either on Earth-Three, Earth-3, Earth 3, or in the Antimatter Universe. As with all other CSA members, they are an evil version of a hero of the mainstream DC Universe, primarily the Justice League. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "CSA members" category. |