In The Adventures of Superman #526, the two Bloodsports meet for the first time - in prison.īeing a white supremacist, the decision by Trent to take over the identity and power set of a Black man is a strange one - and of course, it is a bit awkward when he and Trent come to the realization that they are wearing the same dress to the dance, so to speak. Later in that first appearance, Bloodsport took a group of hostages and tried to force Superman to choose between them by using two missiles the Man of Steel outwitted the trick, of course, but it sets up a whole story of Bloodsport chasing after Ron Troupe, a then-recent addition to the Daily Planet newsroom who was also black. The introduction of a new Bloodsport was also something that tied easily into the events of the titles at the time because white supremacist views and the ability to make weapons appear seemingly out of thin air made him an interesting foil for the newly-introduced Steel, a Black man who had spent years developing military weapons and who had been horrified when some of those high-powered guns made their way into the hands of street gangs. So pairing it with a murderous white supremacist was a bit on the controversial side.

Following the death and return story, some of the titles seemed to embrace the grim and gritty nature of the early' 90s comics boom enthusiastically - so much so that the week before Bloodsport's first appearance, Superman had failed to save Cat Grant's ten-year-old son Adam from being murdered. That illusion is short-lived, though: Bloodsport also killed the woman he had just 'saved,' because she was black.īloodsport II came along at a dark time in the Superman titles.

Introduced when a group of thugs were beating up on a woman in an alley, it was at first implied he might be an antihero rather than an outright villain: he kills the thugs and 'rescues' her.

This one, too, had an agonizing and politically-tinged backstory but much less sympathetic. Just two months after Superman was 'back for good' from his death at the hands of Doomsday, another Bloodsport appeared.

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