Give James Gunn some kind of reward or award for this guy.
Okay, so James Gunn might actually
be a genius. Why? Bloodsport. Gunn took a fairly mediocre character and turned
him someone that Idris Freaking Elba wanted to play. Yeah, as it turns out,
despite the rather memorable name he’s actually on the same level of Polka-Dot
Man or Weasel, where you actually find yourself asking “Is that character
actually real?” But I might be getting ahead of myself, let’s get to it, shall
we?
Robert DuBois’ villain career more
or less began when he dodged the Vietnam Draft. DuBois fled to Canada after
receiving his letter, as he had the admittedly justifiable fear of dying in
combat. Unfortunately, his younger brother Michael (hey!) wanted to help him,
and took DuBois’ papers and passed himself off as Robert. Unfortunately, this
story of lying to the military didn’t have a Disney’s Mulan ending, with
Michael victoriously defeating the enemy army, but he ended up losing both arms
and legs in combat. Robert, upon hearing of his brother’s fate, had a mental
breakdown. He was eventually tracked down by people working for Lex Luthor, who
was looking for a patsy in his latest plan to kill Superman.
The man working as Luthor’s agent,
going by Kimberley, twisted DuBois’ growing obsession and hatred for the
Vietnam War around Superman. They gave DuBois a small arsenal of advanced
weaponry, as well as a device that allows him to summon the weapons to him from
a distant storage area. The most dangerous of these weapons, to Superman, being
a gun that can shoot Kryptonite needles.
Minimalist costume, good, not great.
DuBois arrived in downtown
Metropolis and started using his moniker of Bloodsport. Due either to his
psychological break or in an attempt to gain sympathy, DuBois started claiming
that he served with Michael in Vietnam and they bother had been injured there.
Seeing Metropolis citizens “waste” the freedom Michael fought for and he
claimed to have fought for, somehow made DuBois snap even worse and he started
to indiscriminately kill every person he locked eyes on. The wanton slaughter
obviously did get Superman’s attention and he flew in to try to stop this
lunatic. Bloodsport summoned his needler and hit Sups with the Kryptonite
needle. Superman was able to get away and get the needle removed. In round 2,
one where even Luthor was cheering Sups on because the needless death was bad
for business, Superman was able to damage DuBois teleportation device, stopping
him from calling more weapons. Realizing the jig was about up, DuBois
threatened to detonate his teleporters battery, which would end up destroying
about ten square miles or so. Thankfully, while Sups was dealing with
Bloodsport, his camera man and friend Jimmy Olsen was able to learn he was
Robert DuBois and tracked down Michael. Michael is brought in and confronts the
elder DuBois, causing him to collapse in grief and he was finally arrested.
DuBois had a few outings after
this, but mostly remained in prison. He ended up feuding with another inmate on
Stryker’s Island, a Nazi prick by the name of Alexander Trent. Trent also used
the Bloodsport codename, having stolen it from DuBois while the later was
behind bars. Racial and prison gang tensions began to swell in Strykers and the
warden had the… idea to host a boxing match between the Bloodsports to see if
they could alleviate some of the tension. He got Superman to ref, so he’s not a
complete idiot. Unfortunately, a riot broke out as the match got started.
DuBois was able to grab one of Trent’s weapons and blue a whole in the prison
wall. He attempted to escape, but was shot and killed by guards. Trent also
died a few days later when his Nazi brothers burned him to death in his cell
for appearing weak in front of DuBois. Nazis gonna Nazi, I guess.
Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport seems
to be an untested metahuman with an enhanced body. Think Captain America, Black
Widow, or Batman, pique physical condition, above average reflexes and the
ability to shoot on par with fellow assassin Deadshot. He is strong enough to
take more-than weak blows from Superman. DuBois also has a teleportation device
that allows him to summon weapons from an undisclosed location, provided to him
by LexCorp.
Massive costume upgrade
Robert DuBois has had only a few
appeareances outside the comics. While his name is pretty cool, and while he
has critically injured Superman, the man himself is fairly bland. Yeah, he’s a
crazy person that acts like he has PTSD, but that’s about it. There are other
assassins that can do what he does but better. That said, let’s talk about the
one appearance I’ve seen of him that actually made me love a version of this
character.
Robert DuBois is played by Idris
Elba in The Suicide Squad. In this version, he’s doing time in Belle Reve for
having shot Superman and putting him in the ICU. Also, he didn’t avoid serving
in Vietnam, and instead served in an unspecified tour of duty along with Rick
Flag. And, while his brother isn’t mentioned, it is said that he was trained by
his father to be the perfect soldier and an expert marksman. He is completely
uninterested in joining Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad, until Waller pushes the
daughter button. See, DuBois in this version has a daughter named Tyla whom he
has done his damnedest to stay away from. It’s heavily implied that this is
perhaps to try to break the cycle of abuse and violence that DuBois himself
suffered from his own father. He and Tyla have a very funny screaming match at
each other before DuBois threatens to kill Waller for messing with her, before
agreeing to join the Suicide Squad to keep Tyla out of prison. He’s sent to Corto
Maltese to infiltrate Jotunheim research base and destroy project Starfish.
He’s sent in along with Peacemaker, who has the same skills as him, King Shark,
Ratcatcher 2, and Polka-Dot Man. Despite his best efforts, DuBois does end up
bonding with his team, specifically Ratcatcher 2. They are eventually able to
infiltrate Jotunheim but accidentally release the subject of project Starfish,
Starro the Conqueror on Corto Maltese. Despite being told to fall back, DuBois
says screw it and fights to destroy Starro. DuBois in this version doesn’t have
the ability to summon weapons. Instead, he wears a suit of armor with pieces
that he can detach and transform into weapons. His preference seems to be a
pair of pistols he can pull of his pecs. Other pieces can be added to existing
weapons, transforming his handgun sized blaster into a rifle and ultimately a
cannon. He also has a sword, and a little sling shot thing for smaller work.
Yeah, so to finish this as I
started, James Gunn is a genius. He took the most interesting aspects of a
pretty one-note character, basically his name and his biggest claim to fame,
upgraded him, his power, and gave him life via the acting chops of Idris
Freaking ELBA to make a solid assassin to lead his version of the Suicide
Squad. (Chef kiss) he’s perfect and I hope DC tries to reintroduce this version
of DuBois. And that’s all I have to say about that. You are probably asking
“Michael, did you really write this character bio just so you could gush about
your man crush a little more?” To which I say, yes. This is my platform and if I
want to make heart eyes at Idris Elba than I’m going to do it. No cishet man is
THAT straight. Have a goodnight, everybody.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55467187
Twitter:@BasicsSuperhero
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