History ComicBook / BloodlinesDCComics

* CaptainErsatz: Loose Cannon is a strong Ersatz for the Hulk, in that his power is connected directly to his anger, he's incredibly bulky and brawny, and lacks a certain intelligence. Loose Cannon's only original hook is that he has different stages of power, and his skin color changes as he climbs his little rage ladder.

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The event is basically one massive series of these. Although a few of these "New Blood" characters were later featured in mini-series or ongoing series, the only one that managed any kind of success was Creator/GarthEnnis's ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'', which spun out of ''[[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} The Demon]]''.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: The event was meant to profit off the Dark Age phenomenon by creating a new batch of heroes for the era, but just ended up being incredibly [[{{Narm}} Narmy]] and forgettable. The new characters were either stupid-looking NinetiesAntiHeroes or had their potential wasted. It was generally regarded as an embarrassment and mostly ignored afterwards, except for the occasional [[SelfDeprecation insulting remark]] and the vast majority of the ''Bloodlines'' characters getting casually slaughtered during ''Infinite Crisis''.

** '''July 20:''' ''ComicBook/LeigonOfSuperHeros'' Annual #4, featuring '''Jamm'''

** '''October 5:''' ''ComicBook/LEGION93'' Annual #4, featuring '''Pax'''

** '''July 20:''' ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeros'' Annual #4, featuring '''Jamm'''

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''Bloodlines'' is a 1993 crossover event by Creator/DCComics.

The crossover involved alien parasites invade Earth to drain their spinal fluids.

!!''Bloodlines'' provides examples of:
* AndThisIsFor: The Creator/DCComics CrisisCrossover features this in the portion of the storyline told in the 17th annual issue of ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}''. After Ballistic has succeeded in killing the alien who murdered his fellow Gotham City cops, he states that what he did was for eight good men...[[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and McCain]].

* BladeBelowTheShoulder: Razorsharp of Franchise/TheDCU team books ''Psyba-Rats'' and ''Blood Pack'' was a PlayfulHacker (with [[TheCracker Cracker]] tendencies) whose superpower was that her arms could morph into swords. In ''Psyba-Rats'' she mainly used them to climb walls and break into buildings (in a good cause, usually); in ''Blood Pack'' she was reluctantly put in a position where she'd have to use them in combat.

* CListFodder: Most of the heroes created during the 90's event ended up quickly falling into obscurity, only to be brought out of limbo in order to be used as cannon fodder in events such as ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' and ''Faces of Evil''. The high mortality rate of the Bloodlines heroes was referenced in-universe several times, with the Flash chalking this up to a general lack of competence on their part. In addition, certain writers (Jamal Igle being most vocal) have gone on record stating that these characters' deaths were due to the fact that they (the writers) personally didn't like them and found them to be one of the worst parts of '90s DC canon.
* CrisisCrossover: Whether you like this or not all depends on if you're a fan of MediaNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}}. This was a CrossThrough of all of DC's Annual series for 1993. A race of [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph-like]] parasites invade and start killing people by draining their spinal fluid. A small percentage of people, however, gained superpowers by this, leading to the creation of a new bunch of {{Nineties Anti Hero}}es. Nothing really changed and these new heroes were eventually reduced to [[CListFodder cannon fodder]] for ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis, or else ending up in ComicBookLimbo. The only notable result from this crossover being Creator/GarthEnnis' ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}''. Aside from that, it's probably best remembered for crossing over with two far-better known DC stories from the same time period: ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' and ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', due to featuring the four replacement Supermen and the Azrael-Batman for most of the crossover.
* DarkAgeOfSupernames: The miniseries produced a whole slew of these: Ballistic, Cardinal Sin, Edge, Gunfire, Hook, Jamm, Krag, Loose Cannon, Mongrel ([[UnfortunateImplications an African-American/Vietnamese superhero]]), Nightblade, Razorsharp, Terrorsmith... it goes on and on. There was also ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}, who was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly that]], but his comic ran with it, in a BlackComedy sort of way. In Hitman's own series, there was Nightfist, a tough vigilante who shows no mercy and ''will'' hit you, with his fists, hard.
** That said, Nightfist was a crooked hero who beat up crooks for their money and wore a costume so people wouldn't ask questions.
** In the Hitman Annual, it was mentioned that ''all'' of the Bloodlines-created supers except Hitman had been killed in less than two years. (As ComicBook/TheFlash put it, "There's more to this business than putting on a costume and going out to 'be super'.")

--->'''[=McAllister=]:''' Well, anyway, the result was a completely new generation of superpowered human beings...
--->'''Monaghan:''' You mean like whatsizname? An' that other guy?
--->'''[=McAllister=]:''' That's them.

* DecompositeCharacter: Eddie Walker/Loose Cannon, who was basically a blue Hulk, was one of the main characters created in the crossover. In the New 52 universe, a version of Loose Cannon appeared in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' as a random [[AdaptationalVillainy villain]], but his real name was unrevealed. A few years later, a version of Eddie Walker was a major character in the New 52 ''Bloodlines'' miniseries, which didn't use codenames. Since Eddie only gained his hulking blue form during the miniseries, they can't be the same guy, and in fact the ''Titans'' Loose Cannon has [[AdaptationalSuperpowerChange slightly different powers]].

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The early 90s Creator/DCComics crossover event is basically one massive series of Poorly Disguised Pilots, with that year's "annual" issue for each ongoing series showcasing the origin of a new superhero. Although a few of these "New Blood" characters were later featured in mini-series or ongoing series, the only one that managed any kind of success was Creator/GarthEnnis's ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'', which spun out of ''[[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} The Demon]]''.

* TakeThat: A common running joke over at DC has been to mock the [[NinetiesAntiHero EEEEEXTREMEEE heroes]] who spun out of the crossover from the [[MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks 90's]]. For instance, the ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]/ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}''[[note]]Hitman himself being a product of the crossover, yet far more successful than any of the other debuts[[/note]] crossover had ComicBook/TheFlash claim that the Bloodlines heroes were a bunch of buffoons who nobody else in the superhero community wanted to team-up with. He then chalked up their [[CListFodder infamously high mortality rate]] to a general lack of competence on their part. This happened as early as the months after the storyline ended. During the ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'' storyline, Jean-Paul Valley encounters two of them in the main titles. He tells one of them to get out of Gotham or he's going to get killed and the other quickly leaves town after his adventure with them is over. Many of them end up getting killed by Superboy-Prime later on down the line.
* TakeThatScrappy: Almost all the titles introduced in the crossover flopped after less than a year, with the lead characters being relegated to ComicBookLimbo. This was brought up in-universe in ''JLA/Hitman'', where ComicBook/GreenLantern and ComicBook/TheFlash mockingly claimed that the Bloodline heroes were a bunch of incompetent losers that everyone else in the superhero community looked down upon (this had extra self-congratulatory subtext from Creator/GarthEnnis, since ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'' had been the one character with a ''Bloodlines''-related origin to actually take off).