Smallville might actually have been the first live-action DC property to use Bloodsport. Introduced in a 1987 comic, Bloodsport was an unknown, D-list Superman villain for decades, but his name recognition increased greatly when was he made an appearance in The Suicide Squad.
Played by Idris Elba, the DCEU’s Bloodsport shares the notorious reputation of his comic book counterpart, who nearly killed the Man of Steel with a Kryptonite bullet. Similar to the approach taken to the other obscure characters in the movie, The Suicide Squad reimagined him as an anti-hero. But while most viewers likely never heard of Task Force X’s new leader before James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, it’s not the first time he’s appeared in live-action. Before that, he was played by David St. Louis as a one-off villain for a season 3 episode of the Arrowverse series, Supergirl. In the show, Bloodsport was depicted as a mercenary in the employ of Morgan Edge.
It could be that Bloodsport’s links to the small screen goes back further than the Arrowverse. In Smallville season 3, episode 3, titled “Extinction”, Lana (Kristin Kreuk) was rescued from a meteor-infected high school classmate by a fellow student, who took him out with a sniper rifle. The kid was treated like a vigilante, but Clark (Tom Welling) quickly figured out that he wasn’t actually saving anyone. Apparently, the “meteor freak” killer was Van McNulty (Jesse Metcaife). As it turned out, Van’s father was a victim of one of season 2’s super-powered villains. Because of this, Van had become devoted to killing all the “meteor freaks” in Smallville. Thinking Clark was one of them, Van made a Kryptonite bullet and shot him in the same place where Superman was shot by Bloodsport in the comics.
Not unlike what happened with the original Bloodsport, Clark was left in dire straits by the bullet, which sent him into an unconscious state for hours. The only thing that saved him from death was the timely intervention of Jonathan Kent (John Schneider), who removed the bullet. After that, Clark defeated Van, but had to deal with him a second time after being put in the Belle Reve mental institution, which is coincidentally the same place that Elba’s Bloodsport ended up in The Suicide Squad. Van’s Smallville story came to an end when two “meteor freaks” convinced him to join in their plot to kill Clark – and then murdered him.
Looking at what’s known about Van in Smallville, there are some interesting parallels between him and Bloodsport (aside from the obvious Kryptonite bullet connection). In DC Comics, Bloodsport was a draft dodger who became mentally unstable as a result of his brother’s death in the Vietnam War. So despite not being a military veteran, Robert DuBois was transformed into a hardened killer with a grudge against Superman by Lex Luthor. In a way, Smallville’s Van McNulty comes off as a teenage Bloodsport. In the same vein as the DC character, he was a person whose severe psychological issues influenced his crusade against Clark. Also, both villains acted like hardened soldiers, even though neither had any real military experience. So while the link between the two has never been officially confirmed, there’s a strong possibility that when telling Van’s story, the show was taking inspiration from Bloodsport.