Youngblood #1
Writer and Artist: Rob Liefeld
Bad 90’s Artwork and Writing at its finest!!! Rob Liefeld never ceases to make me laugh!!!
Ranking: 2 stars
Awhile ago I wrote a review over the first issue of the 90’s miniseries CABLE: BLOOD AND METAL. I read the comic as I had heard many people describe the 90’s as the “dark age” of comics, as they were infamous for terrible artwork and writing, and I was curious to see if they were really as bad as people claimed them to be. With CABLE, what we got was a story that only pretends to have a plot, as it’s nothing but gun-happy mutant mercenaries with huge shoulder-pads and terrible anatomy killing people (to make it worse, it was a complete waste of a talented artist like John Romita Jr., whose work on JMS’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is beyond sensational). I described the book as representing everything that was wrong with 90’s comics, but that judgement was misguided as that honor definitely goes to Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD series. YOUNGBLOOD was the first comic to ever be published by Image Comics, a company formed by a group of artists (including Liefeld, Jim Lee, and Todd McFarlane) who had left Marvel over dissatisfaction with their payment policies. While nowadays, Image is home to successful titles such as SPAWN, INVINCIBLE, and THE WALKING DEAD, the company was infamous in the early 90’s as the comics were more focused on artwork than plot, and the artwork itself was simply terrible. Liefeld himself has been attributed as one of the worst artists in the comics industry, as not only did his art style lack a basic knowledge of human anatomy, but also inspired countless artists in the 90’s to adopt the same style (that’s why most characters in 90’s comics had steroid-enhanced muscles, shoulder-pads, and high-tech guns). While I can safely say that YOUNGBLOOD is indeed a bad comic, I do not hate this one like I did CABLE: BLOOD AND METAL, as it was beyond hilarious! Originally conceived by Liefeld, YOUNGBLOOD was adapted from a TEEN TITANS storyline that was planned for DC. Like most 90’s comics, little characterization or background is given for the members of YOUNGBLOOD, which is apparently a superhero team under the direction of the U.S. government. The organization consists of both a home team based in Washington D.C., and an away team fighting the Middle East (I’m starting to notice a pattern here, as CABLE had it’s characters fighting in 90’s Iran as well). The home team consisting of Shaft (field-archer whose bow has no string attached to it), Chapel (a War-veteran who rips-off the Punisher by having a skull painted onto his face) Diehard (an android who has been reduced to one of my favorite jokes on LINKARA’S comic review web show; we’ll get into that later), Vogue (a patriotic Russian defector whose makeup puts Kiss to shame), Badrock (a sixteen year old with the body of a rock-biter), and the alien Combat (whose obviously not ripping off the Klingons from STAR TREK). The away team is made up of Brahma (whose mouth is a vortex of crappy artwork), Riptide (who I like to call Not-Posieden’s daughter), Photon (who reminds me of Waverider from Superman), Psi-Fire (is he a telepath or something?), Sentinel (who is obviously not an Iron Man rip-off), and Cougar (was he meant to resemble Wolfsbane from X-FORCE; also created by Rob Liefeld). Right from the start Liefeld gives us twelve characters, yet does not bother to explain who they are and why the reader should care about them. Instead they are immediately thrown into action against other steroid-enhanced body builders, providing the reader nothing but senseless action without a plot, and with abnormal human anatomy that creates unintentional hilarity rather than suspenseful drama. From the beginning, it’s clear that Liefeld could care less about intricately developing the characters of YOUNGBLOOD, and that the book exists only to showcase his art style (which was ironically popular in the 90’s). This causes the book to be solely rendered without story. Lacking a structure or narrative, we know nothing about the characters as there is no time to establish their personalities or backstories, as both the home and away team are thrust into mindless action sequences. If the author is not willing to establish a reason for why the reader should care about these characters, then why should we invest our time with them? Essentially, this is the same problem that was prevalent in CABLE: BLOOD AND METAL (they’re so similar that I’m tempted to say that there’re the exact same thing). However, I cannot bring myself to hate YOUNGBLOOD like I did that comic. In fact, I honestly kind of had a fun time with this one because everything about it is so bad to the point of being hilarious (similar to ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN with its “I’m the Gosh-Darn Batman!” meme). Like I said, this book’s only reason for existing is to showcase Liefeld’s artwork, providing me numerous opportunities to laugh at it because of how bad it is. A reoccurring trend in both Liefeld and 90’s artwork, is the abundance of horrendous human anatomy, overly muscle-bound physiques, huge shoulder-pads, pouches, and high-tech laser guns. While these cliches can be found in nearly every 90’s image comic, YOUNGBLOOD is probably the worst offender of the bunch as every character possesses these attributes. The character’s eyes are so tiny that you wonder how they are able to even see (much less duke it out), their arms are often bent in bizarre ways that make them look like they lack skeletons, and were originally conceived as designs for action figures rather than comic book characters. While scenes such as Shaft throwing a pencil at an assassin at an angle that causes his arm to become elastic, as well as news reporters appearing as if they were asleep due to lacking eyes are definitely note worthy, my absolute favorite art-fail is when Diehard swoops down from the air to attack Strong-Arm. Although the scene was meant to imply that Diehard was flying down in a u-shaped angle to attack with both fists, the angle at which Strong-Arm is falling, the bizarre bending of Diehard’s arms and legs, as well as the bulge below his torso, indicate that he attacked Strong-Arm with his crotch. I know that wasn’t what was intended, but because Liefeld cannot bother to research human body structure, a scene that’s meant to be taken seriously instead becomes unintentionally funny. It’s not the only severe artistic fail of the comic, but it’s definitely the most hilarious, and the comic is worth buying for that scene alone in my eyes (I just laugh every time I see it). So while YOUNGBLOOD is definitely a bad comic, I feel that it qualifies as a so bad it’s good story. Readers can find a sense of enjoyment out of it for being able to mock it’s lack of story and characterization, as well as finding all of its artistic failings. If you’re morbidly curious about seeing why 90’s comics were criticized to the extent they were, then YOUNGBLOOD is the place to look as it’s the crown jewel of Liefeld’s artwork. I heard that Image released a hardcover edition of YOUNGBLOOD that while still featuring the same terrible artwork, was considered a major improvement over the original as it was recolored and completely rewritten by Joe Casey in order to give an actual story. I might check out that edition to see if it’s genuinely better than the original (and don’t worry, it still features Diehard attacking Strong-Arm with his crotch), but until then, I’ll have the original edition of YOUNGBLOOD to mock and laugh at. Since I don’t have a quote to end this review with, here’s a phrase I’ve coined to describe the series and Liefeld’s art: “CROTCH PUNCH!!!” -parodying the famous FALCON PUNCH meme from Super Smash Brothers Brawl; apologies to Nintendo…
