Dream Team: Youngblood

I know I've probably mentioned this before, well at least I have on Twitter (Trust me I'm there and you should see the shit I post and retweet on there) but if you haven't already heard creator Rob Liefield has essentially lost the rights to his creation Youngblood.

 

I'll leave you guys a link below to an article that explains the whole thing in detail, here.

Basically, when Liefield's Awesome Entertainment company (which was founded in 1997) went bust in 2000, Liefield and his business partners each got a certain number of Liefield's creations from his catalogue as a means of financial compensation.

Liefield's ex-business partner, Scott Rosenberg kept the rights to Youngblood and decided to carry publishing the title w/o Liefield, and after much back and forth between the two, thus Liefield backed off and has made peace that Youngblood's no longer owns his creation.

Sad, and fucked up? Oh yeah! I'm not huge Liefield supporter these days for various reasons, but even I have to agree that Rob got fucked on this one, and that no creator should be forced to lose the rights to his creation, unless he wanted to.

Hey, I'll readily admit it; back in the early 90's during Image Comics' heyday, I was a HUGE fan from '92-'96. More so of Rob's stuff then Spawn and some of the others. I'd later gravitate towards Savage Dragon as well, and Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri's books were equally competing from my money back then as well, so trust me, I'm coming at this article from a genuine place of love.

Anyhoo, today I'm focusing on the team and who I'd like to see on it if they were being published today, which they're supposed to be, but we'll see.

This is strictly my take on who I feel should be on the team, and spoilers, with one or two exceptions, must of them will be from the era I read Youngblood, not the new additions and rosters since then.

1). Shaft (Team Leader)

He's always been the leader in just about every other incarnation of the team ever since he was chosen to replace Battlestone. There's no reason to not keep him there in that position.

2). Diehard

I've always liked his design, he's more robot than man, so can do all sorts of shit with him.

3). Chapel


Chapel's always stood out from the team, and that's mainly because he's always been a merc or CIA assassin. My reason for initially placing him in the team is that he's a CIA/government plant to observe and report back to the US government about the team, and "clean up" anything that needs cleaning up. He'd eventually be removed from the team later down the line.



4). Badrock


The only other teen on the team besiews Suprema, and a hell of a powerhouse. Plus he's an OG member more or less.

5). Vogue


She's the Black Widow to Shaft's Captain America/Hawkeye. Every group needs a hot Russian spy figure on a team these days right?

6). Cougar

He's a good character overall and is a human/cat-person hybrid. That should make for some fun drama.

7). Suprema 


I mean if Youngblood's supposed to be like the Teen Titans, then Suprema's your Wonder Girl analogue right there. A hell of a powerhouse and the kid sister to Liefield's version of Superman but w/ an attitude problem, Supreme. She'll be a great addition to the team. Maybe she can hook up with Badrock?

So that's my thoughts for a Youngblood team. I'm sure everyone has their version or interpretation, and this one just happens to be mine. If you have your own Youngblood dream roster, let me know in the comments' section. 

Dream Waves: X-Force

TGIT!!!!!

What's up people?
Welcome to another edition of


The feature where I discuss and present my ideas for potential waves of action figures, in particular potential waves for the Marvel Legends toy line from Hasbro.

This time I'm rolling out my designs for an X-Force wave or two of figures.

Ah yes, X-Force. If there was ever a team and team name that screamed and reeked of the 1990's, it would be X-Force, the brainchild of the man who hates drawing feet more than Trump hates telling the truth, Rob F'N Liefield.


I was regular reader of X-Force for at least the first 2 years, and then my attention waned, with me coming back periodically throughout the rest of the run.

If you look back at the long publishing history of X-Force, you'll notice they tended to change creative teams as much if not more, than they changed rosters.

As the 90's ended and the 00's began, Warren Ellis briefly took over the book and changed it completely to suit his story, and then Peter Milligan took it over and changed it into a completely different animal, complete with totally original new characters taking the name from the old crew.

After that X-Force became Cyclops' personal mutant militant hit squad, attacking and eliminating threats before they had a chance to attack the X-Men.

After a few years of that it kind of went back to being Cable's team again, before the series was eventually cancelled again.

It's since come back again, reuniting some of the original members with a member or two of the other versions, all in a bid for revenge for the death of Cable. Yes he's dead again for now, but hey there's a younger Cable running around, so there's that, even if he;s the one that killed off the Cable we all know and love.

Comics, gotta' love em' right?

Anyhoo, here's idea for at least a solid good 2 waves' worth of X-Force figures that Hasbro could make and sell on the market to collectors.

-X-Force Wave 1:


1). Cable (1st Appearance) 


2). Cannonball


3). Boom Boom


I'll go with either of these costumes.

4). Sunspot


5). Rictor 

6). Feral



7). Warpath

I'll take either version of him from his early X-Force days. Unless we FINALLY get a Thunderbird figure, than I guess I'm leaning on that particular version of Warpath. Again, I'll be happy with either of these looks honestly.

BAF: Forearm

-X-Force Wave 2:


1). Siryn


2). Kane (Weapon X)

I'll honestly go with any design, but I do like the classic one the most.

3). Domino (1st Appearance) 

As an added bonus I'd throw in alternate head. That of Copycat so that collectors can replicate that time Copycat infiltrated X-Force and posed as Domino.


4). X-Force Nightcrawler

Hell I'd love to see a new Hasbro version of Nightcrawler (as does his #1 fan, my buddy Googum) but I'd also like to see this version of Nightcrawler since more than likely we probably won't get a figure of his AoA look.  And shit, there's already a precedent for it since an official X-Force Nightcrawler figure was already released in wave 24 of the 3 and 3/4 inch Marvel Universe figure line.


 Might as well give the ML fans a proper 6 inch version as well I say.


5). Gideon

6). Reignfire

7). Dani Moonstar

Ok, sure, technically this isn't the costume she used during her time on the team, but I honestly like it better than either of the two looks she was sporting back then, both as a member of the MLF and later on as an official member of the team.


BAF: The Blob

Yes we already have a BAF Blob figure that was put out by Hasbro over 10 years ago. And he was fine for the time. Truly he was. I just think to help make things easier on collectors who don't feel like paying a high price when scrambling to get him, that Hasbro makes a new and improved BAF Blob figure. Might as well.  And in the name of fun, let 'em through in the same kind of food accessories that came with his old 90's Toybiz figure.

-X-Force Wave 3:


1). Sunspot 

2). Cannonball


I figure either of these two would be okay choices to use for another version of Sam during his X-Force days.

3). Wolfsbane (X-Force)

Personally if and when Hasbro ever gets around to making a Wolfsbane figure I'd rather see her in her X-Factor costume as I've previously mentioned in my X-Factor dream waves article. That being said, this one's more for the X-Force completists of the hit squad era which received their own box set of figures, they just happened to exclude Wolfsbane for some reason. This inclusion would rectify that mistake.

4).  Wildside

5). Tempo 



6). Reaper


I'll take either look.

7). Zero

Ok, this one may admittedly be a hard sell for Hasbro. I mean look at him. Sure he may be one of the easiest designs and paint app figures to ever produce, but he's also kind of.....well, boring.

BUT....

He's also a crucial part of X-Force's early years, since he was one of the original members of Stryfe's MLF as well as being Stryfe's right hand man during that time period.


BAF: Nimrod

How we haven't already gotten a Nimrod figure yet I don't know, but we should, especially since there's already been two official Separate Sentinel figures already put out. 

I'm not sure how they'd translate him into figure-form, but I'm sure as long as they stay fairly faithful to the main design, he'll look just fine.

So that's it. That's 3 waves' worth of potential X-Force figures.
What do you guys think? Is there anyone I accidentally left out or didn't think to include that I should've?

I will admit to leaving out the X-Force versions of Forge, Domino, Colossus, Marrow, and Dr. Nemesis. I myself just wasn't all that interested in seeing figures of them, and since this IS my list, that's fine. Maybe you want to see those versions. That's cool too. Hound Hasbro for them.

I will say though that there is to be released this year a single ML X-Force wave.

BUT....

It's only going to have 6 figures in it, and more than likely they'll mostly be repaints of existing figures. That and there's no BAF included.

That makes me and some others think that those 6 figures will wind up being a edition of the Rick Remender-era X-Force, that will include previously-released figures from the X-Force box set, but with the addition of the new Deathlok figure painted in his X-Force look.

We'll see what happens, but that's the word on the streets so far.