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: Youngblood

TGIT!!!!


What's up people? For this week's edition of Dream Waves, I'm going to step back a bit from my usual routine of showcasing waves of figures I'd like to see get made concerning either Marvel or DC. Nope, instead, I'm going to give companies like Image Comics a shot, as I talk about the figures I'd wish were made from certain Image Comics' franchises, like say Youngblood, Spawn, Savage Dragon and the like.

Today I'll be focusing on Rob Liefield's Youngblood.


Ah Youngblood. Rob Liefield's first published creation at Image comics, debuted in the fall of '92, selling millions in just a few short weeks, following the infamous exodus of seven artists from Marvel comics and the formation of Image Comics.

Giving the devil his due, it was with Youngblood that Liefield really explored the celebrity approach to superheroes in general, making Youngblood a high-profile government-sponsored superhero team that were media darlings for the most part. That particular angle of the genre hadn't really been explored before, or so publicly on a large scale before.

Despite being a trendsetter( if only for a very short period of time) Youngblood was plagued with chronic lateness and a long, coherent mission statement and purpose, with many starts and stops along its long published history. Even with high profile names like Alan Moore, Kurt Busiek and
Joe Casey working on the franchise, it just never took off and made a lasting impact beyond it's initial appearance like it was meant to.

Well today I'll be giving the team the spotlight by showcasing at least two waves' worth of figures that I'd like to see finally made and out for toy collectors to well, collect.

Enjoy....



Youngblood Wave 1:


1). Shaft


2). Vogue



3). Chapel


4). Diehard

5). Sentinel

6). Combat



7). Batttlestone

BAF:   Badrock


Youngblood Wave 2:


1). Riptide



2). Knight Sabre

3). Cougar

4). Photon

There's the original male version, then He switched gender into a she. Alien culture thing apparently.

5). Suprema

6). Crypt


7). Dutch

BAF:  Troll



And that's just in two waves. I imagine I could stretch out another two waves' worth of material. Maybe next time.

I will say there's not really too many recurring villains to slide into these waves, outside of Crypt. Well I guess Warwolf, so there's that/

So, Who Would Win?: Youngblood VS. The Avengers

TGIT!!!!!

That's right folks, I'm pitting Rob Liefields' signature team against the iconic franchise team from Marvel Comics, the Avengers.




As is the case with superhero teams, there's bound to be plenty of roster changes over the years, depending on how long that teams' been around. And both teams, regardless of the length of time they've been around, have had plenty of membership rotations over the years. To simplify things for today, I'll just be focusing on the original incarnations of both teams.

Here's Young blood's initial line-up:

-Shaft (team leader)
He's an FBI agent turned archer.

-Badrock
He's the muscle of the group.

-Diehard
He's what Iron Man would be if he was around during WWII and was more of a cyborg.

-Kombat
He's the resident team alien warrior.
No powers, but very tough.

-Chapel
He's the resident team mercenary/government guy. Kind of like if the Punisher was working for the government, but black with a skull painted on his face. He also helped create Spawn.

-Vogue
She's basically the Image Comics' version of the Black Widow.

They're going up against the classic team of Avengers circa Avengers#4.

In case you don't already know, the line-up is as follows:

-Captain America (team leader)

-Iron Man

-Thor

-Giant Man

-The Wasp

As you can see, this'll be an interesting right since Youngblood outnumbers the Avengers 6-5, but the Avengers seem to have a slight advantage in the firepower department.

So, 

Youngblood



VS.


The Avengers












Who Wins and Why?
Let me know who you thinks the last team standing in the comments' section.

Have a good weekend folks....