The Next Generation of Zeroes!
My orginal text review turned into a video!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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40 comments:
See now it was stuff like this that made me not want to read comics when I was coming of age.
Hurray! I've been waiting to see this one uploaded. Finally: the origin of Youngblood's Disease.
Way to go, Linkara! You rule!
Interesting retrospective at the begining. Man, the 90's in comics must've been crazy! Speaking of real life issues in comics, Superman's early opponents were like crooked fellows in the real world.
Physics? We don't need no skinkin' physics!
Looks like you have come full circle Linkara!
I generally have a great dislike against heroes who are unlikable dicks.
I heard Alan Moore once wrote for this series. Did his run manage to inject some kind of decency into this abysmal series? Or was this comic series just so bad that not even an extraordinary writer like Alan Moore could help it?
Wait. There was an issue #0? Why didn't they just call it issue #1? Was it really because it was somehow more X-TREME!? Did it actually bother to explain the concept and history behind this team? This concept of issue #0 confuses and enrages me! I need my happy pills.
Great review btw.
I love the 90's, but it was stuff like this that kept me away from superhero comics for 90% of my life.
It's hard to believe that Rob Liefeld did in fact at least co-create some great comic book characters, the Marvel anti-heroes Deadpool and Cable come to mind.
Thnak god that I just skipped all this phase, and spend my time playing soccer or Street Fighter 2 in the SNES.
I don't now how Liefield made to get Alan Moore to write some comics, there's an explanation, but... well, in fact is very weird...
This does make me think back to those times, being a "target demographic" from the time. I'm not disagreeing with you at all. Youngblood did indeed blow. But it was the early 1990's and it was different time. We knew they were artists and not writers, but we also saw how Todd McFarlane and even John Byrne made that jump from artist to writer and so with youthful naievity, we thought that maybe this applied to many other artists as well, and that this was the beginning of something new and extraordinary. It was like a rock star mentality, as we were forgiving of their scripting shortcomings, with the thought 'Hey, they'll get better!'...
Yeah, well, it's not the first time fans were deluded.
Wow. Aside from the overly-jarring Youngblood's Disease, none of the characters are interesting at all, and the plot isn't much better.
So in terms of reading it, how did the two-team thing work? Did every other page have a different story, either right side up or upside down?
And remember, folks: someone in Hollywood wants to make a movie out of this series!
(Also, did anyone else hear him say "You gotta give 'em hope" and think of "Milk"?)
What frightens me is that there's a movie potentially in the making based on this. Directed by Brett Ratner.
Let that sink in for a moment.
AHH! This is worse than seeing Ron Lim's art on Sonic the Hedgehog! Ron Lim is good at superheroes but when it comes to Sonic characters, avert your eyes.
Anyway, idiots must have bought this stupid comic and put it in a plastic bag without reading the contents because it was a "Number One" and "Number Zero" and thought it would be worth a lot of money in the future.
Thinking about Brama's comment about flies, I imagine he gets a lot of those in his huge mouth.
Yes 90's kid!!!!!
Exellent review. I actually confused these guys for WildKats...which I confused for Ultra Force... Which confused for...
hm, that blue character (called combat i think) kinda looks like a gay khorne berzerker with a plasma gun. ;)
Yeah, there really wasn't anything good about the 90s was there?
As for Youngblood, I gave up after issue 0... I feel so sorry for you having to read issue 1.
I have to say I've been waiting awhile for this one. Finally nice to see your first text recap as a video.
Going back to the Moore question, I thought he did a decent job with the one issue I read of his run on Youngblood. The solution they had to defeat a possessed Supremea (sp) was fairly clever.
Great review, Lewis. And yes, I do hate heroes who are contemptible assholes. I tend to lean towards heroes who I can relate to (i.e. Spider-Man).
Oh, and speaking of Spidey, the solicitation for Marvel Spotlight on 2009 Summer Events mentions, oh, I'll just let it speak for itself:
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT # 1
The Story: It's the summer, which means it's time to hit the beach with some summer reading! And that means adding a little SPOTLIGHT to your fun in the sand and surf! This month, we'll check in on all the events that are making Summer '09 a season to remember: The original Human Torch is back, and he isn’t the only one returning; there’s a new Fantastic Four and a new creative team on DAREDEVIL; the REAL Clone Saga is laid bare; and more. If we add anything else to this issue, we'll have to include a complimentary parka to help you make it through December! SPOTLIGHT is your Summer Events HQ with exclusive content you won't find anywhere else — so buy one for yourself, and one for your friendly neighborhood lifeguard! Rated T …$2.99
Think they're undoing the stupidity that is One More Day already?
Anyways, cool review.:)
So that's why it's called the "dark" ages. I thought it was just because it was bad not darker stories
Hey I was watching a Pokemon movie on Cartoon Network this morning and I was wondering? Does Brock have Youngblood's disease? We never see his eyes.
Also I think you could make a serious argument that Mark Miller's YoungBlood: Bloodsport is actually a worse comic.
"I heard Alan Moore once wrote for this series. Did his run manage to inject some kind of decency into this abysmal series?"
He gave it the old college try. I haven't had a chance to read it but I hear he tried to restructure the entire book into a post-dark age story and get rid of most of the "grim-n-gritty-ness". But it only lasted for like 3 of the planned 12 issues.
Wow, when not even Alan "Bloody Genius" Moore can save you, you know you suck.
I remember something that shows what happens when Liefeld gets his hands on what was at least a decent comic. In the late 1990s, there was a comic called Kaboom. (I looked it up, and it tuns out the collected edition is coming out this June; it was written by Jeph Loeb and had art be Jeff Matsuda -- but a post New Men (aka Newmen) Matuda.) It was published by Liefeld's Awesome Comics, but not written by him. (Wait for it.) It's sort of manga style, but definitely distinguishable from manga. I remember it has at least a little bit of that Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle vibe that you described, Linkara. Not necessarily as good -- I don't remember it enough to judge, though I know I liked it at the time -- but with the general idea of an ordinary kid who gained an artifact and iterated with his family and close friends while fighting superpowered enemies.
According to the summaries I found, the main character finds a super-powered motorcycle, but my memories & cover art I found suggests he gets a huge super-punching glove. It;s absurdly large, but since Matsuda's art made the kid himself scrawny, it looked kind of endearingly absurdly large instead of stupidly absurdly large. Maybe the fist turned into a motorcycle, which doesn't sound that good to me now, but maybe it worked in context.
Anyway, the Kaboom series #1 lasted three whole regular issues plus two specials.
But then it was revived. And in series #2, Leob still wrote, but Liefeld was the artist and it looks like a co-writer. I got issue #1, and all I remember is that they had replaced the main character with a teenage girl who skateboarded. That's it. Maybe she was plying bookie form school. Maybe she was on summer vacation and didn't have a sumer job. That's possible. They didn't really seem to feel a need to explain why all she did was sakeboard and how she could get away with that. She was like Y.T., from Snow Crash without the worldbuilding that made it possible to suspend disbelief. Series #1 had a kid in at least a sitcom version or a normal life who got an extraordinary object (or two). This was just about a sjatebosrding girl who in a world of speed lines who eventually get the same or a similar artifact., And while the first hero had nuance -- i remember that -- all she had was the quality of being. . .
EXTREME!!!!!!!
I couldn't even pretend her world was believable. The art was less interesting, the characterization was far less interesting. I don't even think I finished Series #2's issue #1. According to my searching, Vol. 2 only lasted 3 issues, too. (Issue #3 appears to be the only one without a variant cover) And good riddance.
In case you;re interested, the collected volume #1 if found mentioned at:
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:b1EtW_ABWpIJ:www.comicbookresources.com/%3Fid%3D20562%26page%3Darticle+comics+Kaboom+%22Image+Comics%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
I liked it then. It's been so long since I read it; I don't know if I'd like it now, but I could believe that I might.
P.S. My spelling checker only offers one replacement suggestion for Liefeld: "Lifeless." ;[)
Liefeld=Ed Wood incarnate;)
I gotta admit, I'm a sucker for the Dark Age stuff, particularly how it spawned the SPAWN series (see what I did there?). But Spawn was all I ever read from Image. Good job on the review, as usual (does it really need to be said anymore?) And don't let up the One More Day jokes, they're always funny :)
superslappy.blogspot.com - Farcry Movie Critical Hilarity
@Anonymous May 19, 2009 5:34 AM:
Yes indeed, Alan Moore did write a first issue for a potential Youngblood series in the wake of his Judgement Day crossover. It's collected in the trade of the same name and much like his work on Supreme(another Liefeld creation) it's actually readable and enjoyable.
I posted an article on Supreme that may be found here if anyone would like to read it:
http://thecanadiandefender.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-on-moore-supreme.html
Stac
Boy did I hate Youngblood. This just reminds me how much I hated it.
You know, even as a self proclaimed 'XXXTREME 90's KOMIX!!!' fan, I never did get the shoulder pad thing. I think Liefeld just had a thing for the 80's though...huge shoulder pads, huge hair...he was just a child of the times, man. Those were bad, bad times...
hey you used 90's kid again. Kudos
an execelent review yet again.
Wow! I had no idea it was this bad! I guess the 90's, rather than the 80's, are the decade we best forget, comics wise.
So until someone can figure out if wearing a cup doing Diehard's crotch attack, is equal to punching with brass knuckles, MAKE MINE LINKARA!!
I've been looking forward to this one since you started redoing the text reviews as videos. And the return of 90s Kid was just hilarious! For some reason, the loop of Nirvana in the background is just what makes it.
Recently I was on wiki checking out more of Youngblood, where I found out that Shaft had a "magnetic bow", therefore it needs no string.
Now with all honesty I gotta admit that this bow is actually pretty cool!
See, that's cool and all, but it's never explicitly stated in the comic that that's how it works...
Plus, again, the thing apparently MISSES, but he can hit a guy from an unknown location with just his pen and his bare hands.
Maybe he was just showing off? You know, getting their attention so Diehard could attack with his crotch? Maybe he wasnt aiming to kill or hurt... wait, why am I defending this comic?
To be honest, I actually enjoy Youngblood #1, even if it's only because I find the artwork laugh-out-loud funny. Regardless, this is one of my favorite reviews.
You mentioned that Watchmen had deep character development. Then does that mean that other early dark age comics simply made the story setting dark and gritty, but the characters loud mouthed morons that babbled out nonsense?
Hey Lewis, I know that you've said that you won't believe there will be a Youngblood movie until you see a trailer (and I agree with you on that) but I was reading the Youngblood article on Wikipedia, and I was baffled by THIS:
"In February 2009, according to Variety, Reliance Big Entertainment has acquired the feature film rights to the comic book, reportedly for a mid-six figures, and has attached Brett Ratner to direct. "Most of the great graphic novels are gone, and 'Youngblood' is one of the few comic books left with tentpole potential," Ratner was quoted telling the trade. "It was a real personal passion project for me, and a lot of people wanted ('Youngblood'), but the amazing thing about the guys at Reliance is the speed with which they're able to move." The film will be fast-tracked, although no decision has been made on whether it will eventually land at Paramount, where Ratner has a first look deal. No cast or release date has yet been announced. The film is currently being written by J.P. Lavin and Chad Damiani."
But of course, that was in 2009, and we are in 2013, so I don't think a Youngblood movie will be coming anytime soon.
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