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Feb 3, 2018

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1074: Team Youngblood #7, March 1994

https://www.comics.org/issue/273981/

I'll write this up tomorrow. There's some interesting things being done in this crossover to do with back story, which I've been thinking about with this read of Supreme.

A few days back I leveled the criticism at Supreme and his Extreme cohorts that the type of drama they were gunning for is simply not possible without the weight of history behind them. The crossover we're (sort of) following is doing some interesting work in filling that history in.

I should mention we're taking a slight detour back in time - I realized I had another part of this crossover, so I went back to read it.

In today's issue, and in the rest of those in the crossover, the reactions of some characters to Quantum help us to understand the history of the Extreme universe. I call it this because, although the Image superhero comics share a universe, very little of what happens in one imprint's corner affects anything in the other imprints' corners.Apparently the Extreme U includes people possessed of the "Nu-Gene," and those who develop powers as a result are something of a cross between the X-Men and the Inhumans. Making Quantum, basically, Magneto. From this vantage, I think we can understand the fear evinced upon his escape. Remember that everything in this universe seems to be totally psychotic, and such is the case with Quantum. He literally just decides to tear it all down.

We also see, in the background, a man named Proctor trying to reassemble a team of "Newmen" who opposed Quantum previously. Here, too, we get a glimpse into a past that is slowly being both built and revealed. Much like Moore's Supreme, the past is being filled in in fits and starts...only to be hit, inevitably, with a revision wave in about 30 issues.

To be continued.

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