The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1909: Youngblood #6, November 2008

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Just to add on to a thought I had yesterday, I don't think that this current Youngblood series is delving deeply enough into the ways in which we're shaped by celebrity culture, but this is certainly not to say that writer Joe Casey isn't capable of such depth. Have a look at G0dland, for goodness' sake. So what we have in Youngblood, instead, is simply intelligent entertainment, rather, I suppose, that didactic entertainment. Though, in a lot of ways, all entertainment is didactic.

I've decided to read the rest of my Youngblood comics from the collection after I'm done this series. I'm curious as to how much of each iteration of the team is included in this later (but not latest) series. There's obviously a lot of Alan Moore's influence, with the use of the Spacehunters, the Televillain, Johnny and Doc, and the shared history that was set up in the Awesome U. But we also get characters from the older iterations, some of whom are only just now getting the proper character development one might expect of an almost 20 year old superhero. As with Prophet, the retroactive reading of various Youngblood series will be enhanced by the brilliance of the comics that follow them.

It also makes me curious, however, about the series that follow this one. I know that there was a revival of the title a few years after this one crashed, but I've no idea how much of the previous continuity is included in that revival. As part of the Extreme Studios initiative at Image Comics, the later series also takes on legacy numbering, so there's a chance it will also take on legacy aesthetic. That said, some of the other comics to come from this era, all legacy numbered, took the various Extreme heroes in some pretty interesting directions. I've waxed lyrical about them in previous posts about Youngblood, so I won't link again, but, honestly, just go read the Keatinge Glory or the Graham Prophet. Just really bloody good.

More to follow.