Happy New Year, all. To kick off the year, I'm going to read comics from Image that came out in the period between 1989 and 1995, a dark period in which I neither read nor collected comics. Apparently I missed quite a lot.
So.
Youngblood.
Let me tell you why I actually really enjoyed this comic. It was not for the art, though I'll say that of all the Rob Liefeld comics I've read, this one is the one where I think I kind of get his art style. I see what appeals to people about it. Well, maybe. It's just that everything is so hyper-realized, so over the top proportionately ridiculous, but it's taking itself so seriously. And it wasn't for the story, which at times seemed to be poking fun at the consumer collector culture that it itself was in the midst of fueling....or something? I don't really know what was happening. The reason I liked it is because of Prophet. I gushed enough about that series a few months back. It really is one of the finest superhero comics I've read. And many of the characters I read about today have futures in that series. It retroactively takes these barely defined characters and gives them identity, which is kind of a lovely gift to give to these otherwise pretty bad comics. All of the various Youngblood series do this - for me, Jeff Terrel is not just the old man from Prophet, but also the sort-of seasoned hero of both Moore's and Casey's takes on the team. He may look like a horrifying serial killer on that cover, but I know from (future?) context that he's actually a big softie. I hadn't anticipated that happening, but it's certainly going to make reading some of this early Image stuff a lot more palatable. Not to say it was all terrible. But much of it was.
To be continued.
(Oh, oh, I forgot, the flip book!
There's a five-page story that introduces one of my favourite superheroes ever: Supreme! Perhaps this is finally the year that I track down all the old stuff I'm missing, and read the whole thing.)
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