Next on my whirlwind tour of the Youngblood Universe was Youngblood: Strikefile. I caught onto this formula pretty quick: it's a Marvel Fanfare-type vignette/short story magazine where multitudes of creators take on a small story each highlighting a character. Each character's arc may span one or more issues in total, although they probably won't reach more than 22 pages when complete. At least this is a format I'm familiar with, if not a complete fan of the concept.
In my experience, only Teen Titans: Spotlight really ever worked for me in this format, but maybe that's because I already always knew the characters being "spotlighted". Since Youngblood Volume 1 left me with almost NO information about the individual members of the team, perhaps this series would help "dial-in" a few traits that were purposely ignored in the main book.
As I review, I might as well break them down by STORY, rather than issue. Of course, some were better than others. Few were actually drawn by Liefeld, although the guy made sure to get his "creator" credit in every issue.
If I had to choose, I'd say the Badrock and Masada stories were the strongest, because I actually learned a little bit about them. Of course, I STILL have no idea what comic Masada's from, but at least I know her a little better. Next would be the first Chapel story. It certainly runs the longest, but what keeps it from being on the top of my list is that it has way more to do with Spawn than Youngblood. Finally, in 4th place, I'd rank the Knight Sabre story. It's ridiculous, it's "eXtreme", but it least it's what I expected. Here's the breakdown. Enjoy.
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Issues: 1-3
Story: Chapel recalls one of his early missions with Al Simmons (later Spawn) and Duke (no idea), as they attempt to assassinate some guy called Giger in a plan modestly named "Operation: Knightstrike". Giger escapes, and Chapel kills Duke for some sort of treasonous behavior that I'm not too clear on, and they report back to shadowy government G-man Jason Wynn. Fast-forward 5 years, and Wynn has hired Giger to kill CHAPEL. Only, when confronted, Giger decides to tell Chapel he's been hired by Wynn, and offers Chapel the chance to team up and take down Wynn once and for all.
Chapel decides to kill Giger and confront Wynn himself. Nice guy, that Chapel. Good thing Giger (and really, I'm thinking they meant "Geiger", as in "that radiation guy") is a Doombot, errr, robot. Just an aside: I read on another website that this was "The first appearance" of Giger. Does that mean he went on to be something in Spawn? Whatever.
Chapel finds Wynn and threatens him at gunpoint (obviously), and is told that not only is AIDS a US government creation, but hey, Chapel, you know all those injections you've been taking over the years? Cognrats on the HIV!! Wynn tells him he'll give him the "cure" if he's let go. Chapel lets him go and stalks off. Fin.
Thoughts: If you ignore the US/AIDS accusations for a moment, the story's not half-bad. My real complaint is that Liefeld keeps trying to wind Youngblood into the Spawn mythos. That's a mistake. I don't read Spawn. I read Youngblood. And if not for the HBO cartoon, I wouldn't know what the hell they're talking about.
Favorite lines: "Well you can rest assured that this ain't no Avon Lady callin', Giger!" - Chapel
Issues: 1-3 (mostly as 2nd storyline)
Story: Flashback to 1944 to watch Captain America, Superman, and Wonder Woman fighting the Nazis. Wait, what's that? Oh right... the "Golden-Age" DieHard, SuperPatroit, and Glory. Snap back to the present, and it turns out that the CURRENT SuperPatriot is being held captive somewhere. DieHard ass-whups his way into the enemy base, only to find a mind-controlled SuperPatriot staring down at him. DieHard eventually gets the upper hand... and the story is continued in Erik Larson's "SuperPatriot" comic.
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| Liefeld likes to change his designs from panel to panel. Readers really like this. |
Favorite line: "Lightning fast reflexes save me from becoming shredded beef" - DieHard
**Badrock, Shaft, and DieHard**
Issue: 4 (complete comic, done-in-one)
Story: Overtkill is in Government lockdown... for a while. He escapes, the Youngblood guys seem to contain him - that is, until his HEAD rockets off to meet... Tony Twist?
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| Whoopaa! |
Something else interesting is that in the first few pages, B(e)drock is mentioned, and then in the last few, it's B(a)drock. Are there no editors in these fucking things?
Favorite line: "Overtkill and explosions go together like butter and popcorn" - Shaft. He gets all the good lines.
**Badrock**
Issues: 5-6
Story: Badrock is, apparently, a scientist's son, and he's being lab-ratted in the opening moments. He's told that his powers have increased from 648% that of normal human strength to 885%. He's told he can no longer leave the compound, and then sent to his room. This lasts for all of one page before he busts out, harming the innocent guards outside his door, and takes to the sewers. There, he encounters a monster who is a "former lab rat" (although it's not explicitly stated that it's Daddy Badrock's fault), and fights him for awhile. Meanwhile, back at the lab: DieHard, Riptide, and Sentinel are sent to retrieve Badrock. They bring him back without incident, and he's offered a spot on the Youngblood roster.
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| Out of the way, innocents! Badrock need Twizzlers! |
Thoughts: Umm, what? So this takes place before Youngblood Volume 1, Issue #1? Thanks for the heads-up, guys. Also, I find this hysterical: the narration/recap on the first page of Issue #6 actually gives his ORIGIN (something that's been completely ignored until now). It turns out that he was a sad kid who downed some daddy-made government potion, Which turned him into "organic stone". Huh. Okay.
Issue #6 also does something else fairly curious: it includes a "pin-up" of Team Youngblood. Because I haven't yet gotten to read "Team Youngblood", I have no idea who most of the characters are. What makes this even MORE interesting is that up until now, in Youngblood: Strikefile, they've only mentioned/featured characters from the Home and Away Teams of the flagship Youngblood book.
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| Hey! Aren't you... nevermind. |
Issue: 5 (backup story)
Story: Maybe I didn't mention this before, but Youngblood Volume 1, although only showing Combat for an issue or two, established that he was an alien, and that he was a warrior. This story is said to take place in Combat's past, even though he still has a gray beard, and there's nothing to indicate, other than the one narration box, that there's anything "old" about the tale. It's blessedly short, and deals with him searching some Kettelan (his race's) temple, meeting some completely different alien female character, and fighting her.
Thoughts: Having only seen the character "Photon" in a few background shots of the flagship title, I really thought he was meeting her in this backstory. I thought that was cool, two characters knowing each other BEFORE they were thrown together on a team. But then Combat killed whoever-it-was by throwing his staff like a javelin and impaling her. I guess it wasn't Photon after all. As you may have guessed, this was one of the weaker stories in the series.
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| Tall? Or of Liefeldian proportions? |
Issue: 6 (backup story)
Story: Masada is Israeli. She is strong and can grow to giant size. Her first name is Deborah. She stops an assassination. Yeah, not much to this one...
Thoughts: I had never heard of, nor seen, Masada before, so I was generally interested to find out more about her. I'm guessing she's on Team Youngblood. Anyway, there wasn't much to learn here. In the opening pages, she's training in some government facility and is approached by a Mossad (Israeli CIA) agent. She hates the Mossad. I find this curious because her name is "Masada". While certainly the spelling is different, isn't it weird that she chose an alias so close to an organization she despised. I guess that would be like me choosing the name "KKKannonball". The other thing that made me smile in this story was how long it took me to realize she had size-based powers. Even though Liefeld didn't draw it, I thought maybe her "hugeness" was the artist trying to replicate Rob's awful character perspectives. Silly me. She's huge.
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| Similarities? Nah... |
Issue: 7 (main story)
Story: DieHard is given space armor upgrades and sent to an orbiting space station to check out some Katellan sarcophagus, which opens in front of him to reveal a savage beastie called "Kar'nge". Kar'nge actually "destroys" DieHard, but luckily his head is able to rocket off of his shoulders at the last minute and detonate the space station, ridding the universe of another potential threat.
Thoughts: Wha-huh? First of all, it looks like I wasn't as far off as I thought I was with my Youngblood #0 assumption that DieHard was
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| Rockem' Sockem' DieHard! Very convenient. |
**BJ Troll**
Issue: 7 (backup story)
Story: Not much to say here. Our buddy Troll is, given what befalls him, in an Irish bar on Saint Patrick's Say (it's not abundantly clear, because the story points out he's speaking Norwegian), and gets attacked by three Leprechauns called.... ready?... "The Ex-'Chauns". They fight, they pun, the story ends.
**Crypt** **Dutch** **Shaft**
**Crypt**
Issue: 8 - There are 3 standalone stories in issue 8, and since they're all five pages long, it makes sense to group them all together
Story: Crypt? Who the hell is Crypt? This is only a 5-page story, and supposedly kicks off a crossover between comics "Bloodstrike", "Prophet", and "eXtreme Sacrifice". The only problem is, none of those stories have really anything to do with Youngblood.
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| Crypt! ...Crypt? |
**Dutch**
Story: Dutch? Who the hell is Dutch? Maybe he's on Team Youngblood? I think he's some sort of Robocop who's dropped off in the jungle, and attacked by some jungle creature. I think he dies at the end. The art was very Kirby-esque, which wasn't all that great, but bears mention.
**Shaft**
Story: FINALLY! Youngblood's Home Team leader! ...on a glider? This story is narrated by a passerby, as Shaft foils some sort of hostage situation. but the narrator is OUTSIDE of the building, which means he isn't privy to much, if any, of the action. Also, there's a really weird Superman reference shoe-horned in for absolutely no reason.
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| Dutch - Shaft - Superman? |
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| When two ripoff characters collide, the only winners are US. |
Issues: 9-10
Story: WarWolf is at a casino (which we eventually are told is in Hawaii), killing every blackjack dealer that doesn't allow him to win. Knight Sabre is dispatched to bring him in. They fight in a hotel room, on a flying motorcycle, and in a bar, until hotel security breaks them up and kicks out Knight Sabre for "hassling their guest". This seems to ignore the original problem of WarWolf murdering innocent people. Oh well.
Thoughts: Other than the cuh-RAZY ending to the story, and the revelation that Sabre's "eXtreme" bo staff also separates into some "eXtreme" nunchucks, I don't really have much to say here. One of Liefled's Youngblood fill-in artists takes on the art duties, and since the story is so over-the-top, it seems to fit right in with the mess that was Youngblood Volume 1.
Favorite line: "D'ya know who that guest is? D'ya know how many poor souls he's savaged?" - Knight Sabre
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| When two cats collide... nevermind. That's stupid. |
Issues: 10-11
Story: Cougar is visited by a guy called "King of Cats" who somehow brings Cougar to the realization that his family in Africa is in danger. Cougar and King travel to Africa, meet up with a woman called Lynx and... you know, I just totally gave up. Sorry about that.
Thoughts: ... I don't even know what to say.
**Chapel (again)**
Issue: 12
Story: This issue was used as a "prelude" to the "eXtreme Sacrifice" mega-crossover, and has Chapel visit hell, meet up with Crypt (remember Crypt?), and take over what seems to be the Legion of Satan.
Thoughts: Hey, Chapel needs money just like everyone else. I can't even IMAGINE what comes next for the crossover.
Favorite line: "I wanna be like Spawn!" - Chapel
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And there you have it! A full overview of the very mediocre Youngblood spotlight series. Next up, Team Youngblood!
You brave, brave soul. That really was terrible. Damn...
ReplyDeleteWow! Thank you for reading! And, as I re-read it myself after a bunch of years, I really REALLY REALLY apologize for the hundreds of typos! Cheers!
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