#manolis vamvounis

[youtwitinmyface]

YOUNGBLOOD #77

Written by Rob Liefeld (with “script assistance” by Manolis Vamvounis) Drawn by Jon Malin Published by Image Comics New writers take over this relaunch (but unfortunately the same artist is still here), and pretty much everything John J. McLaughlin did and was setting up in the previous 6 issues is forgotten.

Badrock has recovered, something about his body regenerating, and somehow he’s said to still be 17 years old. No mention is made of Jeff Terrel, the original Shaft, who quit the team because he felt responsible for Badrock’s previous condition. Does he know Badrock has recovered? Does that make him reconsider rejoining Youngblood again? We don’t know. This issue begins with us being introduced to Chapel’s son, a grown US Secret Service agent, referred to as Agent Chapel, but I’ll just call him Chapel Jr. From his internal monologue we learn that he never met his father, but he’s well aware of his history and reputation and he’s disgusted by everything he knows about him and said that he only uses his name in order to redeem it. But as he’s clocking out of the White House for the day he gets a phone call and when he hears the mysterious voice on the phone he becomes possessed and heads for Youngblood HQ. At Youngblood HQ we see Cougar taking Troll and Knightsber (both described as Youngblood reservists) to where the rest of the team is training. Badrock, Shaft, Lady Photon, Die Hard and Vogue are working through some maneuvers against robots, and apparently, the respect that Shaft gained from the team in #74 is gone as team members are calling him “Not Shaft” again. But Troll sneaks off and goes to a restricted area in the HQ, attacking a security guard who tried to stop him. It's unclear if Troll is also possessed, or perhaps operating out of some kind of long-term blackmail, but he resumes his original blue-skinned hairy form and arrives in an area of the HQ where they keep secrets, including the preserved corpse of Chapel (when did he die? As we last saw him in Prophet/Chapel: Super Soliders, he was still alive?). Through some supernatural shenanigans, he’s joined by Chapel Jr. and they resurrect Chapel as his demonic form, Lord Chapel, who then attacks and takes out most of the Youngblood team.

Even more so than before, this issue is aimed squarely at existing Youngblood fans, the ones who were reading the title way back in the 1990’s and know the history of Chapel’s transformation into a demon, otherwise you’d be lost and would have know idea what's going on. That being said, I think most of the original fans would be satisfied with this story, even with Malin’s crappy artwork.

Youngblood (2012 5th Series Image)

[youtwitinmyface]

YOUNGBLOOD #76

Written by John J. McLaughlin (with “script assistance” by Manolis Vamvounis) Drawn by Jon Malin and Rob Liefeld Published by Image Comics

Since the first issue of this latest Youngblood relaunch, we’ve just gotten brief glimpses of Badrock laying comatose in some kind of medical facility, with cracks appearing in his stone body. This issue finally reveals what happened to him.

The story is told in flashback, it’s not clear how long ago it was. But Jeff Terrel was still leading Youngblood as Shaft, and he, Badrock, Die Hard, and Vogue were on a mission in outer space, fighting a supervillain called Starcore who had a secret base on the moon and had built a giant laser that could destroy Earth. They defeat him and destroy his laser, but with his last parting shot he disables the shuttle that the team is using to get back to Earth. They prepare for a crash landing which they’re not sure they’ll survive, and Badrock proposes to basically use his body as a human shield for the shuttle, fully aware that he may not survive the impact. Shaft tries to stop him, but Die Hard stops Shaft, agreeing that Badrock is their only hope. In the end, Badrock’s plan works, the team is saved but he is severely injured and that’s how he ended up in a coma. Feeling guilty that he wasn’t able to protect Badrock, Jeff resigns from Youngblood to return to the FBI.

And that’s that. As a standalone issue it’s satisfactory, in fact I daresay this is the best issue of John J. McLaughlin’s run. At least it tells a complete story. And thus it’s a shame that this is his final issue.

Overall it’s been mediocre, I’m not sure he ever had a real handle on the characters or what made Youngblood tick in the first place. And I find fault in the slow pacing of his subplots. Who was the demonic figure behind the zombie horde in #72? And what is his connection to whatever it is that has possessed President Obama? And there’s the even bigger mystery, of who or what is traveling through time, killing different versions of Vogue in the future and then transporting the corpses back in time to the present to taunt Jeff. You can add both of these to the long list of unresolved subplots in the history of Youngblood’s publication, as they will be dropped by the next creative team. It would have been better if he’d gotten to those stories sooner so he could’ve completed them.

And, again, Jon Malin was just the wrong artist for this series. At least at this point, his art is too amateurish and stiff. It services the story enough, I guess, but it's not something that would draw a reader to the title. I was reading this despite the art, not because of it.

Youngblood (2012 5th Series Image)

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YOUNGBLOOD #75

Written by John J McLaughlin (with “script assistance” by Manolis Vamvounis) Drawn by Jon Malin Published by Image Comics Gail Cook’s article on Youngblood has come out, which serves as a backdrop for this issue, giving some history on the team, as well as recaps of the current team’s most recent adventures, but not every member is happy with the way they’re portrayed. We get another battle against a random horde, in this case it’s a bunch of virtual 1920s gangsters with machine guns. Die Hard attacks Lady Photon for her excessively violent actions, but Shaft breaks it up and then holds a team meeting where he chews them all out for their unprofessional behavior.

Jeff shows up, and Shaft is a bit uncomfortable at seeing how happy the rest of the team are to see him again. Jeff informs them of the appearance of the dead versions of Vogue from the future. The team, especially Vogue, takes this much more lightly than you’d expect. Then the alarm goes off and as the team races off for their next mission Jeff begins to run with them before being reminded that he’s not on the team anymore. Then Handler offers Jeff the leadership of a new superhero team that the U.N. is putting together, but he declines, insisting that his superhero days are behind him. �� 

For a big “milestone” issue like #75, this was a rather underwhelming story, especially after the buildup in recent issues about the dead Vogues from the future subplot which just feels like an afterthought here. Nothing really happens, and nothing new or interesting is revealed in the magazine article. In fact, there’s a glaring continuity in the form of a double-page spread that is supposed to show the original Youngblood team, except it includes Troll, Knightsaber, and Masada, who weren’t founding members while excluding characters like Battlestone and Link, who were. But we do get another Badrock cliffhanger, as it appears that something is breaking out of his stone body, with a tagline that Youngblood is “still just getting started.” But I think that’s the problem, after 5 issues McLaughlin feels like he’s still figuring out what he wants to do with this book. Youngblood (2012 5th Series Image)