Moore's Youngblood proposal

Alan Moore's proposal for Youngblood is intricate and amazing in that he put so much thought into what the series would be, who the characters were, and where he intended to take it. If you haven't read all the published issues and scripts, you might want to hold off on reading this until after that, as there are plenty of spoilers within.

While a version (with some parts edited out) of the proposal appeared in Alan Moore's Awesome Universe handbook, published by Awesome in April of 1999, an unedited version was leaked with the unpublished scripts for the remaining Youngblood issues. I found this nicely-laid out version of the proposal (and much more) on a binding site I like. I'm not sure who made it, but if it belongs to someone and they don't want me to post it, let me know and I'll take it down.

Anyway, I'll talk more about the ideas in it after you take a look:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I'm assuming you've read the whole thing, so I don't need to recap it for you. I'm going to just touch on the parts that interest me, so if there's other parts you want to talk about, feel free to mention them in the comments.

• I wish Moore had stuck to his idea of using the first issue to recap how each of the heroes joined Youngblood. Obviously the weird publishing of the pre-issue 1 stories made that difficult, but also, some of the characters were in dire need of rounding out. Through the entire Moore issues, we never really learn more about Rachel. What does she think of being a second-generation hero? Does she prefer it to being a doctor? Just some more detail would have been nice.
• It's interesting that he planned Stormhead to be the group's main nemesis, when going by his issues outline, it's more like the Occupant is the interesting villain who keeps coming back.
• Poor Shaft never got much of a character. He really is Cyclops.
• I love Moore's suggestion of using Suprema's morality as a way the audience will sympathize with her. I always imagined that Suprema felt very lonely in the pages of Supreme and her goody-too-shoes personality would exclude her from social interactions with people her age. I wish Moore had gotten to this.
• Um, Twilight and Professor Night? Really? Well, considering all the jokes about Batman and Robin, maybe Moore could have made that work.
• Anyone else get the feeling that Moore was a little too interested in Johnny Panic's drug use? And again, the mention of the Sylvia Plath short story. I'm definitely going to have to dig into that.
• I love the modular concept for the Big Brother robots. It's also interesting that someone with so much pain inside is wrapped up in a gigantic robotic shell. Moore's description of a possible romance and fallout between Leonard and Sally is so beautiful. Damn you Awesome for not letting me see it come to life!
• Again, while Moore says Doc is the most normal character, it sounds like she's the least filled in, maybe even moreso than Shaft.

I don't want to get into the story ideas, as we'll be covering these as we read the issues, but I think we're in for some fun. Maybe I'll circle back and look at those after I've covered all the stories.