Weekly Reading: Youngblood #2

Published by Awesome Entertainment in August 1998

The covers:

Title: Bad Blood

(Youngblood is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

So six months after Youngblood #1 hit shelves, Awesome finally came out with issue #2. Of course, the financial backer for Awesome Entertainment had left right after the first issue came out, pulling all of his funding. Rob Liefeld supposedly never told anyone that Awesome was done and the art kept coming in from the freelancers doing their assignments. So Youngblood #2 was probably already completed by the crash or very soon after that. Awesome sort of merged with a company called Hyperwerks, which published Deity and had ties to Film Roman. But at least they got some comics out, so whatever it took.

Of course, most fans who had tried issue #1 had moved on by the time this one finally came out, killing any momentum the series had. Not that it mattered, as this was the last issue of Alan Moore's Youngblood that would be published with that name. He wrote five more scripts, too, but only one more would see print. It's a shame because this is a fun issue and could have encouraged readers to stick with the series.

As an added bonus, we have Alan Moore's script for this issue to compare it to. At some point, someone leaked the scripts for issues 2 through 7 here. What a treasure trove!

Alright, this is going to be great. Let's dig in.

The prologue starts in Hoods, an accomplice agency. Ha. I love how Moore has given up on any sense of reality to this universe and is treating it with almost cartoon-like logic, where there'd be an agency for putting together evil superteams. Of course.

Check out this description of Mr. Archie Hood:

Anyway, someone is putting together a team of villains and going to call them Youngblood. This brief mention of Kirby's Atlas Comics (what came before Marvel) for the look of Atomo is interesting:

I'll talk more about Kirby's monsters in a post later this week. We then cut to Suprema and Twilight cleaning up a gang war. It's bloody and violent, but mostly feels funny:

Here's the thing for me about Steve Skroce's art, it's beautiful and cartoony in the best sense, and incredibly detailed. If there's a drawback it's that with all the detail, my eyes don't always know where to look first or see all the detail. So sometimes I miss things and only see them later.

Moore pretty much let Skroce do what he wanted to on this one:

Moore, in order to give each character some attention, will split his stories up into smaller bites about a smaller group of characters. He makes it fun, as he does here with each character's own logo. By the way, these aren't by Todd Klein, they're from Richard Starkings and his Comicraft lettering company. They look great, though.

It's interesting that Moore has a police officer thank Suprema and Twilight. They're the most old-style of the heroes and we know that Suprema has a pretty conservative outlook. I might be reading too much into it, but it seems like she'd definitely lean toward law-and-order style politics.

And it's obvious that the speech bubbles are pointing to the wrong women, because it was Suprema who destroyed Star City, not Twilight. (There's a cleaned up version online, if you check my Reading Moore's Awesome works page, if you want to check it out.)

And then Satana shows up. We haven't seen her since the flashback in Supreme #46. Skroce has updated her look a little (I like the little Satans on her knees), but she's just as fun as she was then. Satana throws her magic pitchfork, which pins Suprema, while the Lounge Lizard (check out the pajamas!) takes out Twilight.

Then we're off to Doc Rocket and Johnny Panic at the House of Wax. Johnny is projecting fake images of himself all over the mansion and Doc is racing around checking each one at superspeed. God, can you imagine how long it took Skroce to draw this:

It seems like he put in a lot more detail than even Moore called for:

 

I'm going to have to look up Johnny Double's logo:

It's interesting that Doc is now wearing red tights. Her costume without them was maybe a tad too revealing.

We're having more lettering problems with the repeated line on this page. Maybe Awesome fired their copy editors first.

Doc finds the real Johnny, but the friction from her hands burns him. Good thing she's a doctor! Doc expositions that Twilight and Suprema are cleaning up the gang war and Leonard and Shaft have gone to Coast City to testify at Stormhead's committal hearing. Waxey is around somewhere. Johnny does some pop psychology, wondering what Waxey's wax gun represents when Doc notices something out the window and slips into superspeed.

The windows come shattering in but Doc grabs each shard. Can you imagine anyone else drawing this much detail? No, me either. Doc throws the shards at the superspeedster attacking her, but the heat around him melts the glass.

We meet two new villains: Speedwell and his sister Poppy, children of drug-crazed commune-living parents.

Here's Moore's description of Speedwell:

 

And Poppy, which is really quite lovely:

 

In real time, Poppy, pretending to be Doc Rocket, tries to make Johnny fall asleep. But Speedwell notes that's because the real Johnny was disguised as a clock. Then Poppy puts the real Johnny under her spell.

Speedwell makes a joke about how they're a refreshingly-different team concept. If Shaft and his team are putting the Young back in their Youngblood, Speedwell and his team are putting the blood back in to theirs. This sort of meta commentary, where Moore is obviously not taking Youngblood very seriously, is filled with so much charm and wit that it's infectious.

Then we cut to Shaft and Big Brother landing at the mansion. Shaft uses a trick arrow with a parachute to descend to the mansion, which Leonard gives him grief for: "Trick arrows? Man, you're going to end up like dad on his retro trip."

It's interesting that Leonard calls Waxey his dad. I wonder how long he's been his foster father?

Then Leonard says, in Waxey's voice: "Groups don't split up into small groups like they used to." Ha.

Shaft notes the damage to the mansion and then Sentinel, now in an all-black suit attacks Shaft. Here's Moore's description of Sentinel's new costume:

 

Sentinel mentions escaping from Supreme's Hell of Mirrors (and Korgo's run as president). Sentinel wants to take back Youngblood as his team. After Big Brother enters the fight, the earth starts shaking and we get our first glimpse of Atomo, who looks absolutely crazy. You would too, if you slept in Uranium.

Shaft quickly gets knocked out and after swallowing some of Big Brother's missiles, Atomo belches all over Big Brother, destroying the robot. Fortunately, Leonard gets out and hides behind some rubble.

Youngblood are stuck up on crucifixes as we finally get our Youngblood logo. So, this is the start of the team story, I guess? Sentinel tells the three of them that were on the Judgment Day jury (Shaft, Suprema and Twilight, I presume) that he wants his rightful place as leader of Youngblood, but then Waxey shows up as Waxman and all heck breaks loose.

Waxman: "There's regulations governing super-team names. It's like when the Justice Squadron sued the Justice Syndicate that time. Also I think there were two sets of Thunder Agents once..."

Ha ha.Waxey is the best. Even the description is awesome:

While he distracts the evil Youngblood with his wax gun, Twilight twists to the point of twisting the whole panel to remove the pitchfork from Suprema with her feet:

 Though that could just be because Moore couldn't figure out a way to get Shaft to speak first:

 

Then Leonard, in Biggest Brother, smashes through the wall, looking for a fight.

And what a fight! I want to take a moment to appreciate this page, which I think is one of the most brilliant examples of how you can play with time within a single panel of a comic:

We have Big Brother punching Atomo. While they're appearing stone still in superspeed, Doc Rocket is racing after Speedwell over the bodies of both monster-sized combatants. Because Skroce is doing his multiple images of the same character technique, it feels like time is passing for Rocket as she eventually hits Speedwell. Then time reverts to normal as Sentinel and and Satana decide to retreat. According to Moore's script, this idea came from a telephone conversation between Moore and Skroce:

 

When I met Chris Sprouse, he said that Moore gave him a questionnaire, which I guess he must give to all of his partners, asking them what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, what they'd like to draw, what their interests are, that sort of thing. Clearly he was playing to Skroce's strengths here.

The evil Youngblood get out through a tunnel that they fill in behind them, leaving the Lounge Lizard behind in Waxey's wax grip. Waxey's proud of his catch and asks them to deliver the Lizard to Miskatonic Asylum.

Later, in Miskatonic, the Lounge Lizard is telling an old Jack-A-Dandy about the new Youngblood:

In the background we can see Professor Night's old villains Fakeface, the Walrus and the Carpenter thrashing around. According to Moore, Fakeface is supposed to be doing Michael Jackson? Really? I thought maybe Plastic Man:

 

Lounge Lizard tells Jack that even he couldn't defeat Twilight and the new Youngblood. Of course Jack, the twisted old psycho, takes that as a challenge. I wouldn't want to mess with him:

But that'll have to wait until next time in Dandy in the Underworld. Back in 1998, readers would have to wait a loooong time. You just have to wait until next week... but I promise you a fun surprise!

In the back of the book, we get this letter from Rob Liefeld:

Most of the comics he talks about here did eventually turn up, but usually only for a single issue, before disappearing forever. But I'll talk about those in a post later. I want to focus on him saying that there would be an issue #3 of Youngblood (there won't) and that Awesome Adventures would feature the work of Brandon Peterson and Chris Sprouse (it won't). Clearly he meant that Awesome Adventures was going to feature the already-completed work on Glory and Supreme. Both of those would eventually show up in their own series, but Youngblood #3 would become Awesome Adventures, as we'll see next week.

In addition, there was this ad for Rob's Re:Gex, which is clearly ripped off from Masamune Shirow:...

...and an ad for some comic called The Mark...

...which I have never heard of since. Did it even exist? With Awesome, it's impossible to know.

UPDATE (4/28/18): So, it turns out, The Mark was an idea Rob Liefeld worked up for Tom Cruise, as was reported here: "According to hot comics artist Rob Liefeld, Tom Cruise was so eager to get in on this spandex fetish that he asked Liefeld to create a comic-book concept for him. Liefeld came up with the Mark, a hero who receives superpowers from a magical tattoo. 'It’s a great story and it was very much tailor-made for [Cruise],' says Liefeld. Cruise’s production company is currently working on a script, while Liefeld is creating the comic book"

Eventually, Cruise left and Will Smith stepped in, as was reported here:  "Smith is set to star in “The Mark,” which is a futuristic actioner about a man who finds himself with superhuman powers after an older man transfers a supernatural mark to his hand."

But after The Matrix, things changed a bit, as reported here:

"Following an unsuccessful rewrite of his original screenplay, Awesome Entertainment's Rob Liefeld said he remains hopeful that The Mark movie -- with Will Smith attached at Universal Pictures - will still happen.
'"I eat, sleep, drink The Mark,' Liefeld said. 'That's all I think about everyday.'
...
'I was there at The Matrix premiere, sitting in front of Will, and we watched The Matrix,' Liefeld said. 'And, I kid you not, there are probably 125 of the same scenes (as The Mark). And I sat there and my heart just sank.'
So, Liefeld has re-tinkered the concept. 'The story is that there have been bearers of The Mark throughout the history of time,' he said. 'It's been underground for quite some time, and it's resurfaces at this particular time as the forces of good and evil are about to do battle.
'"The original script that I wrote, the opening 20 pages or 20 minutes, took place during World War II. Will and his partner called me and said, "Rob, we like the World War II stuff so much," because Hitler is looking for The Mark. If he can get it, he will dominate mankind; that's kind of the opening of the movie.
'You see the guys that escape with it. There's a group called The Disciples that have always protected it. Christ had The Mark, King Arthur had The Mark and it's been passed on throughout time.
'The movie is now all set in World War II, and that's what we're working on right now.'
Liefeld said The Mark will have an Indiana Jones influence.
'Think of if Indiana Jones went into a cave and found an artifact - this isn't in the movie - and it gave him incredible powers he didn't want, that actually screw up his life. Everybody starts hunting him and trying to kill him.
'"And he's like, "I just want to give it back." But he can't give it back. Because if he gives it back, it kills him.'
Despite the typical Hollywood struggles, Liefeld said he remains optimistic about The Mark, even envisioning a trilogy.
'It's completely different than what it was, but actually it's better,' he said."

Obviously not that much better, since it died in Hollywood development hell. That said, Liefeld made plenty of money through the process. And there's a whole story about a one page ad for a comic that never came out.

And as long as we're talking about movies, Liefeld was also pitching a movie called Krash, a movie about giant robots from outer space. Liefeld wrote a script, but the Iron Giant and Transformers later sunk any chance of Liefeld's movie getting made. That said, he was well paid for both movies, which he shared with his Awesome investor, who promptly took the money, pulled out his investment from Awesome and left, causing Awesome to go down the financial tubes. And that's why when we see Youngblood next it's in the pages of Awesome Adventures.

As always, please check out the Annotations Page for more details and references and be sure to let me know any that I missed.