Weekly Reading: Youngblood #8

Never published by Awesome Entertainment

The cover:

Title: True Girls' Adventures

(Later issues of Youngblood were never in print. The only way to read them can be found online. Obvious pseudo-lawyer language: If anyone who owns the rights to these issues/scripts has a problem with me linking to them or posting pages from them, let me know and I'll remove them.)

I know what you're thinking: "Um, what? Alan Moore stopped writing scripts at issue #7."

You're right. He did. But our fan-creators included files for issues up to #12.

"Wait, you're reviewing fan fiction now?"

I wasn't planning to. (Nor was I planning on having a conversation with an imaginary blog reader, but sometimes we find ourselves in weird places and you just have to roll with it.) But, just as I was willing to give Erik Larsen the benefit of the doubt with his version of Supreme as thanks to him for fighting to get the last Alan Moore Supreme script into print, so too do I feel grateful to our fan-creators for giving us the four+ issues of Alan Moore's Youngblood I never thought I'd see. So, I'm willing to give their version a try. And if the issues suck (spoiler: I don't think they do), then we can bail out and get on to Glory.

What do you say imaginary blog reader?

Good. (You imaginary blog readers are so agreeable.)

Our fan-creators continued the 80s TV-themed covers. I don't remember Charlie's Angels as well as I do The A-Team, so I don't know if the characters match up as well as they did last issue, but it's a nice bit of empowerment and I like how they look together:

 

Part 1: Partners in Crime

The fan-creators structured this issue in the same way that Moore structured #7, with three parts that are each 8 pages long and focus on one character. The first focuses on Twilight and gets the thing going pretty well.

Twilight is on patrol, which apparently she does by herself, as we saw in issues #1 and #7. We see her breaking into a Star City bank as Shaft radios her, expositioning that Johnny and Rachel are in his lab doing blood tests, Leonard is working on Big Brother and Suprema is setting up an umbrella for a meteor shower. Shaft suggests that maybe he could go on patrol with Twilight but she quickly cuts him off.

We get captions from Twilight's inner monologue, as we did with Shaft's story last issue. She says that she knows what Shaft wants, but she's sick of men trying to get it from her. "Putting their hands on my shoulders. Telling me what to do. Expecting me to laugh at their jokes."

But she's done with those kinds of men and she just needs to tell Jeff, "I'm never being anyone's kid sidekick ever again!" Ha. I love this setup.

One of the problems Moore hadn't addressed with his one-sided crush from Shaft is what Twilight thought of it. In his proposal, Moore suggested that she just wouldn't respond to it. But this idea, that she completely misunderstands what he wants, works so much better and gives Twilight a personality where she seemed a bit blank before.

(In case you were wondering, it was about here that I decided I'd stick with reading these fan-created issues.)

Meanwhile, in the bank, the Professor Night villains the Walrus and the Carpenter are trying to rob the vault. As they make their way in, Twilight thinks about how long she's been fighting these villains, even with her time in suspended animation before waking up to see older Kendall Manor manservant, Pratap.

In a nice bit, Twilight explains why she darkened up her appearance since the 1960s. "The world changed so much since then. Everything got much darker. It doesn't really bother me. I've lived my whole life in the dark." And then Professor Night taps her on the shoulder. (I wonder what she's been in the dark about with Professor Night?)

But she's not sure she wants to see her "ex."

We find out that Twilight felt forced out of her partnership with Professor Night to join Youngblood. Taylor told her that they could, "take a break" and "try fighting crime with other people." Ha.

Meanwhile, in the vault, the crooks are splitting the loot, but the Walrus seems to be taking more than his fair share. Wasn't that the point of the Walrus and Carpenter poem from Alice in Wonderland, which these are supposed to be those literal characters?

Twilight and Professor Night fall into position to take out the villains when Shaft comes crashing in through the ceiling, setting off the clam cannon. Shaft goes tumbling while Professor Night deals with the clam cannon, all to Twilight's embarrassment.

The villains try to make their escape with Shaft barging after them, but he gets hit in a spray of bullets. Twilight drags him back in the bank while Professor Night deals with the villains, who are now arguing over the stolen stolen loot. "What's a few clams among friends..." Groan.

Professor Night gives Twilight the keys to the Night Wagon to take Shaft to the hospital (Wouldn't she just take him to Doc at the mansion? Maybe if she knew Doc was at the hospital?). But before they go, Professor Night tells her, "Pratap says the Halls of Night aren't the same since you left." But, I guess Pratap is the emotional one. Then Professor Night says that Pratap blames him for Twilight leaving for Youngblood, which comes as a surprise to Twilight, as she thought it was Professor Night's idea.

"Had it been my decision to leave all along?" she wonders to herself. Shouldn't she know that? But I guess breakups can get messy like that.

"But he'll always see you as that little girl marvel," Professor Night says of Pratap. As though Professor Night sees her differently? She'll find out how he feels about her later that night, if she wants.

Um... are they going there? Or are they still talking about being crime-fighting partners? I guess it's up to Twilight.

"You know, I think the 'nineties aren't going to be so bad for a single heroine in the city," she concludes as she drives Shaft to the hospital.

It's a funny little story and complicates Twilight in ways that the character needed. Twilight had been defined by being a sidekick for so long, especially in Supreme where she existed solely as a Robin analog, that it's interesting seeing how she is developing into an adult. That might include mistakes and relationships with men I might not want her to have relationships with, but isn't that how people grow?

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that I liked that one a lot.

Part 2: The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Next up is Suprema, who is in the upper atmosphere dealing with a strange meteor shower. We also get her inner monologue through her diary. Yeah, it seems like she would keep a diary, doesn't it?

In her diary, she wants to know why men are such "silly ninnies." She's talking about Leonard and her brother, Supreme. It turns out that Leonard has been avoiding her since their date last issue, to the point of hiding in a closet (which she can see through with her Sight Supreme) because he's afraid of Supreme.

Supreme blasts through one of the strange meteors and there's gunk inside. Maybe they'll find out more in the meteor cloud. But he wants to have a talk with Sally. He tells her that she's too young to see Leonard.

The meteor cloud seems to be hiding some kind of H.P. Lovecraft-inspired space plant. They go to give it a shove, but it's no good. Meanwhile she tells him that he needs to back off as she has already been married to Gorrl the Living galaxy and had human boyfriends like Troy Taylor from the '50s. But Supreme isn't having it.

I have to say, some of these diary entries are a little too on the nose for me, like when they can't move the plant, Sally is talking about how rigid Supreme is or when he gets hit on the head with a meteor and she writes how hard headed he is. But it doesn't bother me too much, as some of the entries add to the story.

The meteor that hits Supreme opens as they fall toward the Earth and covers him in the goo, eating through his costume. Suprema grabs him and helps him get the goo off.

Suprema: "Still think I can't handle myself?"

Supreme: "Sally, you won't even acknowledge that Paul McCartney got married."

Suprema: "He should have waited for me!"

Ha. I do like the sibling squabbling supreme. 

They then hear more meteors falling over somewhere in China. Suprema goes to check it out. As she does, Supreme tells her, "Boys today are only interested in one thing," (as we get a shot up her skirt).

In her diary, she explains that her brother knows her better than anyone and that if he doesn't understand how she feels, who will? And when you think about it, that makes sense. They both had the same powers growing up and he was a tremendous presence in her life. Who else does she have who would really understand her? Maybe Twilight? But as we saw, Twilight is going through her own changes.

Suprema finds another plant thing over China. Supreme realizes that they're using the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere to cross fertilize. Suprema suggests she knows where they could do that, if they can move them. Rather than push them apart, they try pushing them together, which seems to work. And then they start pushing them toward space.

I like how this is acting as a metaphor for the conversation they're having even if it's utterly ridiculous that they're having this talk while dealing with giant plants in outer space.

Supreme starts to say, "Sally, teens today..." but Sally doesn't want to hear it. She says she's around teens all the time and she knows that all they do is laugh at her, even from across the galaxy.

It's a nice bit of characterization that we see Suprema can be emotionally hurt, despite her tremendous powers.

"So I don't have friends other than Linda. Not really." Ouch. I don't know about you, but the room suddenly got a little dusty as I read this page.

Then she explains how Leonard became her friend. "I thought he hated me," she says. "He said that when people think someone is really strong, they forget that inside is someone who needs caring, just like everyone else."

As we'll see, Leonard might not just be talking about Sally, here.

"And how much worse than being alone it is to be lonely in a crowd full of people," she continues. Man, isn't that true.

I love this baring of Suprema's soul. She seems so confident all the time that it's nice to see that it might not all be true. And that Leonard has opened a door for her that she may not have even known about. All she wants is the opportunity to see where it leads. Supreme seems to finally get it.

Moore talked in the proposal about how he could use her outdated morality for laughs, but then those laughs as a way to show her as a vulnerable character. And I think the fan-creators just took that turn at full speed, and it mostly works.

Meanwhile, they've pushed the plants over Venus (how appropriate) and they start launching meteors again.

Supreme tells Sally that she should tell Leonard how she feels and that if he breaks her heart, he'll stick Leonard in his Hell of Mirrors. Ha.

Suprema gets called away but thanks Supreme for "the talk."

Part 3: In Our Blood

And now the Doc Rocket story. On the left, she's in the lab at the House of Wax with Johnny, making fun of Suprema. On the right, she's at the hospital talking to her grandfather, the original Doc Rocket--Dr. Richards, about how she's not so sure about being part of Youngblood. They keep messing up and destroying the mansion.

On the left she's telling Johnny how she learned the trick to seem like she's in two places at once by pronouncing each syllable at a time. It took her the longest three seconds of her life to learn the trick. Ha.

Johnny is trying to figure out what it is in her blood that gives her superspeed, but can't figure it out. He has perfected a slowing tab that can remove her power for a bit.

Rachel is telling her grandfather that she doesn't really like Suprema, but her grandfather says Suprema isn't so bad and that he thinks Johnny would have been considered a villain during his time back in the '40s.

With Johnny, she wonders why she would want to stop her powers, which Johnny replies for fun. With her grandfather, she's wondering if she'll quit Youngblood.

And then we see a cool city shot of her racing back and forth from the mansion to the hospital, while getting her caption monologue. We get a nice explanation of her powers in that she can basically control her personal time. "It also means it feels like hours waiting for a person to answer a question," she explains. "You'll just have to pardon me if I seem annoyed it took you that long to say something so boring."

It's an interesting take on the character, who has only been shown to be good natured (except to Suprema). Moore said in his proposal, how bad can it be to be the fastest girl in the world? I think we're about to find out.

We see Johnny slip a tab in Rachel's hand and then she slips that hand in her grandfather's hands. Her grandfather tells her that everyone needs someone sometime.

We then get a flashback to Rachel as a girl, using her speed to torment her older sister Cat, when her grandfather caught her. "Blah, blah, power, blah, blah, responsibility." Ha. He took her to his hospital and showed how he could use his speed to save people medically. And since he took her TV away for a week, she used that time to complete med school.

"Being a doctor is great, except for all the other people," she says. Again, this is such a different portrayal of Doc Rocket, as someone quite impatient. It makes a lot of sense to develop the character from Moore's sort of blank slate portrayal, but it does feel very different.

Back in the present, her grandfather is lecturing her about superteams when he gets a bloody nose and spots and then passes out. Rachel goes to help, but her superspeed is gone and she sees Johnny's slowing tab.

The nurses get her grandfather into a bed and they do a blood test to discover Leukemia. The tab slowed his immune system but not the rest of his blood. While they get him on chemo, she calls Johnny and reams him out to get something to help her grandfather.

We then get Rachel's racing thoughts about how they need to irradiate the marrow and transfuse it with new marrow. But with the blood moving at superspeed, she needs someone with superpowers to help. And then she realizes she needs to call in Suprema.

From a simple whisper, Suprema comes flying through the window and volunteers to help. She is taking out the bad cells when Big Brother pushes Johnny through the window with more of his slowing tabs. Leonard is awkward with Sally.

Suprema: "Leonard, so you've finally come out of the closet?"

Leonard: "Hey, that's not what that means!"

Groan. But they agree to talk later which is a nice little touch and a callback to Suprema's story.

Meanwhile Johnny uses the slowing tabs to slow down the rest of the original Doc Rocket's system, but they still need the marrow transfusion. Rachel threatens that she'll get him later. He replies, "You sound like my mom!"

Suprema finds a bone marrow match, which is obviously (conveniently) Shaft from when he got shot. Rachel, her superspeed back, races down, grabs him, brings him back, gets his consent and starts the transfusion. Twilight shows up and asks what's going on. "Sorry, I'm trying to save my grandfather from superspeed Leukemia," Doc replies. "Oh," Twilight responds, obviously confounded by this response. "Okay."

The story ends with Rachel thanking Suprema, though Suprema being Suprema asks if Rachel shouldn't be dressed more appropriately like a doctor.

There's the interesting note that Twilight has already left the hospital room and is out on the cold, snowy street, heading toward the Night Wagon. I wonder if Twilight has made up her mind about needing someone, too?

I don't know, this last one wasn't my favorite, partially because of how Doc's personality is changing, but also it comes together a little too snugly. But I like the writing and the art, especially on the Twilight and Suprema ones, to keep reading more issues. There seems to be some growth to the characters, which is something that it seems like Moore wasn't all that interested in before this, that is being handled really nicely.

What did you think imaginary blog reader?

I'm thinking that I'll do a post later this week to show where I think some of the elements that our fan creators are playing with probably came from Moore's proposal or previous issues. It feels very true to what Moore wanted to do, even if it obviously isn't written by Moore.

Next week: Crow John, What You Done?

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