We begin today's entry by dusting off our Doctor Doom Time Platform, our destination the summer of 1992. You see, around that time I was generally pumped about ANYTHING Batman-related, due to the fires being rekindled by "Batman Returns" theater debut. But one visit with a then-group of friends... and I say "then", because they were really a couple of jerks... served as a living info-mercial for an upstart comic company. A company that featured some of the HOTTEST names Marvel had on their titles for the very late 80's to the early 90's, and if I joined them in buying a set of this company's books for the coupons to purchase a zero issue for the company, I'd not regret it. In case you just weren't around that time, or just weren't paying attention, the company I speak of is Image Comics.
If I remember right, I can still quote some of those coupon books off the top of my head:
- "Spawn #4"
- "WildC.A.T.s #2"
- "Brigade #2"
- "Youngblood #0"
If I'm forgetting any titles, I'll kick myself for it, later. OR feel free to correct me! But it's odd that, at the time, I did enjoy Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee's output... BUT those books that sprung from the bizarro mind of Rob Liefeld were those that stuck with me most vividly. What can I say? I was a budding teenager, his creative sense played into what was "cool" as a teenager, and I can still say that his art... while not really "quality"... is certainly vivid. I'd say for about 3-4 years straight, I was a devotee to the Extreme Comics imprint of Image. ... Which was almost a Don Quixote level of insanity, due to hardly ANY books from Image, regardless of what imprint you followed, ever coming out on a monthly schedule. For today's Friday Foolishness, I bring you five examples of some of my Extreme insanity. Wait... that's supposed to be in all caps: "Some of my EXTREME INSANITYYYYY!". In no particular order:
1. "Brigade #0"
Some people may consider zero issues to be a stroke of insanity. I then tell them try to figure out Marvel's .1 issues. But this issue of Brigade served as a semi-coherent bridge between the initial mini-series and the planned ongoing series. It showcased up and coming characters like the ninjette Lethal, and the spitting image of Rob Liefeld himself, Boone, who was a dual-pistol wielding assassin with ATTITUDE! If you notice that Jeff Matsuda's artwork rather resembles Liefeld's work... get used to that sensation with nearly all of my entries. Details I remember about this book are a vain attempt to wedge Jacob Marlowe from "WildC.A.T.s" into the plot... because this was around the time that the Image Universe was still in a crossover mentality, there was a battle with glowing ninjas, and then another battle with Youngblood. Because heroes fighting heroes never gets old. And a lot of teeth-gritted tough characterization. It's unusual that I do NOT remember any of this issue leading into direct crossover into the upcoming Brigade/Bloodstrike crossover event. Maybe this came out afterwards, or in-between?
2. "Youngblood Yearbook #1" AKA May as well have called this a one-shot
Professors and scholars have debated long and hard about what team of Youngblood was the "superior" brand: the Home team or the Away team. Well, the Away team had a chance to shine in this "Yearbook", which is what Image and Valiant comics called their "Annuals". (And... huge shock... most of their titles only HAD one Yearbook. Remind me to talk about my general love of Annuals, though, some future article...) Many key elements hit me for this issue, such as most of the book being made up of fold-out page spreads. If the 4 page spreads were pared down to single pages, I'd say this would probably average out to a 22 page story... at most. And what a story! Because if you're going to rip off Marvel's characters, you may as well rip off their settings too, with a BLATANT Savage Land riff being featured... only with cyborg barbarians. ... And no, cybernetically enhancing barbarians does not make them any more appealing in a very clumsy story. I will give this book one positive: Chap Yaep did actually develop as more of an artist after this Yearbook. I wonder whatever happened to him...
3. "Prophet #5"
Does anyone remember when Stephen Platt was THE hot artist? How after only 3-4 issues on "Moon Knight", before it was canned, he was blazing? And how his coming to the semi Captain America rip-off title "Prophet" was a HUGE DEAL? I admit, his artwork is a bit of a mess, but it is an INSANELY detailed mess. I even remember a Wizard Magazine contest involving a counting game for a poster he illustrated for the magazine; if you could guess the exact number of bullet shells on the poster, you won the original artwork. As for the story, this was when the character was being slowly removed from his World War 2 creation story, and it was insinuated John Prophet was in existence a wee bit longer than that. And that in the Vietnam War, such an insanely religious character did some rather unreligious things. (I don't think there was anything in the Bible about tying a platoon of dead bodies around your massive frame to disguise yourself for an innocent village slaughter, even killing a pregnant woman.) This leads to a 3 issue manhunt for a berserk Prophet by his longtime buddy Kirby... guess who he was modelled after... and some androids.
4. "Bloodstrike #5"
... Speaking of not nice things... To this moment, I still reflect on this single issue of Bloodstrike to be the most gratuitously violent superhero comic published at this time. For a quick background for those not familiar with Bloodstrike: did you ever seen "Universal Soldier"? Take that concept, make the UniSols super-powered, and there you go! In this issue, there's a mercurial mystery involving the less-than-subtle Wolverine swap, Deadlock. Then later, Cabbot... really, our lead character's named Cabbot?... and his squad stem off a complex invasion by the Superman "with an attitude" swipe, Supreme. What follows is more red-stuff and viscera than your average Lucio Fulci film. Our team is reduced to so much tripe by Supreme, leaving the status of the team rather in question. It also left a really odd memory in my reading history.
5. "Youngblood #6"
Ah... The launch pad of Extreme Studios. I believe this issue came out after a 2-year gap of direct artistic involvement by Rob Liefeld. The hype for the issue would've led you to believe that this was the start of a monthly release for the book... by Rob Liefeld. Say it with me: HAHAHAHA!!! Seriously, that's pretty hilarious. But for this "new era" of Youngblood, we picked up new members for the Home and Away teams, along with new costumes. Who were these stellar new members? A Wolverine and Puck mish-mash called Troll, and a not-at-all-hidden riff on Gambit called Knightstrike. We also got a brief fight with some terrorists to highlight our new members' abilities. I will give Liefeld the credit for having improved his artwork somewhat between the mini-series and this "ongoing" series. But as with most every project involved with Extreme Studios, ongoing was about as realistic a concept as cyborg barbarian pigs with wings.
And I didn't blow my wad on the Extreme Studios thoughts, because there's more to come in due time. Oh yes... an EXTREME amount of more!
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