Rattlehead
01-16-2008, 09:50 AM
Yep that's right. I want to talk Youngblood. I picked up the first issue of Joe Casey and Derek Donovan's new book last night. I have to admit, I really liked it. Spoilers Ahoy.
The book starts off with a Government helicopter landing at the Mall of America. Turns out, they are responding to a hostage situation at the Mall, and out steps a member of the National Security Council. He starts talking with another Government type, who says where their man is inside. Theri man, is in fact Shaft, who was sent in under the guise of of being a negotiater. There was no negiotiations, as Shaft somehow walked in and murdered the entire hostage group with plastic flatware from the food court. Shaft is then introduced by the NSA agent to the new PR director of Youngblood. Shaft says he ain't interested, and is promplty told that he works for the Government, and will do anything they tell him to do. He has no choice. They want him to lead a new Youngblood project, but this time it's going to be different. This time it's going to be used as a marketing tool, to help repair the world's perception of America, and more importantly, the world's perception of American superheroes. The PR guy goes on about how not just the US is obssessed with celebrity tabloid coulture, and the rest of the world is just as crazy about Hollywood celebrities as Americans are. Shaft already thinks this is going to be a bad idea.
So we get to the new headquarters of YB, located in a sphere next to the Statue of Liberty, and as soon as they step off of the chopper, Shaft is mugged by a camera crew. The PR guy informs him that they are going to be doing all of this under the guise of a reality TV show. Shaft goes inside to meet the rest of the team, and inside we see Badrock, Cougar, Doctor Rocket, and Johnny Panic. Panic doesn't seem to have any experience in the hero game before. Die-hard is downstairs being upgraded. Contracts are signed, licenses are hammered out, toys are made, and the team hits the talk show circuit. Obviously, the Government is more concerned with establishing the team as celebrities than heroes. Shaft laments that there are real threats out there, and doesn't feel like this whole thing is being taken seriously. So we now we get too...
The first mission of the new outfit. A giant robot is attacking Lake Tahoe. The team moves in, and makes quick work of the robot. Inside the cockpit of the robot, we see a team of pilots remarking that this wasn't supposed to happen, that this was only supposed to be a test-run. Shaft tries in vain to blow up the door of the cock-pit with an exploding arrow, but it all becomes moot anyways. Badrock is dropped from a helicopter, and lands on the cockpit, crushing it. Obviously, things aren't exactly what they seem.
We cut to the PR guy talking to a shadowy figure. Turns out a deal is being made with said shadowy figure, to set up his villian team, Misery Inc. to be the main thorns in Youngblood's side. Apparently Misery Inc has a history with YB, and he's fine with the Realty TV set-up as long as he gets his revenge. To be continued.
So, yeah. I thought this was really cool. As you can see there was a lot going on in 22 pages, and you can't accuse Casey of writing for the trade on this. Every page was packed, and there was a lot of dialogue. The concept of the team being Reality TV show stars, and the whole celebrity hero angle, is right up Joe Casey's alley. This issue is basically set-up, but he gets that all out of the way quickly while still setting up solid characterizations, and sub-plots. I can tell he knows exactly where he wants to go with this, and he's set up an intriguing story so far.
Now the art. When I first saw the preview pages, I wasn't sold on Derek Donovan's art. But once I actually read the issue, I found it to be great. He has a very cartoony style, and is very expressive with his characters. He also made Shaft look like he would be approaching middle age. His lines are crisp and clean, and it honestly reminds me of the stuff from the Kirkman-verse, also at Image. Beautiful stuff, and it goes along wonderfully with Casey's script. I don't think they could have found a better choice for this. Don't worry, it's the exact opposite of Liefeld's grimace fests, and unless you buy the variant Liefeld cover(I did, it looked good for Rob) then there's not a whiff of Rob anywhere on this.
I thnk it's a fun book, and it's a refreshing take on a superhero team book. I hope people are willing to give this a shot, as Casey and Donovan have put together a good book. I don't think these two have ever had problems reaching deadlines eithier. So this should be on the shelf every single month. I want this to succeeed, as I love Joe Casey, but he rarely does anything worthwhile on Big 2 books. Here he seems totally comfortable with the characters, and should have the freedom to do with them as he sees fit.
So thumbs up to Youngblood.
The book starts off with a Government helicopter landing at the Mall of America. Turns out, they are responding to a hostage situation at the Mall, and out steps a member of the National Security Council. He starts talking with another Government type, who says where their man is inside. Theri man, is in fact Shaft, who was sent in under the guise of of being a negotiater. There was no negiotiations, as Shaft somehow walked in and murdered the entire hostage group with plastic flatware from the food court. Shaft is then introduced by the NSA agent to the new PR director of Youngblood. Shaft says he ain't interested, and is promplty told that he works for the Government, and will do anything they tell him to do. He has no choice. They want him to lead a new Youngblood project, but this time it's going to be different. This time it's going to be used as a marketing tool, to help repair the world's perception of America, and more importantly, the world's perception of American superheroes. The PR guy goes on about how not just the US is obssessed with celebrity tabloid coulture, and the rest of the world is just as crazy about Hollywood celebrities as Americans are. Shaft already thinks this is going to be a bad idea.
So we get to the new headquarters of YB, located in a sphere next to the Statue of Liberty, and as soon as they step off of the chopper, Shaft is mugged by a camera crew. The PR guy informs him that they are going to be doing all of this under the guise of a reality TV show. Shaft goes inside to meet the rest of the team, and inside we see Badrock, Cougar, Doctor Rocket, and Johnny Panic. Panic doesn't seem to have any experience in the hero game before. Die-hard is downstairs being upgraded. Contracts are signed, licenses are hammered out, toys are made, and the team hits the talk show circuit. Obviously, the Government is more concerned with establishing the team as celebrities than heroes. Shaft laments that there are real threats out there, and doesn't feel like this whole thing is being taken seriously. So we now we get too...
The first mission of the new outfit. A giant robot is attacking Lake Tahoe. The team moves in, and makes quick work of the robot. Inside the cockpit of the robot, we see a team of pilots remarking that this wasn't supposed to happen, that this was only supposed to be a test-run. Shaft tries in vain to blow up the door of the cock-pit with an exploding arrow, but it all becomes moot anyways. Badrock is dropped from a helicopter, and lands on the cockpit, crushing it. Obviously, things aren't exactly what they seem.
We cut to the PR guy talking to a shadowy figure. Turns out a deal is being made with said shadowy figure, to set up his villian team, Misery Inc. to be the main thorns in Youngblood's side. Apparently Misery Inc has a history with YB, and he's fine with the Realty TV set-up as long as he gets his revenge. To be continued.
So, yeah. I thought this was really cool. As you can see there was a lot going on in 22 pages, and you can't accuse Casey of writing for the trade on this. Every page was packed, and there was a lot of dialogue. The concept of the team being Reality TV show stars, and the whole celebrity hero angle, is right up Joe Casey's alley. This issue is basically set-up, but he gets that all out of the way quickly while still setting up solid characterizations, and sub-plots. I can tell he knows exactly where he wants to go with this, and he's set up an intriguing story so far.
Now the art. When I first saw the preview pages, I wasn't sold on Derek Donovan's art. But once I actually read the issue, I found it to be great. He has a very cartoony style, and is very expressive with his characters. He also made Shaft look like he would be approaching middle age. His lines are crisp and clean, and it honestly reminds me of the stuff from the Kirkman-verse, also at Image. Beautiful stuff, and it goes along wonderfully with Casey's script. I don't think they could have found a better choice for this. Don't worry, it's the exact opposite of Liefeld's grimace fests, and unless you buy the variant Liefeld cover(I did, it looked good for Rob) then there's not a whiff of Rob anywhere on this.
I thnk it's a fun book, and it's a refreshing take on a superhero team book. I hope people are willing to give this a shot, as Casey and Donovan have put together a good book. I don't think these two have ever had problems reaching deadlines eithier. So this should be on the shelf every single month. I want this to succeeed, as I love Joe Casey, but he rarely does anything worthwhile on Big 2 books. Here he seems totally comfortable with the characters, and should have the freedom to do with them as he sees fit.
So thumbs up to Youngblood.