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9th Mar '13 12:58:30 AM justanid

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An early {{Image}} comic book written by our old friend RobLiefeld, based on ideas he had for the ComicBook/TeenTitans that he never got to use. A {{superhero}} team funded by the government kill indiscriminately and have no obvious sense of morals. It was later rebooted by AlanMoore in ''YoungbloodJudgmentDay'', which is generally regarded as an improvement (which isn't saying much, it's generally ranked among Moore's worst work).

The series is incredibly stubborn and refuses to stay dead. A 2008 relaunch of the series has elevated the series to levels of decency. Unfortunately, this only lasted nine issues.

A new relaunch of the series began in 2012, published by Image comics, along with ''Glory'', ''Supreme'', and ''Bloodstrike''.

Most likely not to be confused with the 1980s movie of the same name.
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!!This comic provides examples of:

* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Cougar and to a lesser extent, Troll.
* BadassNormal: Shaft.
* {{BFG}}: It is to be expected, being an early 90s Image comic made by Liefeld.
* CaptainErsatz: Most of the characters Liefeld created:
** Shaft was clearly Speedy from the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''. 
** There were MULTIPLE {{Wolverine}}s, like Cougar and Troll.
** Bedrock/Badrock was a mixture of [[Franchise/FantasticFour The Thing]] and Hannah-Barbera's The Thing (being stuck in rock form like the former, but a teenager like the latter).
*** He was also based on Blok from the Legion of Superheroes. 
** Diehard was CaptainAmerica with a bit of Deathstroke thrown in.
** Vogue was Harlequin (The "Joker's Daughter" Version).
** Sentinel was IronMan.
** Riptide was Namora.
** Knightstrike was Gambit.
** Combat was [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Worf]].
*** Liefeld's original idea was to make a Khund warrior, but since Khunds are the DC version of the Klingons, a good Khund expy was obviously going to end as Worf.
** Battlestone, Youngblood's original leader who became Brigade's leader, was {{Cable}}. His brother Cabbot, who led Bloodstrike, was ''also'' Cable.
** A recurring villain, Warwolf, was Sabretooth, blatantly so even by Liefeld standards.
** In fact, the team was spawned from a failed ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' relaunch Liefeld wanted to do with many of the aforementioned DC characters involved.
* CloudCuckooLander: Johnny Panic, "the world's first post-modern superhero" (though he would later insist he's now ''post'' post modern).
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: A sub-theme in the series was based on Liefeld's hypothesis that superheroes in real life would be treated just as celebrities and athletes are.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: ...sort of. Diehard has been a cyborg since the ''40''s, but in one of the later series he undergoes a series of upgrades to better perform his duties and comes out of the experience behaving much less human.
* TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: Generally considered one of the faces of the era. The 2008 and 2012 series both make a point of lampshading the fact that Youngblood is almost anachronistic these days.
* DarkAgeOfSupernames: Typically regarded as one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, with the original team featuring Diehard, Badrock, Combat, Riptide, and Psi-Fire; a healthy chunk of its 13-man roster, all told.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Duh.
* DysfunctionJunction: Youngblood is, infamously, one of the least stable teams in comic history. Badrock and Troll once got into a deadly battle over ''who got to be on a cereal box''.
* EvilVersusEvil: From a cynical perspective, you could easily look at all of Youngblood's fights as this, or at the very least BlackAndGrayMorality, especially in the early issues
* {{Expy}}: As if Captain Ersatzing a lot of characters wasn't enough... a lot of the related super-teams who crossed over with Youngblood, such as Brigade, the Berzerkers and Bloodstrike, featured characters that were the same as Youngblood's members save for a quick costume change.
* TheFaceless: Diehard was first seen unmasked on-panel ''ten years'' after his debut
* GenderBender: As of the relaunched series, Photon- who was a male in the original- is now Lady Photon. Apparently his/her species switches genders every seven years. 
** AttractiveBentGender: Lady Photon has gained a lot of admirers- both male AND female- as a woman. Though she does note that people are usually put off when they find out she used to be a man.
* LegacyCharacter: Doc Rocket, the daughter of the original Doc. There was also a RedeemingReplacement for Sentinel in the 2008 series, Sentinel 2.0. The 2012 relaunch also has Shaft quitting the team and getting replaced by a government-appointed successor.
* LighterAndSofter: Alan Moore's run. 
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Johnny Panic discovers his father is Darius Dax, the world's most prolific villain.]]
* MerchandiseDriven: In-universe only. Shaft would have to meet with the toy company to go over his action figures planned for the year. Four variants for 1993, and Badrock's gonna collect em all!
* MostCommonSuperpower
* NinetiesAntiHero
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The first issue feature a dictator (who's most definitely ''not'' Saddam Hussein) getting his head exploded.
** And then there's the character Kirby, who's essentially JackKirby's head planted on a roided-up Cable body. "Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Jack Kirby".
* OneManArmy: Shaft and Chapel. Interestingly, they're the only two unpowered members of the original team.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Played with in the relaunch. The heroes are briefly lead to believe that they won't be fighting crime any more. The government assures them that this won't be the case (though it's still not necessarily all real).
* PluckyComicRelief: Troll basically introduces himself as being the comic relief of the team. In-universe, it causes his popularity to skyrocket.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Combat being a Worf rip-off has this going for him.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Troll is thousands of years old, however much he'd like to keep it a secret.
* {{Remaster}}: For a hardcover release, Youngblood issues 1-5 were completely re-written (and we mean '''completely''') by Joe Casey, with pages re-organized and plots completely overhauled to make it pass across as moderately coherent. Colors were also redone to remove the tackiness of Brian Murray's less thought out color schemes.
* ReplacementScrappy: In-universe, the second Shaft. His teammates call him "not-Shaft", refusing to accept him as a genuine replacement for the original.
* {{Retool}}: A hideously stupid one. In the penultimate issue if the rather decent 09' series, the issue featured a backup by Robert Liefeld in which Barack Obama set up his own Youngblood team. Seems perfectly fine, until the next issue completelt replaces the main story with the backup, giving a minor handwave to ONE plot point from the previous story and inventing an apprently long time enemy organisation for the team. Needless to say, no more issues came after that.
* ScheduleSlip: One of the trope codifiers for comic books. 
* SharedUniverse: Youngblood has ties to virtually every major Image title in some form or another. Chapel is the man who iced Al Simmons and sent him on the road to becoming {{Spawn}}. Doc Rocket and Johnny Panic both owe their existence entirely to Moore's ''{{Supreme}}'' - they didn't appear directly but are related to characters introduced therein. Diehard ''did'' appear in ''Supreme'', as a member of the [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Allies of Justice (along with Superpatriot from ''SavageDragon''). And Suprema and Twilight, the series' Supergirl and Robin stand-ins, were members of the team during Moore's run.
* ShouldersOfDoom
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Averted in Moore's brief run, where the team was split evenly between the sexes; three boys, three girls.
* {{Stripperiffic}}
* TokenEvilTeammate: The first issue of ''Youngblood'' has Psi-Fire explode an unarmed dictator's head... after telling him he admires what he's accomplished.
** Then again, since the reactions of the rest of the team to this horrific, bloody murder range from indifference to resignation and mild annoyance, it's probably unfair to call him the only evil guy on the team
* TooManyBelts
* TrappedInTVLand: The Televillian goes on a rampage using the miracle of [=TiVo=] and ends up trapping a recent addition to the team on the set of Oprah. Shaft and Cougar go after her and briefly end up on a number of different shows, including a rerun of [[FunnyMoments Seinfeld]]
* TwoferTokenMinority: Big Brother from Alan Moore's run, a paraplegic black kid.
* WestCoastTeam: "Home" and "Away" teams. Later "Youngblood" and "''Team'' Youngblood".
* WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: Invoked in the most recent revival, where the team was reformed and given a reality TV show.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: In the team's first appearance, Badrock's codename was "Bedrock". One legal threat from Time-Warner later, the name was changed.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Badrock is a 12 foot tall rock monster. At the start of the original series he's in his very early teens.
* YourHeadAsplode: A Saddam Hussein analogue suffers this fate in the first issue.
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21st Jan '13 10:38:28 AM EponymousKid

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21st Jan '13 10:09:16 AM EponymousKid

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