History ComicBook / YoungbloodImageComics

* 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". Liefeld decided to change the name to avoid confusion with the setting of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' (after a visit from Hanna Barbera's lawyers.)

* TooManyBelts
* TrappedInTVLand: The Televillain 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 ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Seinfeld]]''.

* YourHeadAsplode: A Saddam Hussein analogue suffers this fate in the first issue.

* ShouldersOfDoom

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Averted in Moore's brief run, where the team was [[GenderEqualEnsemble split evenly between the sexes; three boys, three girls.]]

* {{Stripperiffic}}

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Combat being a Worf rip-off has this going for him.

* OneManArmy: Shaft and Chapel. Interestingly, they're the only two unpowered members of the original team.

* 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 Creator/JackKirby's head planted on a roided-up Cable body. "Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Jack Kirby".

* MostCommonSuperpower

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] and ComicBook/LoisLane appear in one issue.
* 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.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: More like, "Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads And Loads Of Characters", and many of them blatant ripoffs of other characters, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} in particular.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Johnny Panic discovers his father is Darius Dax, the world's most prolific villain.]]

* GroinAttack: Famously, [[RussianReversal Diehard's groin attacks YOU.]]

* FlyingBrick: Suprema, a CaptainErsatz of Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}.

* EvilAllAlong: Sentinel was retconned in ''ComicBook/JudgmentDay'' into being the one who was responsible for the vast majority of heroes being so dark, violent, and borderline insane, having rewritten the world with Hermes' book to match his ideas of what superheroes were supposed to be like. To that end, he kills Riptide and frames Knightsabre to get the book back and resume his control.
* 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.

* EyesAlwaysShut: Everyone, though technically the eyes are "open", but black slits of shadow so they can't be seen, giving the impression they're clamped shut as tight as possible. [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] refers to this as Youngblood's disease for a reason.

* 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: Naturally.
* 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''.

* {{Expy}}: Rob Liefeld's admitted that the team was simply a rejected ''Teen Titans'' pitch, right down to the redheaded archer Shaft being Speedy/Arsenal and Diehard being a S.T.A.R. Labs android.
** 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.

* CloudCuckooLander: Johnny Panic, "the world's first post-modern superhero" (though he would later insist he's now ''post'' post modern).
* ComicBookTime: Played straight. The series started around the time of UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar and reflected that. But in a more recent issue, longtime member Vogue mentioned admiring Creator/PamelaAnderson, Creator/JennyMcCarthy, and Creator/ParisHilton as a child.

* 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.
* UsefulNotes/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.

* 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 ComicBook/GreenArrow's sidekick Speedy from the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''.
** There were MULTIPLE ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}s, like Cougar and Troll.
** Bedrock/Badrock was a mixture of [[Franchise/FantasticFour The Thing]] and Creator/HannaBarbera's [[WesternAnimation/FredAndBarneyMeetTheThing 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 ComicBook/CaptainAmerica with a bit of Deathstroke thrown in.
** Vogue was Harlequin (The "Joker's Daughter" Version) visually with ComicBook/BlackWidow's background.
** Sentinel was ComicBook/IronMan or possibly Comicbook/WarMachine.
** Riptide was Namora.
** Knightsabre was Gambit.
** Combat was, in a roundabout way, [[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.)
*** Amusingly, Combat's backstory involves him being trained by an [[Franchise/StarTrek Admiral Kh'rk]]
** Battlestone, Youngblood's original leader who became Brigade's leader, was ComicBook/{{Cable}}. His brother Cabbot, who led Bloodstrike, was ''also'' Cable. As was Lt. Colonel Bravo introduced in Issue #6.
** A recurring villain, Warwolf, was Sabretooth, blatantly so even by Liefeld standards.
** Darkthornn is one for Darkseid, with his homeworld of D'Khay being a stand-in for Apokolips.
** In fact, [[DolledUpInstallment the team was spawned from a failed]] ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' relaunch Liefeld wanted to do with many of the aforementioned DC characters involved.
** Doc Rocket is a [[GenderFlip gender-flipped]] [[Comicbook/TheFlash Wally West]] and Suprema is Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}.
** The Alan Moore run introduced numerous blatant copies, as part of Moore’s attempt at metatextual analysis, like the [[ComicBook/ChallengersOfTheUnknown Conquerors of the Uncanny]] and [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Bram the Berserker]].

* AbortedArc: The 08' series introduced a back-up feature drawn by Liefeld in issue 8, involving Barack Obama assembling up his own Youngblood team. For some reason, issue 9 then totally did away with the ongoing plot, the back up feature taking over entirely and ignoring everything from the last eight issues in favour of an entirely typical Youngblood series. No further issues of the run were made.
** Curiously, Shaft's narration does bother to explain why Badrock was back in action after suffering injuuries earlier in the run. And nothing else.

* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Cougar and to a lesser extent, Troll.

* ExactlyWhatItSayOnTheTin: Troll ''wasn't'' this trope, until Creator/AlanMoore retconned him into being, literally, a centuries-old [[OurTrollsAreDifferent troll.]]

* 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.

* InvisibleBowstring: Shaft's bow. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that his bow is based upon alien anti-gravity technology, therefore nullifying the need for a string.

* 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

--> '''Diehard''': I may be new to this office, Keever, but I'm old enough to have seen my share of executive mistakes. Let's not ruin my first one hundred days by arresting a handful of millennials playing dress-up.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Petra, [[LegacyCharacter the new Vogue]] gives Shaft a short but succinct one when he refuses to listen why she reformed Youngblood.
--> '''Vogue''': You don't want to know what's going on here, do you? You fucked up, and it's so much easier to bury your head than remember what Youngblood was supposed to be.

* 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.

A new relaunch of the series began in 2012, published by Image comics, along with ''Comicbook/{{Glory}}'', Erik Larsen's run on ''Supreme'', and ''Bloodstrike''. None lasted very long, and only ''Comicbook/{{Glory}}'' made a lasting impact.

* MillitaryRankSuperheroVillainNames: Colonel Bravo, father of Shaft.

* {{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 generally turning it into everything that made the original so infamous. Needless to say, no more issues came after that.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Duh.

* ScheduleSlip: One of the trope codifiers for comic books.