2016 Comic Challenge 139 Youngblood Vol 01 #08

TITLE-Youngblood Vol 01 #08
PUBLISHER-Image/Extreme Studios

Set right after Team Youngblood #11,this issue gives us the battle I wished had happened in the Team Youngblood issue.

Shaft and most of the Youngblood team go to capture/kill the villain who killed their teammate. And on the way there we get introduced to some new members. None of whom stand out.

But there is another story in this issue. We are taken to the alley Spawn is living in. And who happens to show up but Chapel. The man who killed Spawn.

I was surprised when I looked at the credits and saw that Liefeld actually drew this issue. I figured by this late in Extreme Studios run he wasn't doing much besides recruiting more talent. And Liefeld and Eric Stephenson wrote the issue.

I am kind of tempted to go dig out the next issue and read it. Mostly to see the continuation of the Chapel vs Spawn stuff.

Youngblood Volume 01 #08 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 138 Team Youngblood #11

TITLE-Team Youngblood #11
PUBLISHER-Image/Extreme Studios

Yep once again into the early 90s with another comic from Extreme Studios. Team Youngblood was a spin off of Rob Liefeld's Youngblood. Each series was suppose to focus on the home or away team. But that was never really stuck too.

Rob Liefeld and Eric Stephenson seem to have wrote this comic. With Chap Yaep doing the pencils and Danny Miki/Marlo Alquiza/Jonathan Sibal handling the inks. I don't mind Yaep's art. He is the best of the many Liefeld clones that worked at Extreme Studios.

The issue starts with the Sentinel lead team. They have just lost a team mate and need help. Then a quick cut to Badrock. He is on vacation off in Colorado. When he gets attacked by the cyborg hitman Overtkill. So a many page battle happens. And near the end Shaft shows up and grabs Badrock. And they head off to take care of whoever it was that killed one of their teammates.

The fight between Badrock and Overtkill is ok at best. Lots of huge panels and what all. I would have rather that part was skipped and we got straight to the battle that I am assuming happens in the next issue.

Team Youngblood #11 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 137 Extreme HERO

TITLE-Extreme HERO
PUBLISHER-Hero Illustrated/Extreme Studios/Image

And it's another comic that I forgot I owned until when last year  I started thinning out my collection.Extreme HERO is a preview comic that came packaged with an issue of Hero Illustrated. In it is 8 short previews of upcoming comics from the Extreme Studios part of Image.

The cover is by Rob Liefeld and Danny Miki. And I am guessing the guy on the cover is Cybrid. And that is just based on that fact that Liefeld and Miki did both the cover and the Cybrid preview on the inside.

The first preview is Cybrid by Liefeld and Miki. We get 4 pages of a cyborg man running around fighting stuff.I looked all over online and could find not evidence that Cybrid got it's own comic. I don't remember him showing up in any of the Extreme Studios stuff I have read. And after reading this 4 page preview I can say it is no loss if Cybrid never showed back up.

Preview number 2 is Law & Order. No not the long in the tooth tv show that has infected too many channels. This was instead created by Marat Mychaels.Who also writes and draws this 2 page preview. Like Cybrid I don't think this set of characters appeared outside of this preview comic.

3rd preview is Code 9. Again you get 2 pages. This time with Eric Stephenson getting credit for script. And the infamous Chap Yaep credited for creation,story,pencils and inks.I have no clue what the lead in this preview is called. He talks about being a good man until he was changed by Code 9.The art is decent for Yaep. But really 2 pages isn't enough to let me figure out if I want to read more of this character. But it doesn't matter cause once again it looks like Code 9 never appeared again.

L.A.N.C.E.R.S. is the 4th preview. Again it is 2 pages ARRGGGHHH. Richard Hornie is credited as creator and for the story and pencils.And Danny Miki did the inks. This at least is somewhat connected to the Extreme branch of Image. With a footnote telling you to read Extreme #0. I haven't seen Lancers appear outside this issue,and know he didn't get his own series.

RISK is the 5th preview. And again,I am really starting to hate this,it is 2 pages.Chuck Jones,not the guy who worked on Looney Tunes,gets credit for everything but inks. And the 2 pages of story is shit.I seem to remember Risk showing up in a future comic from Extreme.Which is better than the previous 4 characters showcased in the increasingly annoying comic.

6th is Meta-Force.Created by Jeff Matsuda and Eric Stephenson,am I the only one who loves how Stephenson started off as Liefeld's jack of all trades and moved up to being a big part of the business side of Image.It seems to be about a kid that can bring stuff out of his dreams into the real world. The art is nice. But then I like Matsuda's art. Sadly I am pretty sure Meta-Force didn't show up again.

Up next is two pages of hype for whatever Extreme Studios titles were coming out the month this shipped.With a spotlight on the Jack Kirby created Phantom Force.

Then 2 profile pages of Dan Fraga's Black Flag. I know they show up again. Pretty sure there was a Black Flag one shot or extremely short lived ongoing series.

And our final preview is of Art Thibert's Black&White. I am sure they appeared again cause somewhere in a longbox I got at least 1 issue of their series. The art is nice. Thibert was a great artist but so slow that he rarely did pencils.

The rest of the issue is just full page ads for various Extreme Studio titles. I really like the Jae Lee art on the Bloodstrike ad.

I have always loved Jae Lee's art. But seems like he is another artist that is too slow to do a regular series.

Looking around online this comic seems to be uncommon. But worth at most 2 bucks. I got mine with an issue of Hero Illustrated. And most issues of that I got for free or for 3 bucks tops.Unless you are trying to collect everything from Extreme Studios I see no reason to go out of your way to track this down.

Extreme HERO gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 134 Bloodstrike #01

TITLE-Bloodstrike #01
PUBLISHER-Image Comics/Extreme Studios

There are times you want a great comic,say something like Grimjack or Badger. Other times you want crap. And thanks to the early 90s huge print runs there is so much crap you can get for cheap or even free.

Well after having read 3 good books,2 biographies and a entertaining book about 80s and 90s horror zines,I was ready for some crap.And it is hard to find more entertaining crap as the swill Rob Liefeld was putting out in the early days of Image.

Bloodstrike is a team of mercenaries. Most of which have ties to either Brigade or Youngblood. So in this issue,which I am pretty sure is their first appearance,you get an issue long battle. Which some what lets you know who the various members of the team are.

So who created and produced this turd? Let me check the credits page. Liefeld gets credit for Creator/Plot/Layouts. Dan Fraga does the pencils.Eric Stephenson is credited for script and as the editor. And finally Danny Miki is doing the inks.

Oh forgot a few things. Looking around it seems like this issue sold right at 1 million copies. Think about that,big titles like Batman would love to sell 1 million copies currently. Plus it has one of the most unique cover gimmicks I have seen. The blood on the cover will disappear if it gets heated up. Yep rub your finger across if and it goes away.

Bloodstrike #01 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 128 Supreme #06

 TITLE-Supreme #06
PUBLISHER-Image/Extreme Comics

Yeah been a while since I read more of Liefeld's anti social version of Superman.

Last issue left us off with Supreme fighting Khrome near DC. Quickly Supreme realizes his punches are not effecting Khrome and uses his super vision and hearing to detect an energy signal. Seems Khrome is boosting his abilities using some kind of power source that happens to be in his ship. Supreme flies up destroys the ship. And comes back and traps Khrome in a wacky science fictiony gadget thingy.

Liefeld gets credit for story.Brian Murray gets credit for Pencils,story,script and colors. And Chris Ivy get Inks credit. The art looks like the last few issues so that is good. I kind of doubt Liefeld had more to do with this than saying "yeah Supreme figures out how to beat Khrome."

The fight between Supreme and who we are told is his arch-nemesis is kind of boring and flat. Only two things stand out from this issue.

Since Thor is public domain,Liefeld created his own version. Who looks like a Liefeld character but armed with a huge hammer. And the hammer IIRC hangs around for much longer than Thor does.

Look at the extreme gore in the page above. This is from right after Supreme defeats Khrome.I just double checked and this issue has no Comic Code Authority seal on the cover. I couldn't remember if Image bothered at all with the CCA.Thinking they might have at the beginning when you were finding Image stuff on newstands and in grocery stores. But nope. And really I doubt if even in 1993 if the CCA would have approved the above page.

Supreme #06 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 070 Youngblood Battlezone #01

TITLE-Youngblood Battlezone #01
PUBLISHER-Image/Extreme Studios

At one time I owned 8 or so copies of this comic. And I never bought one on purpose. When I moved back in fall 2007 I didn't get to bring but maybe 1/10th of my comics. So craving new comics to read,and the nearest comics shops over an hour drive and such,I started just grabbing whatever I found cheap at thriftstore,flea markets,etc. At Vendors Emporium right before X-mas 2007 I found 30 packs of 4 comics bagged together for a buck a pack. I grabbed all 30. The way they were packaged all you could see was the two outside titles. All of which were not duplicates.

I get home and start opening them up. First one I open the middle books was some random issue of Supreme and Youngblood Battlezone. And out of those 30 packs I got at least 8 copies of this book.

Under a cover from Rob Liefeld and Danny Miki,we get  a guide to Youngbloods tech and weapons. Remember those really cool tech breakdowns in The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe? Well these are like 8th rate clones of them. Someone named Richard Horie is credited with all the interior art.And good ole Eric Stephenson is listed as writer.

For a few years I would just randomly mail various friends boxes of vhs tapes,comics and other random stuff. And I would always include a copy of this book as a gag gift.

Youngblood Battlezone #01 gets a PASS!

2016 Comic Challenge 062 Supreme #05

TITLE-Supreme #05
PUBLISHER-Marvel

Well once again we got Liefeld listed for story,then Brian Murray listed for pencils,story,script and colors. Chris Ivy returns on the inks. I have heard that besides Liefeld giving 2 or 3 pages of story ideas Brian Murray did most of the writing on the early Supreme stuff.

The fight from last issue continues. Most of Heavy Mettle is either half dead or so damaged they can't do anything. Khrome starts a reaction that might destroy the world. And Supreme and Skyracker are prepared to sacrifice themselves to prevent this.

Wow this was just bad. The art looked dark and muddy. The story read way fast. Like I doubt it took me more than 5 minutes to read this comic.

Supreme #05 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 061 Supreme #04

TITLE-Supreme #04
PUBLISHER-Image

This issue we got Liefeld credited for plot. And then Brian Murray credited for pencils,co-plotting,script and colors. And finally Chris Ivy on inks.Oh wait Editor Eric Stephenson gets credited for script assists. So that means 3 people possibly writing this issue. Yeah I get the feeling I am in for some bad writing.

Supreme is heading to outer space. To confront Khrome. From various things said in the past 3 issues I have been lead to believe Khrome is Supreme's arch villain. His Darkseid/Lex Luthor/Joker.

But seems Khrome is on the Earth and Supreme waste a bunch of time and effort fighting a clone of Khrome.Heavy Mettle,yeah there was a group named that it was the early 90s,try to fight Khrome. But he decimates them. And then Supreme heads back to Earth after realizing he was fooled.

All the bad parts of early 90s comics is here. SO MANY DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS. Wonky anatomy,horrible names for the heroes and villains. And some especially bad dialogue. But I still enjoyed it. Sometimes I want a comic that doesn't require me to think much if at all. And Supreme #04 filled that need.

Supreme #04 gets a Buy.