Writers: Rob Liefeld, Eric Stephenson
Artist: Chap Yaep
Publisher: Image Comics

This issue opens with Sentinel holding a press conference to discuss the events of the hijacking of the Liberty II space station. After that, back in Youngblood HQ, the team is told that they’re being given some time off. Riptide, Masada, and Cougar can go home immediately, while Sentinal has Photon and Dutch, who has agreed to become a full-time member of the team, stay with him for a meeting.

This leads to a surprise appearance by Shaft and Badrock from the Youngblood Home Team. They congratulate Sentinel on his team’s victory, and then they inform home that Psi-Fire has escaped, and take him to the woman who we saw Psi-Fire possesses in issue #2. The woman is crying and tells Sentinel that Psi-Fire killed the other and escaped, and Sentinel hugs her and promises that they’ll catch him, while we see a wicked smile on her face.

Riptide goes to her home where there’s a message on her answering machine from the editor of “Pussycat Magazine” who is offering her a job as a centerfold. And she finds herself at first repelled but then intrigued by the idea of posing nude. Then there’s another message, it’s from Brahma. He’s calling to say goodbye and thank her for being one of the only people on the team whom he says ever made an effort to really get to know him. Riptide starts crying.

Then we see Masada at her place, she’s just moving in. Then suddenly drops to her knees and starts crying as she hears multiple voices in her head, calling out her name, Deborah. She thinks “Oy gevalt! All those voices…all that pain. I can never forget the burden I carry…the souls of all those who gave their lives in the name of Judaism…but sometimes I wish…just for the slightest moment…I wish I could be alone.”

I never did understand exactly what this means in relation to her powers. She’s possessed by the soul of every Jewish person who’s ever been killed for being Jewish? How did that happen? Maybe I’ll be wrong, as I keep re-reading this series, but I don’t think we ever got a clear origin story for her.

We see Sentinel and Dutch talking, where Sentinel apologizes for his past. Apparently, Sentinel had enlisted Dutch’s help to track down Giger before but then double-crossed him somehow. Dutch agrees to try to work with him, and they shake hands. Although they’re shaking with their left hands.

The end of the main story has Cougar being attacked in his home by another Cat-like man like himself. This person calls him a “half-breed,” tells him that his mother is gone, and then tries to kill him. Cougar fights him off but the assailant escapes. Cougar realizes that his mother is in danger and he has to do something.

That’s the first 17 pages. Then there’s a 7-page story called Tales Of Team Youngblood: Part 1: The Coming of Cougar. Also written by Eric Stephenson from a story by Rob Liefeld, this is drawn by Mark Pacella and Anthony Winn.

Set in 1967 it tells the story of a woman named Meg Tsuchida, a paleontologist, who investigating some rare flora deep in the Congo Basin of Zaire, in Africa. She’s accompanied by two armed British soldiers and three African tribesmen (who are all barefoot wearing loincloths and carrying spears, of course). Then they’re ambushed and attacked by a bunch of cat-men who slaughter everyone except for Meg. The cat-men’s leader, Khylund, agrees to spare her life, although the others want to just kill her. They take her to their village where she’s kept as a prisoner but after some time passes she and Khylund fall in love and she gives birth to a son. This act enrages some of the other cat-men, who decree that Meg and her baby must be killed.

I loved that this issue had a slowdown from action to look into the personal lives of the characters, even if only briefly, and Yaep seems to be getting more comfortable drawing this character. And he managed to get these first four issues finished monthly, which was an accomplishment for Extreme Studios titles at the time.

TEAM YOUNGBLOOD