PREVIOUSLY: Youngblood Strikefile #1
Rob Liefeld writes and draws part 2 of this Die Hard solo story. Die Hard has managed to take Super-Patriot’s whereabouts to some secret underground Cyberdata base, and see him fighting a bunch of nameless soldiers in high-tech armored suits as he makes his way through the facility. Halfway into the story, he finds Super-Patriot, and sees that he’s now been rebuilt with cybernetic parts, including mechanical arms that can turn it big guns. It looks like the company has also brainwashed him, as Super-Patriot wakes up and immediately attacks Die-Hard, blasting him with ammo that Die Hard compares to the force of 10 tanks. The battle ends on a cliffhanger where it looks like Super-Patriot has the upper hand.
Again, Liefeld’s artwork is good but this is mostly just another multi-page fight scene.
Once again, Liefeld and Eric Stephenson write and Jae Lee draws this Chapel story. Just like the first time we see him in the premier issue of Youngblood, this story opens with Chapel in bed with a woman. Then suddenly 4 Cybernet soldiers bust through his window and start shooting, killing the woman before Chapel had time to react. But Chapel manages to grab a gun and blow away all the soldiers, all while still buck naked (which is thankfully obscured by shadows). One of the dead drones broadcasts a recorded message from Giger, saying he just wanted to get Chapel’s attention and tells him to meet him the next night at a specific location.
For some reason, Chapel decides to handle this alone, instead of calling in his Youngblood teammates for help, and shows up at the time and place now fully armed. Giger arrives and tells Chapel that Jason Wynn hired him to kill Chapel. But although Giger hates Chapel he doesn’t want to do it, because he hates Wynn even more. He says that Wynn has become too powerful, with his influence spreading “not unlike a virus” (this comment will be revealed as a bit of foreshadowing in the next issue). and instead he makes an offer to Chapel that if Chapel kills Wynn, saving Giger the trouble of doing it, Giger will let Chapel live “for now.”
Chapel doesn’t take the offer and instead just blows Giger away, except then it’s revealed that this was just a cybernetic decoy that Giger created, And the body sends another recording message, warning Chapel that this isn’t over.
This was again the better-written story of the two, as long as you get used to Jae Lee’s artwork.
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