Written by Joe Casey
Drawn by Paul Fry
Published by Image Comics
While I was dissatisfied with the DUTCH miniseries that preceded this title, I was still intrigued by this concept that was introduced in it. Rob Liefeld’s YOUNGBLOOD was the title that launched the original Image Comics universe in 1992, but due to Liefeld eventually losing ownership of those characters, they are no longer able to be used or appear in any new Image Comics. So Joe Casey did a little retconning, and created a new superhero team which takes Yougblood’s place in Image Comics continuity. Intead of Youngblood, it was a team called Blood Squad Seven who were the U.S. Government’s officially sanctioned team of superheroes, and celebrities, duing the 1990s. We didn’t learn too much about the original team in the Dutch miniseries, just that the government shut them down many years ago and now are planning to relauch the team with new members. And that’s where we left off. As I’m writing this, I have just gotten this issue on my Kindle but haven’t read it yet. I’m about to do that, and then finish this post with my thoughts…
Okay, I read it!
This is basically a set-up issue. Erika, the former superhero known as Infiniti, is in the White House discussing the relaunch of the team with the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff and White House Press Secretary. They recap some of the history of the team and how they want the new team to be marketed. Throughout these discussions, there are several nods and Easter eggs to Youngblood and early Image Comics. Like we see that the original team had action figures (made by “Todd Toys”, which was the original name for Todd McFarlane’s toy company and did put out some Youngblood action figures early on), and it’s mentioned how it was decided to keep the original name for the team because “90s nostalgia is huge” right now. Even Judgement Day gets mentioned.
While this is going on, we see that two prospective members of the team, Ripcord and Nightstriker (who seem to be the stand-ins for Shaft and DieHard) are currently on some covert mission fighting Russians in the Ukraine. This is a clever nod to Youngblood #1 as that issue had the Away Team on a covert mission in Iraq. But these characters are quite brutal, as we see them in a bloody battle with the enemy soldiers.
We also meet Erika’s daughter Karla, who is set to take over the mantle of Infiniti as the BS7 field team leader, and another character I won’t name, but it’s one old Extreme Studios fans will recognize, and in the climax, we see that there’s more to one character than meets the eye.
Color me intrigued. The story didn’t give all the information about the series, but it gave enough to make me want to come back for the next issue, so that’s a success.
The main downside, and I hate to say it, is the art. I’m not familiar with artist Paul Fry but, based on this, I assume he must be a newbie because his work looks very amateurish here, and that’s really a shame. Considering the premise of the title, I feel like they should have tried to get someone to ape the Liefeld-style of early Image, to help it feel like a real continuation. But as it stands, if I were rating this comic on a scale of 1-10, I’d say the writing gets an 8 but the art gets a 4.
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