Written by Rob Liefeld and Ryan L. Schrodt
Drawn by Jon Malin
Published by Image Comics

Picking up from the aftermath of the previous issue, most of the members of the current Youngblood team have been defeated by Lord Chapel, aided by Chapel Jr. and longtime Youngblood member Troll, both of whom appear to be possessed by the forces that lead to Lord Chapel’s resurrection. Badrock and Chapel Jr.’s partner in the Secret Service, Agent Davis, call in a bunch of former Youngblood members, some non-members, to form a new team to take on Lord Chapel.

A who’s who of Extreme Studios characters appear. Task, Psilence, Seoul, Link, Masada, Col. Bravo, Psi-Fire, Rubble, Battlestone, Suprema, Big Brother, Twilight, Johnny Panic, Combat, Brahma, Doc Rocket, Wylder, Sentinel (wife of the original), Dutch and Maximage are asked to join Badrock, Vogue, and Die Hard to take on Lord Chapel, whom we see return to New York, to the same street where he first killed himself in his confrontation with Spawn (which we see in flashback) in order to go to Hell and become a demon lord, along with Troll and Chapel Jr., and begin his plan to unleash Hell on Earth.

Thus, we end with another cliffhanger that would never be resolved as this latest relaunch of Youngblood comes to a close, and no further issues were published. A sixth attempt at launching an ongoing series would launch in 2017, ignoring all of the storylines from this series.

It’s a shame, as I believe this story had more potential, at least in terms of retaining the longtime fans than the initial six issues written by John J. McLaughlin. But I guess this course correction was simply too late; the attention had already been lost.

In hindsight, I also think it’s clear that McLaughlin just was not the right person to relaunch this series. His lack of history in reading Youngblood, not to mention his lack of experience in writing comic books, as talented as he may be at writing films, was apparent early on. I see from an early interview that Scott Lobdell was originally tapped for this series, I’ve liked much of his work, so I can’t help but wonder how he would have handled this book. I see Liefeld brought in Ryan L. Schrodt to script this issue, I’m not familiar with his work, but he may have taken over scripting of this series if it had continued and we could have gotten a satisfying series, or at least a decent conclusion to this arc.

As I’ve stated since the beginning, I’m not a fan of Jon Malin’s artwork at all. The only good thing I can say is that he finished most of the issues on time (other than a 3-month gap between #74 and #75). But I just never warmed up to his art. Thus, the series can be summed up as wasted potential.