Reviews of random single back issues of comics

[khyron1144]

Youngblood #1 (published by Awesome) review


What is it?  A comic book with a glossy cover and interior and color throughout.  Alan Moore is the writer.  Steve Skroce is the penciler.  Lary Stucker is the inker.  Richard Starkings & Comicraft did the letters.  The colors were provided by a company called Awesome Colors.

Plot summary:  A secret government organization is scheming to get ahold of an alien from another dimension.  An alien with no physical form of its own that possesses people.  It works.

The alien possesses a soldier guy in the secret underground base and escapes.  Youngblod, a superhero team gets involved.  Suprema, a Supergirl knock-off, gets possessed.  There's a fight.  The good guys win and Suprema gets unpossessed.

What's good about it?  It's done-in-one rather than kicking off a multi-issue story arc.

For a fairly cookie cutter superhero story, it is executed well.

The attempts at witty dialogue actually made me smile.

Steve Skroce's artwork vaguely resembles Rob Liefeld's without being a slavish imitation.

Rob Liefeld's personal involvement with the book seems to be minimal.  He simply owns the characters, and he drew one or two of the twelve variant covers.


What's not so good about it? You remember that  cookie cutter comment?  Well I meant it.  This book could have been done almost as well with any of DC or Marvel's superteams, like the JLA or Fantastic Four. 

In fact, I think variants on this theme have been done with the Fantastic Four.

The other problem is this is Volume 3, Issue number 1 of Youngblood.  Besides being a bad example of the chromium age tendency for excessive first issues of a single property to increase after-market value, it opens with action and contains very little exposition to explain who these characters are and what they do.  I have a vague memory of having reading earlier versions of Youngblood, where the team was government sponsored.  Now it appears to have gone private.  Only two of the team members are at all familiar to me:  Shaft and Suprema.

What The...? Moment:  Twelve variant covers.  That's just excessive.  Now aren't we all glad the 90s are over?

Who Needs It?  Youngblood fans.  Suprema fans.  Anyone who wants to see an Alan Moore superhero comic with no obvious element of irony or deconstruction or commentary on the genre.

Rating: 2 stars (on my five-star scale)

Method of Acquisition:  79 cents from the cheap comics bins at The Outer Limits in Wyoming, Michigan

[khyron1144]

The latest:



Review of Morlock 2001 Issue #1

What is it?:  A comic book cover dated February 1975.  Published by Atlas (not the Atlas that Marvel Comics used to be but a new company of that name- a subsidiary of Seaboard Periodicals).  Color.     Uncoated paper stock.  20 story pages plus a text page giving plugs for this new at the time company's new at the time line of comic books.  Written by Michael Fleisher; pencilled by Al Milgrom; inked by Jack Abel; edited by Jeff Rovin; colorist and letterer uncredited.

Plot summary:  It's 2001.  The government is repressive and totalitarian.  The Thought Police liquidate a rogue botanist and take his giant seed pods into custody.

Out of one of the seed pods hatches a human-looking guy with silvery hair.  The government names him Morlock.  When it is discovered that Morlock possesses a sort of death touch power, the government uses him as an assassin/executioner. 

Morlock becomes unhappy about this situation.  The government hires a pretty woman to act like Morlock's friend in an effort to keep him happy.  When Morlock discovers the ruse, he gets angry and monsters out.  I think his monsterized form is meant to resemble a tree with tentacles, but, to me, it looks like something made of feces.  The monstered out Morlock eats his fake girlfriend and escapes the government's clutches.

What's Good About It?:  If the plot summary above didn't sell on it, you are beyond my reach.

What's Not So Good About It?:  It is derivative.  In Morlock himself I detect hints of Swamp Thing/Man-Thing/The Heap as well as the Hulk and maybe a little Adam Warlock.  In the future dystopia setting, one can see hints of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

What The... ? Moment:  Once you read the book, you realize that the cover is deceptive because it depict Morlock twice, once normal and once in monster form, fighting himself.

Who Needs It?:  Well if you liked Man-Thing, Swamp Thing, or The Incredible Hulk, you may like this.

Rating:  4 stars out of 5.  Really, truly, and sincerely.  It's goofy but I haven't had this much fun reading a comic in a while.

Method of Acquisition:  Out of the fifty cent bins at Lange's in Muskegon, MI