Youngblood #6

Go ahead, make fun of me. I like Youngblood. I've collected every issue Liefeld has put out. While his storytelling has never been great, I'm a big believer that Liefeld is a decent plotter and his creations are fun and energetic. So I'm really enjoying the current series, with Joe Casey writing and Derec Donovan drawing these fun characters. The book is an odd one now, as Casey has made the "official" team a total media project, down to manufactured encounters with media-controlled villains. Meanwhile, Shaft and the other old-time YB heroes are out trying to stop villainy on a realistic scale. The Televillain is too "small time" for the media team, but he has to be stopped, and Shaft's team is gonna get it done. The Televillain can jump around through TV shows, but it seems the Scion of Starhunter can too (she seems to be the kid of a Martian Manhunter type). Casey is doing a neat job making it seem like the Youngblood U has been around for awhile. I may not remember most of the names of the new characters, but they seem neat too, there are a lot of fun ideas here. The idea of a media-saturated super-hero culture hasn't been done this well in any other book. Ellis' Thunderbolts did it for a short while, but moved on, 6 issues in, and that is still the main focus of Casey's story. Neat stuff.

Derec Donovan's art is cartoony but I'm a big fan. His faces are expressive, but more importantly, the man can draw action. There is an energy on his action page that makes them fun to read.

Good