Rob Liefeld: It’s a love letter to the team books that I grew up with, like The Avengers, The Titans, The Justice League, and The Fantastic Four that I grew up. Those books don’t exist anymore, and let me tell you something, I miss them. There’s a different dynamic. They don’t approach these books in the same way. So, this is my love letter, and I think it’s kind of a How To Do Team Books manual.

Youngblood #1 starts a storyline, but it is actually is 92nd issue of Youngblood. In eight issues, it will be the hundredth issue. And at that point, I’m flipping to legacy numbering, so you’ll soon be picking up Youngblood #100, #101, #102… I originally didn’t want to come back with issue #92, but my publisher, Eric Stevenson, helped me and said, “Rob, you’re at this many issues. You should consider that going into it.”

It’s a brand new storyline. There is a new menace that they’re encountering, but some of the things that he’s doing tie back into events of extreme comics in the past. As issue #2 will reveal, there are some big consequences coming. If you’ve ever read a Youngblood comic, you know who they are on page 3; they’re each identified. Then each character has a “get to know me” moment.

The other comic that I’m going to finish here in the next few weeks, because of the 50th anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1, is Giant-Size Youngblood #1. That’s the standalone story that I think people are going to totally dig. I was drawing it as an homage to the X-Men one, which I believe is the most influential comic of the last 50 years and changed the game. It will be out in the Summer.

ScreenRant: You’re also releasing Youngblood Deluxe #1 this April. What makes that the ultimate way to experience the series?

Rob Liefeld: That’s taking you all the way back to the original. I did that on a whim in 2007 and 2008, and we collected it together in a hardcover, and the hardcover sold out. I remastered along with Joe Casey; we reshuffled pages, we made them new, but we never released them as singles. I went to get a hardcover because we were running low - and my wife lets me know when I break the cardinal rule of not having enough family copies - but they’re like $150 bucks. These hardcovers are really hard to obtain.

It was supposed to be out this week, but tariffs delayed it by a week. Thank you, tariffs. But I think the buzz about Youngblood will be there, so you can jump on board. We’re releasing one issue a month of the original series, remastered and recolored, as an all-new presentation of this original material. You get to see directors do it in film all the time, right? It’s like a director’s cut of Youngblood. I think it’s a perfect storm of having something new with the classic material. Trust me, there are more exciting Youngblood merchandise and licensed products to come.

  • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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    5 days ago

    I recently cancelled all of my comic subscriptions, I may be getting back into Youngblood though.