Rob Liefield is Pumping Life Back into Youngblood

This article will cover the original Youngblood storyline (1990s) found in issues #0-5; the remastered original story found in Youngblood Deluxe #1-4 (early 2025); and the most recent reboot of Youngblood #1 (November 2025).

Love him or hate him – there is no denying that Rob Liefield is a giant in the comic industry. His enthusiasm for comics is unmatched and infectious. He is a diehard comic fan that is still living out his dream at 58 years-old, and it doesn’t look like he is slowing down.

I recently re-discovered Rob and his new work through his podcast called Robservations. On his show, Rob does a marvelous job of pulling back the curtain and giving you the “inside baseball” on everything comics – while hyping his own work found here. If you haven’t watched Rob pitch his stuff with fervor on Whatnot – you are missing out. The guy is an extraordinary salesman (more about this later).

Rob’s talent, salesmanship, and unwavering “tell you like it is” attitude is a vortex that cannot be escaped. Even if you aren’t a fan of his, you can appreciate his hustle and determination.

90’s Youngblood is EXTREME!

I just re-read the original Youngblood story in preparation for Youngblood Deluxe. In regard to the art, Rob was firing on all cylinders in the 90’s. His characters were wildly exaggerated, full of pouches, and cross-hatched to the extreme. The coloring was unique and state of the art, and it worked perfectly with Rob’s style. Unfortunately, the series falls short on the following two fronts: 1) character development and 2) story.

Introducing a new team of heroes isn’t as easy as it sounds. You can have as much spectacle as you want, but without a clear story and flushed out characters, things become paper-thin pretty quick. The original story definitely suffers from a lack of meatiness. There is a lot thrown at the reader, but it comes in chunks creating a disjointed narrative – it all has potential – put it’s undercooked.

Let’s put it this way: it is more eye-candy than anything else.

Youngblood Gets the George Lucas Treatment with a Remastered Version

It wasn’t until I read Youngblood Deluxe that I was able to understand what the original story was trying to convey. Joe Casey’s re-scripting and re-arranging of panels and pages made the disjointed aspects of the original story come together in a coherent way. Everything that was undercooked before was now sizzling with flavor.

The Deluxe series is re-colored by Matt Yackey who is a seasoned colorist and does a fine job. Does it improve upon the property? No. However, those of us that remember the OG bat-shit crazy coloring done by Chameleon Studios (and others) might find it more appealing than Yackey’s grounded colors that make everything sterile.

For those of you that don’t remember, the original story concluded in Youngblood #5 drawn by Chap Yaep, not Brigade #4 as teased at the end of Youngblood #3. Unfortunately, Chap’s interiors were not close to what Rob was capable of, and the energy and spectacle of the first Youngblood story died with its conclusion.

In issue #4 of the Deluxe version, Rob replaces Chap’s panels with his own. In a way, Rob became Marty McFly but instead of pushing his artistic abilities to 88 mph, he chose to level off slightly under the speed limit. The replacement art is definitely an improvement, but I know Rob is capable of much more. To be fair, Danny Miki (the original inker) is credited with inking the Deluxe version so maybe it’s on him, or they both are to blame. Regardless, there is a distinct difference between the 90’s art and the replacement art. Again, an improvement, but the eight extra pages of new content looked rushed and sketchy (see below for an example).

Note: Through some internet research I discovered that the Deluxe version is not new. Instead, it is a re-release of Youngblood (The Remastered Edition) done in 2008. I was honestly shocked by this discovery because I thought this was something fresh. I guess kudos to Rob and Image marketing for making us think this was something brand new.

Overall, I prefer the Deluxe version due to the story; however, it would have been even better if Rob kept the colors from before.

New On-going Youngblood is Bloodier and Extreme-er!

This brings me to the new 2025 Youngblood issue #1. I picked it up because I was interested to see what a seasoned Rob would do with the property. The art is mostly on point maybe because Rob is inking himself with the help of Chance Wolf. The colors are what I’ve come to expect from Juan Manuel Rodriguez (someone Rob has been working with for some time now). And the story…well…it is better than expected.

Rob does a good job of introducing the team and explaining their powers, which helps new readers get up to speed. My only gripe is that we don’t know why the villain is a threat. He is a newer villain so the reader has no way of knowing what his motives are. Is he a threat worthy of the Youngblood team? I guess but something should have been added to help us understand what is at stake. We also get some side characters in this issue – one of which – I didn’t recognize at all, but a quick Comics Geek search identified him as Col. Bravo, the father of Shaft. Also, Supreme, Suprema, and Kid Supreme make an appearance. For some reason, these codenames sound like something I would order at Taco Bell.

The introduction of multiple heroes has me worried because this is where Rob fell into trouble with the original run. Too many characters without any character and a lack of plot. I guess time will tell, I only hope this series stays on time, for once.