YOUNGBLOOD #10 - December 1994

Credits: Rob Liefeld (story & art), Eric Stephenson (script & edits), Danny Miki & Jonathan Sibal (inks), Christian Lichtner, Kiko Taganashi, & Extreme Color (colors), Kurt Hathaway (letters)

Summary: Chapel demands that Spawn reveal how he cheated death, or more of his friends will die. Spawn explains his deal with a devil, which emboldens Chapel. Confident that death won’t stop him either, he puts a gun to his head and commits suicide. Meanwhile, Youngblood finishes its battle with Maddock. Their telepath, Psilence, senses the coming of a great darkness, as Chapel arrives in Hell.

Todd Rob Talk: Rob Liefeld has a column called “Robservations.” Why didn’t I know about this sooner? He speaks about the holiday season in the past tense, even though this issue is cover-dated for December, and promises announcements about new television and movie projects soon. He also announces this is the last issue of Youngblood for a while, as he’s begun work on a Badrock solo series.

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority: The word “ass” is censored, even though it was used in the first chapter of this storyline. Aside from the excessive amount of decapitations during Youngblood’s fight, there’s also a gruesome two-page spread dedicated to Chapel’s face getting blown off. Liefeld thanks Stephen Platt for the “layout assistance and inspiration” for the spread.

Review: In case you’re wondering, issue #9 was the Image-X issue (a Badrock solo story by Jim Valentino, which ignored the cliffhanger Badrock was involved with in the previous issue). After what was likely a wait of several months, the Chapel/Spawn is finally finished. “Fight” probably isn’t the most accurate word, since they have no physical contact with one another during either issue. Oh, well. A lot of homeless people died, so at least the kids got some violence. Chapel’s death scene is utterly ridiculous, but there’s something I like about it. If any of Al Simmons’ friends knew he was alive, of course they would want to know how he cheated death. Chapel, apparently, has always been a psychopath, so having him commit suicide in the delusion he can get the same deal Spawn got makes a perverse amount of sense. He doesn’t even want to wait for death…he’s going to make that deal now! It’s so flagrantly dumb, I can’t help but to admire it.