Youngblood is a superhero team starring in their self-titled comic book series, created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld.

Youngblood's members include Shaft, a former FBI agent who uses a high-tech bow; Badrock, a teenager transformed into a living block of stone;[4] Vogue, a Russian fashion model with purple-and-chalk-white skin; and Chapel, a government assassin.

Youngblood was inspired by creator Rob Liefeld's idea that if superheroes existed in real life, they would be treated as celebrities, much the same as movie stars and athletes.

Vogue was a new Harlequin design, Combat was a Kh'undian warrior circa the Legion of Super-Heroes, ditto for Photon and Die Hard was a S.T.A.R.

[3] One story featured the organisation's "Home Team", for domestic missions, consisting of Shaft, Badrock (originally named Bedrock), Chapel, Die Hard, Photon and Vogue.

The other story featured the "Away Team", for international missions, consisting of Sentinel, Brahma, Combat, Cougar, Psi-Fire and Riptide.

[3][18][19] Throughout its run at Image, Youngblood and other books published by Liefeld's Extreme Studios were attacked by critics for late issues and inconsistent quality.

Ultimately, Youngblood #5 was published in flip-book format with Brigade #4 as its flip-side; Liefeld was also replaced with Chap Yaep as penciller.

This series effectively replaced the original Youngblood title; the characters Shaft and Badrock were limited to cameos, and Chapel was added to the cast of Bloodstrike.

Youngblood issue #9 was an out-of-continuity story written and pencilled by Jim Valentino as part of "Image X Month", where creators swapped titles.

Moore's run on the title began with a mini-series entitled Judgment Day, which revolved around the mysterious murder of Youngblood member Riptide, the subsequent "super-trial" of teammate Knightsabre, and the all-powerful Book of All Stories which dictates the order of the universe.

[24] Moore created a new, teenaged Youngblood group that was financed independently by millionaire Waxey Doyle, formerly the WWII superhero Waxman.

The team was led by Shaft and was augmented by new members Big Brother, Doc Rocket, Twilight, Suprema, and Johnny Panic.

[citation needed] Moore's rough outline for the series was published in Alan Moore's Awesome Handbook and included a budding relationship between Big Brother and Suprema, a giant planet-devouring entity called "The Goat", Shaft's fruitless crush on Twilight, and the revelation that Johnny Panic was the biological son of Supreme villain Darius Dax.

In the Handbook, Moore also reveals that he intentionally chose the team members for their connections to various points and significant characters in the Awesome Universe's superhero history, noting this as the case in the 1980s launch of The New Teen Titans.

[citation needed] In 2000, Liefeld began soliciting orders for Youngblood: Genesis, using Kurt Busiek's unused Year One plots.

According to Liefeld: "I have the original issues #3 and #4 that Kurt wrote, [but] they can't be produced as is simply from the standpoint that they heavily feature prominent supporting cast members from Spawn and Wildcats, as well as Lynch from Gen13 and Team 7".

[26] A number of projects were announced in 2003 including reprinting older material[27] and providing the art for two Youngblood series.

[31] In 2004, Robert Kirkman began writing a new series, Youngblood: Imperial, with artist Marat Mychaels[26] but left after one issue due to his busy schedule.

[34] This was followed in January 2008 by a new ongoing series (Youngblood Volume 4) written by Casey and illustrated by Derec Donovan, with covers by Liefeld.

According to CBR's Steven Grant, this status is derived not so much from the comic's content, but for triggering both the 1990s speculator boom and bust and the trend towards the creation of superhero universes among various publishers.

In 2009, Reliance Entertainment acquired the feature film rights to the comic book, reportedly for a mid-six figures, with Brett Ratner attached to direct.