33 Years Later a Forgotten Superhero Team is Still Breaking Comic Book Records With Their Newest Book

As wild as it is to say, a surprising Image team no one expected is still killing it in sales. It’s a tough market right now, and competition has never been fiercer. But Image Comics has been doing surprisingly well lately. Sure, the Energon Universe is responsible for much of that success and the recent revival of the Invincible Universe via the Battle Beast spin-off. But the revival of one unexpected team just shot to the top of the charts, painting a surprising picture of what the future may look like for Image.

Image Comics just released a chart of its top-performing books for November, and the results are pretty surprising. The new series Skinbreaker cracked the top at number 8, with Energon Universe titles Transformers and G.I. Joe taking the second, fourth, and fifth spots of the top 10. The debut issue of the new Spawn: The Dark Ages also earned a respectable spot in third place. But there was a clear winner in November, and that honor belongs to Rob Liefeld’s revival of a title he brought to Image over three decades ago, Youngblood.

After Numerous Relaunches, Youngblood Returns to Take the Top Spot

Youngblood, of course, tells the story of a superhero team that works for the United States government in an official capacity. The team is composed of a handful of heroes, including the archer Shaft, the powerful rock elemental Badrock, the multi-capable Vogue, and the assassin Chapel. In its day, Youngblood held several distinctive honors. It was the first comic book published by Image Comics, and, for a brief time, it was the highest-selling independent comic book. However, the series was plagued with issues, from delays to quality fans felt wasn’t up to snuff.

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As a passion project for Rob Liefeld, this series has been relaunched several times. Before Liefeld left Image Comics in the mid-’90s, a second volume and spin-off/replacement title, Team Youngblood, had already been produced. There were numerous attempts to relaunch the series in the early 2000s, with Liefeld tapping creators like Alan Moore and Kurt Busiek to help pump new life into Youngblood. But these new series only ever lasted an issue or two before falling on their faces. But that never stopped Image, nor Liefeld, from trying to make his superhero franchise work.

Youngblood was revived for a few new volumes in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Unfortunately, these attempts were only marginally more successful than the previous relaunches, lasting only between 9 and 11 issues. But Liefeld never lost hope in his series and just last year announced yet another relaunch of the title, one that he would be writing and drawing himself. And despite the complicated history of Youngblood, this recent relaunch has found success that seems to have evaded the series’ previous volumes.

Is the Sixth Time the Charm for Youngblood?

After everything this franchise has been through, it’s wild to see that it snagged the top spot in November. To be fair, however, Youngblood’s place as the number one comic of the month just refers to Image Comics. That said, ICv2 reports that Youngblood #1 did make it into the top 50 comics sold in November, which is still pretty good for the series, given how much it’s started and stopped over the years. Honestly, it’s really impressive that a book with so much history can come back and achieve such a massive victory.

The real question is, will Youngblood’s spot hold? History is working against the beleaguered comic, and no comic ever dominates the top ten forever. While reviews for the first issue have been all over the place, it’s not unreasonable to think it could still find success. For better or worse, Youngblood is a recognizable name, and that carries weight among comic book readers. While it’s hard to tell what the future holds for the series, Youngblood is off to a robust start, and hopefully, this will be the volume that actually sticks around.

What do you think about Youngblood #1 being Image Comics’ top comic in November? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum.