The 1990s were a time of great change in the world of comics, and artist Youngblood, his best-known creation (aside from Marvel anti-heroes such as Deadpool and Cable). But Liefeld's creation would ultimately fall short of one major goal: obtaining an official animated adaptation of his hit book.
Rob Liefeld was on top of the proverbial world in the 90s, and his series Youngblood was a major seller. Image Comics was founded in part because creators like Liefeld, who had worked with Marvel Comics in the past, were upset with the company regarding their low wages and the less-than-stellar treatment of their hired employees. As an alternative to the Big Two, Image Comics was edgy, hip, and began to draw readers away from both Marvel and DC. Youngblood revolved around a team of heroes who were also celebrities, and this was the major draw of the book: superheroics in the information age.
The initial team of Youngblood consisted of team leader Shaft, Photon, Diehard, Chapel, Vogue, and Badrock as they fought evil and navigated complex lives. The Youngblood series was eventually popular enough for the creatives to pitch an animated series to the Fox network. Seeing as the characters of Youngblood were frequently vulgar and some of the fights were incredibly graphic, the animated would have to tone down the level of violence drastically. A shot of the two minute-long demo of what would have been an animated intro can be viewed below, with many of the character's costumes drastically simplified to allow for easier animation (the timecode has not been removed from the demo).
Unfortunately, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood animated adaptation would only progress as far as the demo. Marvel Comics would eventually reach a deal with Fox, specifying that it would be the only comic company with shows hosted by the network. This effectively locked out Image Comics from all future animated adaptations of popular properties, including Todd McFarlane's series Spawn. Instead of watching Youngblood on Saturday mornings, children in the 90s would watch Marvel's incredibly well-received X-Men animated series.
X-Men was highly regarded as a multilayered show that communicated complex messages to children and condensed complicated comics down to a half-hour animated format. Perhaps Youngblood would have been able to do the same, provided it received the budget of X-Men. Regardless, Rob Liefeld's landmark series Youngblood never achieved X-Men.
