Brigade #1 Revisited- Rob Liefeld’s first scam. Spinoff! I meant spinoff.

[@onithedemonslayer3142]

I love all the extreme studios liefeld books and as a writer rob did get alot better a few issues later.

[@teambloodforce]

I will say Liefeld is a better writer than I usually expect him to be, at least in terms of coming up with concepts and writing expository captions. When it comes to actually developing a narrative, I don't think I've ever seen him get anywhere with a story.

[@wamingopublishing674]

Keep in mind that this was at the height of the speculative boom, where every first issue was guaranteed to go up in price. The book could’ve been called “Dog Feces”, and each page could’ve been smeared in the stuff, and it still would’ve sold an insane amount of issues.

[@teambloodforce]

Just extra incentive to keep the bag sealed, for sure.

[@mattkevlarlarock5469]

When I think back to the time I almost think it was more about the creators than the actual work they did, about how they thumbed their noses at the big two and went out on their own. Because, as you've pointed out multiple times here, the massive sales numbers couldn't have been because of the art. When Liefeld comes up I always think of Kenobi's line, "You were the chosen one!" lol.

[@teambloodforce]

Lol yeah, it was all about name recognition. If anyone had any idea what the quality of this book was... it might still have sold big numbers because of the hype, and because people thought it was an investment somehow. 90s was crazy.

[@lsgreger2645]

Sadly I collected this in the 90s. It was one of the few Extreme comics that was put out consistently for some reason. I did like the character of Battlestone but it was a lot of unrealized potential. He was a "legacy" character that was much older than he looked. He also led Youngblood for a while, but some incident where he lost his team led him to leave the team. Then he went through something called "Project Born Again" which gave him more resiliency. This was all teased in the background though and none of these plotpoints were followed up unless it was much later. After Extreme Sacrifice, Brigade becomes an "image JLA" and characters from all the Image Studios join the team and Battlestone is no longer in the series. I think that happened by issue 18, but by then, I had checked out on the series.

[@Biff.future]

Wow. I remembered it being bad. But from the ankle socks in panel 1, it really takes you on a voyage. A voyage to test the limits of your ability to not set a comic book on fire.

[@teambloodforce]

Holy shit dude, I'm eating my lunch over here, I almost choked But yeah, it really is just a different kind of terrible. The context makes it worse. Outselling Cyber Force makes me irrationally upset. It's a lot.

[@Biff.future]

How did page one get approved? Open on Battlestone, in lycra and ankle socks, running on a sunset beach.

[@teambloodforce]

How did it get approved? Man, Rob wrote that shit! That came from the guy who does the approving! I love how this has become like an unsolvable puzzle for you. Like I assume today you were sitting in your kitchen and went "Okay, wait, he didn't actually..." and had to go run to the video to confirm that, yes indeed, Battlestone wears ankle socks and bike shorts.

[@pat.k4823]

The Cover is insane! Cable 2.0 ! 👍☺

[@teambloodforce]

Isn't every character Cable something point oh? In that they all look the same?

[@steeltraditionalart]

Rob did a remastered version of this book because he didn't like it either. Also if he can create a BS comic like this, than anyone can get some skin in the game.

[@teambloodforce]

Wasn't aware of the remaster, although that's hilarious. He had all the money in the world, maybe he shoulda hired a good writer and artist combo the first time. As for the second point, exactly. Not only did he create said BS comic, he was wildly successful while doing so. I infer this as meaning that any one of us is justified in making our own BS comics, and nobody is ever beyond hope. Brigade #1 came out and made money. Anyone can do anything.

[@steeltraditionalart]

@@teambloodforce Facts, when he hired Alan Moore to write supreme it took off immediately winning book of the year. None of his books were that successful afterwards, which is when he should have realized that storyline matters not just "art." Ego played a big role in all his decisions as a youth

[@teambloodforce]

@Steel Traditional Art Ah, he was in his early 20s. We all make mistakes. And then make millions of dollars off those mistakes. And then people critique those mistakes in minute detail for decades afterwards. Rob Liefeld is all of us.

[@DanielLopez-mo9hz]

I collected and read Brigade (can't remember how many issues I ended up with). I think part of the appeal was getting in on the ground level of something that was totally brand new and by creators that I had heard of. Yes, the art SUCKED. So terrible. But there was potential in the characters. These stories could have gone ANYWHERE. And we were assured that the entire Image Universe would be in total lock-step the whole time so familiarizing yourself with the continuity of a title like Brigade meant that you would most likely be let in on gems about Spawn, Savage Dragon, Wild C.A.T.s, Cyber Force, ShadowHawk, or at the very least, Youngblood. Obviously, none of that panned out but hopefully that helps answer the question, What did fans ever see in a title like Brigade?

[@teambloodforce]

You know what, that's a good answer. I do not remember why I ever bought it, I'll admit I forgot about any promises made about the direction of the company at the outset. And I think it was that, it was the bait & switch cover, it was just the excitement of this new company with all these great creators, this one had to be good too, right? Maybe even a little bit of that issue 1 syndrome, back at a time when #1s weren't too prevalent yet. Now , why did people buy issue 2? There's another good question, I did that too and I'm stumped for an answer as to why.

[@DanielLopez-mo9hz]

@@teambloodforce Well, I got as far as I did with it for the reason I stated earlier, just wanting to see where it all went and how it tied in to everything else. At the time, we were kind of used to that "dynamic" style of art that wasn't always necessarily good. Think about the rendering on some works by McFarlane, Larsen, Valentino, Liefeld, Portacio, Lee, even Ron Lim. All of it could get sloppy at times so I think we were more forgiving of that back then. Of course if Brigade, or any Image title for that matter other than Spawn, would've had anything close to resembling a consistent schedule, we'd have all realized a lot sooner that this wasn't going anywhere.

[@markriedel1977]

Rob is sort of Vince Russo of comics (ok, some great ideas, but maybe 2 out of 50)... Bloodstone was the deal where I am like, I just don't care, always came off off-brand to me (like this is b-team Image characters)

[@teambloodforce]

"Rob is the Vince Russo of comics" is hilariously accurate- I apologize in advance if I end up stealing that in future.