Eye on an Era: A Look inside DC: The New Frontier / Matthew Quann

Eye on an Era:

A Look inside DC: The New Frontier

Matthew Quann

DC: The New Frontier was a comic that had long been on my to-read list, but for some reason always slipped out of my stack when I came around to the counter at the comic shop. The lads at the counter were surprised I hadn’t read it, and with good reason. The late Darwyn Cooke’s miniseries is lauded as a modern retelling of the Gold to Silver Age transition, filled to the brim with nostalgic punch. For a comic junkie like myself, it finally seemed like it was time to take the series down with an economically priced Paperback edition (DC Comics, 2016) of the 2006 Absolute collection.

The Art (4.5 Stars)

I wanted to open with a chat about Cooke’s art. Earlier this year the comic industry mourned his sudden passing, but I was only familiar with the first volume of his Parker graphic-novel adaptations. Luckily, I was not let down by the art of DC: The New Frontier.

Cooke’s cartooning style harkens back to the 1950s, in which this series is set. He’s able to use a style that reminded me of a Disney movie brought to the comics page, while simultaneously making his art gritty when necessary, or realistic in his depiction of character’s physiques. Cooke’s depiction of the 1950s world is also splendid. He was just as at-home drawing an air-force hanger as he was a lounge, or a Kirby-esque psychedelic romp towards the book’s end.

Though this isn’t the pulse-pounding super heroic action romp that I expected, Cooke also has a great approach to action, and conveys motion with the greatest of ease. My sole complaint: there were times when I wasn’t certain which character I was looking at. Some of the talking heads in the story shared too many similarities to be easily distinguished. It’s a bit of a shame, since it had me scratching my head, or flipping back a few pages to grab hold of the story’s early presentation of a character. This is less of a concern in the later chapters, where everyone is garbed in spandex, but made the first half of the book a challenge.

The Story (3 Stars)

I was less hot on the story, but I have to say that I have immense respect for it.

There are so many superhero comics that are bogged down by continuity, or that necessitate tie-ins, that they are unable to deliver their own message; or provide a concise, self-contained story. Don’t get me wrong: I love that stuff! But I also love when you can pick up one or two books and have an entire story contained within. DC: The New Frontier is able to be a self-contained story that pays tribute to continuity without being bogged down by it.

Following WWII, the Golden Age heroes have been outlawed as vigilantes and the government sees little need for the intervention of masked men and women. The only active heroes are Superman and Wonder Woman fighting in Korea, and Batman in Gotham (because, well, who’s gonna stop Batman?). Cooke uses societal upheaval related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Korean War to provide a fertile ground for the emergence of the Silver Age heroes. It is a smart tale that is able to drive home the sense of hope and prosperity that the Silver Age heroes embodied, while simultaneously reflecting on the events of a post-WWII world.

But there’s just too much going on.

I got the feeling that Cooke didn’t know exactly the story he wanted to tell. Other than the Trinity, there aren’t really any superheroes until the midway point. For the most part, I’m okay with that! I enjoyed the opening with the Losers; and Hal Jordan’s story that provides the backbone of the entire series is well done; but there’s a ton of stuff that is just so-so, and that makes the story feel more unsure of its identity than I had expected.

In the afterword of the book, Cooke says that he much preferred drawing the real-life people than the folks in capes. A fair enough statement, but the story reflects that preference in such a way that I wondered if Cooke shouldn’t have written one superhero series, and another with regular folk in the DC universe. It isn’t that one is better than the other, but just that more time is spent getting the heroes to their heroic roles than I thought was necessary.

Also, the big-bad of the entire series—a dinosaur-guarded, sentient flying island known as The Centre—other than being an interesting creature to look at, felt like absolutely every blockbuster movie monster of the past five years. Alien-things trying to wipe out all of humanity with requisite destruction porn is an act with which I feel over-saturated.

But I’ve said a lot of bad things while ignoring the good. Hal Jordan’s development of Green Lantern is endearing, John Henry’s story hits home, and Wonder Woman is in proper form in this comic.

Overall Impression

This is a really fun comic. I may not have thought it was well-balanced and my expectations were for a sprawling super-heroic epic. DC: The New Frontier is not that, but a book that attempts to capture a feeling, and the tone of an era of comics. In fact, had there been no heroes and just regular folk, I think I would have enjoyed this more. I’d recommend this one for the art alone, but I imagine a great many of you will enjoy the story a lot more than I did. There are a lot of cheesy parts, and a heavily populated, busy story going on, but there’s also a lot to appreciate.

All comics images taken from the DC: The New Frontier. Copyright 2004, 2006, 2016 by DC Comics.