Review: Justice League: The New Frontier Special
This tie-in to the recently-released DVD
is a simple, straightforward return to the Darwyn Cooke-created take on the beginning of DC's Silver Age, even if they decided to brand it under the "Justice League" name instead of the original, fictional-universe-spanning moniker. The lead 24-pager, written and drawn by Cooke, tells the story of the Batman-Superman fight that was part of the backdrop of the original series. Witty, smart, and zippily-written, this is easily the best fight between the World's Finest since Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and it's a testament to Cooke's skill as a scripter that it felt much more expansive than its modest length.
Even more successful (and maybe surprisingly so) is the Robin/Kid Flash team-up "Dragstrip Riot," which gives readers more than what we've seen before from New Frontier. Two of the future Teen Titans stumbling upon a conspiracy that goes far beyond the drag racers they set out to bust with a fast-paced script that plays like a well-crafted version of the Robin stories recently featured in a showcase edition. David Bullock's art is close enough to Cooke's own that I didn't notice the transition until I was a few pages in, and with something as stylized as the New Frontier universe, that's perfectly fine.
The final story, featuring Wonder Woman and Black Canary in a thinly-velied version of the Playboy club, didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the too-broad social commentary, or the last-panel setup I saw coming from the first page, but the whole thing felt perfunctory. I did like the "It tickles" bit, though.
The book is framed by Rip Hunter's lecture about the structure of the DC Universe and how we don't really need to worry about it to enjoy a comic like New Frontier and a four-page look at the animation design of the film adaptation, filling out the page count nicely while providing the bonus materials that the fans like. Well worth the $5 cover price, and I think I'll be able to slide it into the same slipcase as the Absolute Edition of the original series.
is a simple, straightforward return to the Darwyn Cooke-created take on the beginning of DC's Silver Age, even if they decided to brand it under the "Justice League" name instead of the original, fictional-universe-spanning moniker. The lead 24-pager, written and drawn by Cooke, tells the story of the Batman-Superman fight that was part of the backdrop of the original series. Witty, smart, and zippily-written, this is easily the best fight between the World's Finest since Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and it's a testament to Cooke's skill as a scripter that it felt much more expansive than its modest length.Even more successful (and maybe surprisingly so) is the Robin/Kid Flash team-up "Dragstrip Riot," which gives readers more than what we've seen before from New Frontier. Two of the future Teen Titans stumbling upon a conspiracy that goes far beyond the drag racers they set out to bust with a fast-paced script that plays like a well-crafted version of the Robin stories recently featured in a showcase edition. David Bullock's art is close enough to Cooke's own that I didn't notice the transition until I was a few pages in, and with something as stylized as the New Frontier universe, that's perfectly fine.
The final story, featuring Wonder Woman and Black Canary in a thinly-velied version of the Playboy club, didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the too-broad social commentary, or the last-panel setup I saw coming from the first page, but the whole thing felt perfunctory. I did like the "It tickles" bit, though.
The book is framed by Rip Hunter's lecture about the structure of the DC Universe and how we don't really need to worry about it to enjoy a comic like New Frontier and a four-page look at the animation design of the film adaptation, filling out the page count nicely while providing the bonus materials that the fans like. Well worth the $5 cover price, and I think I'll be able to slide it into the same slipcase as the Absolute Edition of the original series.
