DC: The New Frontier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DC: The New Frontier | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
DC: The New Frontier is an Eisner, Harvey, and Shuster Award-winning six-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke and published by DC Comics in 2003 and 2004.
The series is an epic DC super-hero series reminiscent of Kingdom Come and The Golden Age. Like The Golden Age, it sought to tell a story which bridged the gap between the end of the golden and the start of the silver age of comic books in the DC Universe.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The New Frontier is set in the late 1950s (with a cameo by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and references to the atomic testing of that era) and presented Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their contemporaries as active since the late 1930s and early 1940s, when their original stories were first published. In fact, with the exception of Robin, the major characters are introduced in The New Frontier in the same order that DC originally published them, even down to the correct month and year in the story's timeline.
During the course of the story, these now much older characters encounter the new 1950s generation of heroes, such as the Barry Allen Flash and the Martian Manhunter, without reference to the concepts of Earth-One and Earth-Two which were introduced in the original comics (see the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths for more on these concepts).
The star of the story is the young pilot Hal Jordan, who by the end of the series becomes the new Green Lantern. Other characters appearing in the book include King Faraday, the original Suicide Squad, the Losers, the Challengers of the Unknown, Green Arrow, Wildcat and Slam Bradley, among many others.
The plot of the series concerns the mounting threat of an alien presence on Earth, with the final issue featuring dozens of characters from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s eras of DC Comics teaming up to defeat it.
The story draws inspiration from the comic books and movies of the period, as well as from Tom Wolfe's novel The Right Stuff. Although the series provides a dynamic and vibrant reimagining of this era as one ushering in the Camelot of the Kennedy Administration, it also suffers from a number of historical inaccuracies, most notably the identification of Dwight Eisenhower as President in 1952 and Senator Joseph McCarthy as the head of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Of course, Eisenhower did not take office until January 20, 1953, and McCarthy, a Senator, could not have served on the HUAC.
[edit] Art Style
The art style has several influences: Jack Kirby's, with squared fingers, muscles and jaws; the simple clean lines of Golden Age-era comics; and the more modern deco-aesthetics of the Superman animated series produced by Fleischer Studios, as well as the work of Bruce Timm on Batman: The Animated Series, and a number of other shows in the DC animated universe. Cooke had previously worked as an artist for many of the latter.
[edit] Awards
In 2005 the series won an Eisner Award for "Best Limited Series."
A brief addendum appeared in Solo #5 (2005), a collection of short stories written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke. One of the stories, featuring King Faraday, is set in pre-revolutionary Cuba and is titled Triangulation: A New Frontier Thriller.
[edit] Film adaptation
In June 2006, Warner Bros. writer and producer Stan Berkowitz said in an interview at The World's Finest website (which was pulled, but the interview found its way to message boards across the internet) he was "writing a direct-to-video animated adaptation of (the) New Frontier epic. It will be feature length, rated PG-13 and Bruce Timm will be the executive producer. So far, it's been nothing but fun... a chance for me to revisit my youth and the Starro era." DC Comics finally confirmed the film at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con . Paul Levitz stated that Mr. Cooke would be part of the art team for the movie. [1]
Ain't It Cool News reported that Bones star David Boreanaz would be playing Hal Jordan, and Suddenly Susan actress Brooke Shields would be supplying the voice for Jordan's love interest, Carol Ferris. [2]
[edit] Collections
The series has been collected in two softcover collections and one oversized hardcover edition. Notably, the hardcover collection includes 13 pages of new story by Cooke, expanding on the origins of Martian Manhunter and Flash and a six-page segement on the Suicide Squad.
- DC: The New Frontier: Volume One (collecting #1-3; ISBN 1-4012-0350-7)
- DC: The New Frontier: Volume Two (collecting #4-6; ISBN 1-4012-0461-9)
- DC: The New Frontier: Absolute Edition (collecting #1-6; ISBN 1-4012-1080-5) [3]
[edit] Merchandise
DC Direct is producing a line of action figures based on the series with first release in July 2006. The initial wave consists of Blackhawk, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The figures are being marketed as "JLA: The New Frontier."
[edit] References
- Fanboy Radio broadcast #346 (November 5, 2006)
