DC: The New Frontier

Cover of DC: The New Frontier, Vol. 1

I’ve mentioned a few times that I love comics but have completely lost touch with them.  One of the intriguing apps on my iPad is Comics by Comixology – which is pretty much what you’d guess, an electronic comics reader with a built in comic shop.  I installed the app as soon as I got my iPad, but other than a couple of free issues, haven’t bought anything.

I think part of what put me off is that feeling of not actually owning the comics – having nothing tangible for your money.  Plus, the free issues that they have on there to convince you to part with your money haven’t been anything that I would have chosen to buy, so I wasn’t sucked in that way either.

I do have an account, though, and as a result get regular emails of special offers – with nothing having tickled my fancy.  That was until last weekend, when I received an email on a Wonder Woman sale.  I’ve never really read Wonder Woman but as an old school DC fan, I thought I’d check it out.  A couple of things caught my eye, firstly a JLA\Planetary special  and all 6 issues of Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier – a book I’d alway wanted to read.  The sale comics were 59p each and all seven were oversized issues, so it started to seem like a no brainer.  Buying TNF for just £3.60 is a massive saving over buying it in print (approx £18 for two collected volumes), so it more than made up for a lack of holding it in my hands.

First up I read Plantary/JLA: Terra Occulta by Warren Ellis and Jerry Ordway.  Planetary was one of my favourite series when I was a regular comics reader – it’s one of the series that I want to complete from my post Comics, Comics Everywhere… – so it seemed obvious to buy it.  It’s an Elseworlds tale – ie set in an alternate universe with no ties to the usual shared universes that these characters usually appear in.  I should probably point out for any non-comics readers that have made it this far that JLA stands for Justice League of America – a team of superheroes that includes Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.  As for Planetary, well they come from a different comics company than the JLA and so usually live in a different universe.  Terra Occulta sees Planetary cast as the bad guys (they’re usually good) in a world in which they have virtually destroyed the superhuman population and versions of the aforementioned big 3 DC heroes must secure the planet’s freedom from this concealed tyranny.

The problem, as with many Elseworlds tales, is that in a relatively short story  – 48 pages – too much time is spent setting up the premise and showing us the differences in this new world, so that the story inevitably suffers and feels a little rushed.  It’s also a problem that it’s been so long since I read any Planetary comics that I probably was missing many of the references and subtleties.  That said, you can feel safe that Warren Ellis is going to throw in lots of interesting ideas, and gives us interesting takes on well established characters.

This was a nice warm up for the main event of The New Frontier, a six issue series, with each issue consisting of 64 pages.  The book is essentially writer\artist Darwyn Cooke’s love letter to DC’s “Silver Age” and second generation of superheroes.  It’s set principally in the 1950s and characters appear chronologically as they appeared for the first time in the original comics.

The story starts a little slowly – a large portion of the first issue follows a bunch of obscure characters stuck on a dinosaur-filled island at the end of WW2.  It seemed an odd way to start and I really wondered where it was all going – but in hindsight it was a fitting prologue to the story that followed.

The pace soon picked up and we got glimpses of familiar characters – the Golden Age triumvirate of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  The stars of the show, however, are those characters that debuted in the fifties: J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, Hal Jordan\Green Lantern and Barry Allen\Flash.

The art in the book is cartoony and heavily influenced by artists such as Jack Kirby, but, the attention to period detail and facial expression really brings it to life.  If I was being glib, I’d say it was Justice League meets Mad Men. But I’m not, so I won’t.  The book is as much about America of the period as it is about men in tights, and the backdrop of McCarthyism and its effect of the superhero population is particularly resonant.

The triumph of the book for me – as a big fan of the DC universe – is the way that the characters are humanised.  Not a great deal of time is spent ‘in costume’ – despite being maybe the main character throughout, it’s only late in the day that Jordan assumes the mantle of Green Lantern – and so we truly come to understand ad believe why they do what they do.  The final threat which the series builds to could seem laughable, but you get the feeling that they really are putting everything on the line.  DC’s characters are sometime criticised for being too godlike compared to the fallible Marvel cast, but that’s not a problem you’ll encounter here. The frailties on display helps you see the gaudily costumed folks as true heroes.  It’s some achievement.

It’s safe to say that the book gets a thumbs up from me, as does reading it electronically.  It’s a shame that the page size isn’t in the same aspect as the iPad screen, meaning it is a little smaller than I would have liked (there is a guided view which zooms in on individual panels but this seemed a step too far) but it’s a minor gripe.  The backlit screen bring the art to life and you don’t have to put up with annoying adverts.  You also own the licence to the comics, so if you change device then you don’t lose them all.

I’ve already bought some more comics in this weekend’s Vertigo sale, so I’m definitely a convert.  It’s also a pretty cost effective way of completing some of those runs that I mentioned earlier.

This could cost me a lot of money. Oh well.