By: Darwyn Cooke Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: December 01, 2004 Reading Level: Young Adult Release Date: December 01, 2004
DC New Frontiers #1 Disappointing. I like Darwyn Cooke and have several things by him. The artwork is nice. So-so story. Too much space wasted on the war with the dinos. Too little space spent on gold and silver age period of DC history. Disagreed with the direction. Not recommended.
DC's classic heroes presented in a fresh way I recently enjoyed the "Justice League: The New Frontier" direct-to-DVD movie and decided to finally check out its literary inspiration, the "DC: The New Frontier" comic book mini-series. This volume collects the first three issues of that series.
Like the animated film, I found this initial volume to be gripping and involving, and generally a lot of fun. As I said about the film, it was very interesting to see DC's bright and optimistic heroes, presented here in a bright and optimistic 1950's setting, eventually have to confront the dark underbelly of that supposedly positive, "can do" America: an underbelly made up of racism, McCarthyism, shady politics, dubious foreign policy, and other national ailments. Also interesting is that some of the heroes themselves are part of the problem.
Quibbles about the series so far? Well, while the DVD film could have benefitted from a little MORE running time, the mini-series in a small way has the opposite problem. That is, it does, well... go on a bit. This isn't a fatal flaw; this first volume never sinks to the level of "boring", not even close. It's just that, for the story being told, these initial chapters could have been a little tighter. And speaking of chapters, I also present my usual complaint about DC graphic novel compilations: reading these things, one never knows where each original issue ends and the next one starts. This volume presents the first three issues of the original "DC: The New Frontier" comic book series, and it would have been nice to read one full issue in the volume over the course of three nights. But I pretty much had to guess where the actual original issue breaks were, and just stop about a third of the way into the book the first night, two thirds of the way in on the second night, etc. But, yes, this is just another quibble.
In the end, I'll definitely pick up the concluding volume of "DC: The New Frontier". So far, it's an interesting experiment that mostly succeeds, and I'm sure the closing chapters will be even more compelling. Make no mistake, despite my observation that the story could have been a little tighter, I did like seeing several characters and plotlines that, due to time constraints, didn't make the cut in the animated adaptation.
I'm certainly glad the animated adaptation got me to finally pick up the original comic book series.
Excellent Book An excellent book. Fom the time I ordered it to the time I received it was just a few days.
The book was in excellent condition and I highly recommend it.
Using Amazon in the past has always been a great experience. They stand by their word.
Not disappointed I bought this, and vol.2, from Amazon because of other reviews I'd read, the price was right, and I knew DC was coming out with an animated DVD of the material. It did not disappoint. Terrific story that just whipped along and drew me in.
Graphic SF Reader The first part of Darwyn Cooke's excellent New Frontier series. I put off getting this or reading it for quite a long time, and that was definitely a mistake. It is well worth a look at the characters and the situations that Cooke explores in this particular era of the heroes and comics that it is set on.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
