The Bitter Guide to the New Frontier
Oct. 13th, 2004 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguyOh, God. You know, I'm fairly easy to impress. Dangle some pretty pictures in front of me, and I'll just smile and nod my head back and forth.
Now, I'm not totally indiscriminate with my praise. I did find Another Nail fairly disappointing, and I'll let anyone know that while Spider-Joe is God, the spinoffs tend to be, well, boring.
But, Oh, My Lord, DC: The New Frontier is probably one of the best comic reading experiences I've had in a long time.
The story, set in the '50s, tells of the experiences of the remaining Golden Age heroes (primarily the holy trinity of Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman) and the early days of the great silver age heros (Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman, although Aquaman, like every other time, doesn't get to do much).
The sense of the time is very nicely done. Although one of my esteemed confidantes feels that the repressive air of McCarthy era America is overdone, I must say it gives a much better sense of being a real place than the normal "Superman's shit don't stink" DC universe.
That, and I like to think the Icicle only wounded Frank when he robbed the casino.
I think The New Frontier does as good a job as giving you a sense of the DCU as a real place, in a real time, as Marvels did for their characters. Placing the heroes of the piece alongside real people (Grant vs Clay was a delightul sequence) works very well, much better as a historical piece than when it gets done for current people. Let history sand away their edges and make them more palatable. Unless they're Nixon, of course.
The scene of pilots marching off to the final battle had a definite vibe of The Right Stuff, and I can only hope Nathaniel Adam finds his destiny in the aftermath.
The handling of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen was great, but I think the star of the series is definitely the Martian Manhunter. It's very much his story, from his arrival on Earth, to a confrontation with a paranoid government, and his eventual acceptance as a hero.
Really, although it's possible it could have been cut down by an issue, I don't think I would have wanted it to be. Four stars, thumbs up, A+, whatever you want to rate it, it's delightful.
Now, I'm not totally indiscriminate with my praise. I did find Another Nail fairly disappointing, and I'll let anyone know that while Spider-Joe is God, the spinoffs tend to be, well, boring.
But, Oh, My Lord, DC: The New Frontier is probably one of the best comic reading experiences I've had in a long time.
The story, set in the '50s, tells of the experiences of the remaining Golden Age heroes (primarily the holy trinity of Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman) and the early days of the great silver age heros (Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman, although Aquaman, like every other time, doesn't get to do much).
The sense of the time is very nicely done. Although one of my esteemed confidantes feels that the repressive air of McCarthy era America is overdone, I must say it gives a much better sense of being a real place than the normal "Superman's shit don't stink" DC universe.
That, and I like to think the Icicle only wounded Frank when he robbed the casino.
I think The New Frontier does as good a job as giving you a sense of the DCU as a real place, in a real time, as Marvels did for their characters. Placing the heroes of the piece alongside real people (Grant vs Clay was a delightul sequence) works very well, much better as a historical piece than when it gets done for current people. Let history sand away their edges and make them more palatable. Unless they're Nixon, of course.
The scene of pilots marching off to the final battle had a definite vibe of The Right Stuff, and I can only hope Nathaniel Adam finds his destiny in the aftermath.
The handling of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen was great, but I think the star of the series is definitely the Martian Manhunter. It's very much his story, from his arrival on Earth, to a confrontation with a paranoid government, and his eventual acceptance as a hero.
Really, although it's possible it could have been cut down by an issue, I don't think I would have wanted it to be. Four stars, thumbs up, A+, whatever you want to rate it, it's delightful.
