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DC: The New Frontier
by Darwyn Cooke
(DC Comics, volume 1: $19.95, volume 2: $19.99, 208 pages each; published
in December 2004 and May 2005.)
 DC:
The New Frontier spans seventeen years in US history, from the end
of the Second World War to the presidency of John F. Kennedy -- the
title The New Frontier, in fact, is taken from a Kennedy speech.
It probably requires an outsider to fully grasp and deconstruct the
political nature of US adventure heroes. The superheroes of the late
1930s were a response to the strife of the Great Depression, and those
of the early 1940s bolstered wartime patriotism. Those of the 1950s
were complex icons: symbolizing the US's self-image as the leader of
the space-age scientific worldview, they were also the defenders of
capitalist and individualistic values in the Cold War struggle against
communism.
Canadian cartoonist Darwyn Cooke assembles DC Comics' rich cast of
Cold War-era characters -- superheroes, spies, adventurers, soldiers,
cosmonauts -- in a complex saga of political  confusion
and strange invasion that explicitly tackles the paradigm shifts that
were occurring in early postwar US society. Paranoia, racism, the changing
meanings and perceptions of heroism and patriotism -- these themes all
inform The New Frontier, in which a new breed of heroes emerges
to battle a different kind of threat and to face an ever-changing world.
Cooke's visual style -- combining the minimalist elegance of Alex Toth,
the kinetic energy of Jack Kirby, and the animation work of Bruce Timm
-- creates a timeless, classic aura that perfectly fits his story.
Too often, "adult" is used as a coded epithet to announce sex and violence,
but it's not the case here. Cooke's story truly is adult: sophisticated
in both content and appearance, and showcasing the lives, relationships,
and values of classic superheroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash,
and Green Lantern with a deft emotional touch and keen insight into
both comics heritage and US history.
Originally published in
The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 10 September 2005.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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