Random Trade Tuesday

For the first Random Trade Tuesday I am going to be talking about volume one of a story that is very near and dear to me, that story is DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke and Dave Stewart. The reason this story is so important to me is that this was one of the first stories I read in comics, well in trades, and it doesn’t hurt that it is also just an amazing superhero period piece. That is why I have order the Absolute version of it when Thwipster had it on sale.

The book starts off in 1945 with the tale of The Losers and their last mission. That mission is to go to this island and retrieve Rick Flagg’s team and a Nazi scientist, but in the end the only one who survives is Flagg. On the island the Losers have to face off against dinosaurs, this will be the Losers last stand. After this we get a little background on the history of this world, as well as a where all the Golden Age superheroes went. Darwyn Cooke has remarked that this DC: The New Frontier was inspired by the James Robinson miniseries The Golden Age in which by the end the Justice Society is called in front of congress to unmakes and work for the government or be arrested, and in the heroes decide to hang up their costumes and disappear. If you can find this story I highly recommend picking it up. After that we are at an Air Force Base in 1948 and a young Hal Jordan tracking down a pilot that flew with his dad in the war. After this we get treated to a seen of Hourman still in action followed by an article by Iris West about his death and more of this world’s history, in this it brings up an interesting look on how McCarthyism would affect a world with superheroes. As you can already tell there is quite a bit of jumping from story to story, and that’s the way the whole volume is. I quite enjoy it in how it gives you just enough on each character at a time to build on. After the Hourman section we move on to a tale of Hal Jordan in the Korean War, and how he would not kill enemy fighters but instead put himself in situation that he would bate them so his fellow fighter pilots would be able to shoot them down. Also at this time we get to meet Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen as they are covering the Korean War for the Daily Planet. After the Hal story in which he ends up having to kill a man for survival we get the introduction of the Martian Manhunter being accidently teleported to Earth. Here we get to see some amazing art of J’onn J’onzz in his Martian form; I absolutely love Darwyn Cooke’s art, especially when it comes to The Martian Manhunter. Headlines read “Wonder Woman: Winning the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised”. Cut to Superman finding bodies and fire everywhere. Superman walks into a hut to find Wonder Woman and a bunch of other women (how are holding guns) celebrating, Superman finds out what happened here and does not approve of what Wonder Woman let happen here. Darwyn Cooke has been on record as to saying he had a hard time trying to figure out how to show Wonder Woman as powerful, and so what he did was make her taller then Superman, we don’t get to see that until after she gets off the table to confront him. Back to J’onn J’onzz learning about our world through television and testing out his shape shifting abilities. We get a panel showing us the origin of the Flash. After that we get Detective John Jones working with a Private Investigator by the name of Slam Bradley, they are working on a case about a kidnapped boy. When they arrive at the church where the boy is being held by some strange cult they see the Batman there taking down members of the cult. John tries using his phasing ability to get closer to the boy to save him, but is stopped by fire. The batman we see here is the darker scarier version, pre-Robin, and thusly scares the young boy he’s trying to rescue. Batman takes down the cult leader and takes his necklace; well John takes the book that the cult was working from. It’s Fight Night in Las Vegas as heavy weight champ Ted “Wildcat” Grant goes up against the young up start Cassius Clay. Ted barely wins the fight, and at the after party we see him walk in with Selina Kyle on his arm. Captain Cold attacks the fights after party, where Iris West also just happens to be at. The Flash shows up to save the day, which leaves Ted remarking how he wished Jay Garret were there to see this new speedster. Since we’ve set this up as a world in which heroes aren’t allowed to openly operate we get a room full of heroes doing nothing but watching this one guy from Central City stopping this criminal. I can’t read The Flash in this with out hearing the voice of Neil Patrick Harris from the New Frontier animated movie. After that we get a little Hal story that kind of ties in with the origin of the Challengers of the Unknown, which is followed by a John Henry story. After that we are treated to John Jones at the movies, where he watches the Fleischer Superman cartoon, a newsreel on The Challengers of the Unknown, and followed by the main attraction Invasion From Mars, which John finds to be hilarious, but the people around him are genuinely frightened by it. When John gets home he is greeted by the shadowing figure of Batman who is there to work with John on the case of that cult. He brought him the necklace that goes with the book, and told him how he has a seventy thousand dollar sliver of space rock to take down the alien from Metropolis, but for John he only needs a penny for a book of matches if he ever needs to take him down, because if there’s one thing in life that’s a constant that is Batman doesn’t trust anyone. Then there is an award ceremony for Wonder Woman, which after we have President Eisenhower telling Wonder Woman that she needs a vacation and that she should fall into place. Hal and Faraday meet, and Hal is finally informed as to what he’s training for. It’s a mission to Mars. And we end this volume with John Jones reading from the cults book, main about a Viking prince on an island with monsters.

Now the over all story of DC: The New Frontier is probably one of my favorite stories of all time, and this volume sets so much up for the second half as well as has so many winks and nods to DC Comics continuity from the Golden Age and the Silver Age of comics that its damn near impossible to not love. I hope that you will join me back here next Tuesday for the fast passed action adventure that is DC: The New Frontier volume 2.