I read New Frontier for the 20th time and decided to post a few gems from it.

[3goodtimes]

First we've got a story about a small boy in an Air Force bar from chapter one of book one. It's cliched but touching, especially in light of the contrast between young 'full of boyish dreams' Hal and semi-traumatized, war-jaded, older Hal.

Gee willikers, ma'am! You and this bar sure are folksy!




It should be illegal for art to be this wonderful. Wait, no it shouldn't.

Aw, Hal.

Now we've got a story from chapter five (perhaps my favorite chapter along with the one in which J'onn is Bugs Bunny) of book two. Ted 'Wildcat' Grant takes a punch.


Tee hee. :3


Haha Ollie, you goofball.

Ted decides the best thing to do is take emergency contraception.


Rawr! For I am teh kitteh man and you can has knuckle sammich!



Woooo! *whistles*

I would love to post the rest of this chapter (including an adorable Iris-Barry storyline), but you'll just have to read it yourself if you haven't already.

Comments

[From: uadlika]

You know, I had New Frontier, and then I sold it again. Why did I do that? Silly me.

I love that Selina and Dinah hang out. They strike me as two characters that would have a lot in common, even if it's just comparing how badass they are and how good they look in skintight leather.

[From: rhythmbandit]

Geez, what can I say? Add another book to my wishlist.

[From: amancalledblaze]

Thats absolutely awesome!
I love seeing Chuck Yeager in there as Hal's hero, thats really very fitting.

[From: koschei]

The Hal in this was pretty much the only instance of the character I've ever actually liked.

[From: khaosworks]

I wasn't sure about New Frontier when it first came out, but Darwyn Cooke just didn't play fair with my emotions - for a guy like me who grew up with second-hand DC War Comics - when he used the Losers, Rick Flag and Dinosaur Island in the first issue (someone should put up those scans).

Getting the Absolute Edition was a no-brainer.

[From: cmdr_zoom]

So damn awesome.

[From: jaybee3]

New Frontier is what comics is all about, as an art form and as entertainment and it made me wish that Darwyn Cooke could draw (and write) every DC book out there. And IIRC Cooke's take on Hal Jordan (basically the main character if there is one) pre-dated Hal's return to hero-ism in Rebirth.

Wish the movie had been better though - they could have made it longer than 75 minutes or whatever it was.

[From: 3goodtimes]

I thought it was quite well done. Probably my favorite DC animated movie. Of course, I certainly wouldn't have minded an extra hour or two of it.

[From: jaybee3]

The movie was pretty good as it was (better than some other DC/WB animation stuff IMO like Superman: Doomsday) but there was a lot more material they could have worked with (even if only for DVD extras).

Actually they could probably have made it an animated series in a Cookeverse (as opposed to the Timmverse) since it was all about the START of a new age of heroes with many more to be introduced.

[From: retro_nouveau]

This is how to make Ollie/Dinah work - she's the Dinah with black hair and blond wig, and she has an actual blonde kid at home hitting the heavy bag. Meanwhile, in Gotham, a kid with red hair is stitching a bat costume together. :)

Oh, wow, I'm proud of myself for identifying the X-1 before I went to wikipedia. You see new things every time you read. This was my first exposure to many people, including Rick Flag and King Faraday, who have been showing up on scans_daily, quite a lot lately.

I crack up every time at the "Five!" panel. XD

Love the dark look that Lois gets from Bruce for wearing her tell-it-like-it-is hat. XD Lois should always have purple eyes.

[From: grazzt]

While I love New Frontier to death, I always thought the Wildcat bit was one of the weaker parts. I mean, the whole comic was a passing of the torch, from the old Golden Age guard to the new Silver Age one. They even sideline Superman and Batman for the final battle so the new guys get a chance to be awesome.

Letting Wildcat beat Muhammad Ali seems to go against that, even if he concedes that it's for the final time.

[From: espanolbot]

Well, if they had the Golden Age beaten up by the Silver Age (in the form of Ali) the book would be a whole lot more melancholy in tone for the rest of the series.

Plus this was just at the start of Ali's career, so it wasn't as if Ted came out of retirement to knock him down at the top of his game or something.

[From: grazzt]

Oh, that last's a very good point. Not knowing better, I just assumed that it was, say, around the same era as the Liston fights. Especially considering how high profile the match was. But looking up the timeline shows you're right and I should adjust how that scene plays out in my mind. In fact, checking Wiki, Ali didn't even win his first pro fight until after this series ended!

On the first point, I don't think it would have been too much more melancholy. I mean, the fate of the Losers at the beginning didn't really bring the tone of the book down that much.

[From: khaosworks]

Well, it was the Losers after all. Not many ways that would have ended well.

[From: 3goodtimes]

While I wish they had picked a less famous and lauded fighter, I thought it was appropriate for Ted to go out on a high note. It was a tribute to his age of heroes and his interaction with the new school later in the chapter highlights that as well.

[From: iskander]

The dvd version just didn't do this book justice.

[From: ravenous_raven]

I love Bruce's expression in that first scan. The Batman in him is coming out, itching to say, "But what about the Goddamned Batman!?"

[From: cmdr_zoom]

Motto.

[From: nezchan]

I friggin' love that series, probably since I grew up reading comics in the 70's and 80's (Bernie Wrightson doing Batman, tasty!) and it's cool to see these characters starting out. Didn't care for the movie nearly as much, it skimmed way more than I was happy with and had these really strange triangular shadows on everyone's faces.

I don't think there's anything about the comic I didn't like, though.

[From: kd_the_movie]

One thing I do love is how all the "high society" heroes of the DCU are hanging out with each other. At a boxing match at that. It's so 60's.

[From: proteus_lives]

I know!

They're the Rat Pack!

[From: busterella]

I. Love. New Frontier.

LOVE.

[From: aaron_bourque]

Ted Grant K.O.'s Cassius Clay.

Awesome.

[From: starpiper]

New Frontier, both the book and the movie, is one of the few comic book-related stories to make me actually start crying, particularly towards the end, when they have the JFK speech accompanying images of the new heroic age. Also, I kinda love that the Teen Titans of the NF!verse also include Supergirl and Black Canary II.

::runs off to read New Frontier again::

[From: promethea4]

I loved New Frontier so much. Really endeared me to characters in a way that previously just wasn't there. And I just love to look at it. I may have to pull this off the shelf again.