DC: the New Frontier - Batman Updates His Look

[espanolbot]

One of the themes of Darwyn Cooke's series New Frontier is the shift in the tone of the heroes of the Golden Age to that of the Silver Age. It was this whole metaphor thing for the cultural age from the 50s to the 60s, from the early Cold War to the Kennedy years, that kind of thing.

One of the ways this was shown in the shift in costume and crimefighting style of Batman from the beginning of the series to his reappearance later in the story.

Compare, his Golden Age look from the beginning, where he's saving a kid from a doomsday cult when the detectives Slam Bradley and John Jones show up.








Some time later, Batman is meeting Superman regarding the thing that's caused multiple groups like the aforementioned cult and such to spring up around the world...

Comments

[crimsonmoonmist]

Emotionally open Bruce is best Bruce.

[funbox]

Honestly, he just seems like a cool, introspective, yet still flawed dude, with a mission. Also, I love his every mention of Robin while Dick just does cartwheels in the background.

[icon_uk]

Love the second scene, but since this is comics I don't like the notion that the first outfit is fundamentally more scary than the second. Applying anything like logic, a kid isn't going to look for a yellow bat outline and see anything LESS scary than the original version.

The mythos used to be that Batman never scares children because they mmore or less instinctually know that, if he's Batman, then yes he's sort of scary, but they have nothing to fear from him... EVER.

[crinos]

Yeah, that reminds me of a story where Bruce takes a bunch of kids out camping, and each of them talks about what Batman actually is, and they each have their own idea. Then Bruce sneaks off, puts on his Batman costume, then appears in front of the kids... and they're like "Nice try Bruce but there's no way YOU'RE Batman." And Batman muses that kids will never think Batman is scary.

[espanolbot]

I think that the idea is that he was scary to this particular child due to him violently beating the kid's attempted murderer in front of him in such a way that it even disturbed Detective Bradley.

He was trying to make himself scary to criminals, that is after all, the point of the costume and persona. Scaring kids like that wasn't part of the plan though, leading to him dialing it back a tad into the second version of the costume.

[lego_joker]

Having recently read all of The New Frontier, I have to say it's probably the best attempt anyone's ever made to squeeze the whole DCU into one story... which is to say, enjoyable, but I still prefer Batman and Superman (and most of the other heroes too) to inhabit separate realities.

I have to admit, the huge cast made my eyes glaze over at certain points. And really, the Batman/Martian Manhunter stuff is the only part I really care to reread.

(On a more nitpicky note, I was kinda annoyed by the presence of "modern" touches like Arkham and Luthor as a CEO. Those weren't part of the Golden/Silver Age, ding-dang it!)

[bradygirl_12]

I love the World's Finest pages in this book, and Dick fanboying all over the place! :)

Dick is truly a major influence on Bruce, at least in the Golden/Silver Ages. I'd like to think he still is, but he was barely Robin in the current canon, whereas he spent considerable time as Robin both pre-and-post-COIE.

I just love his first meeting with Superman, who knows just how to talk to his No. 1 fan while Batman grumps with a touch of jealousy. :)

[kurenai_tenka]

Dick doing cartwheels in he background! <3