"The Justice League of America"
Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: DC
The finale to The New Frontier lives up to the book's title, offers the reader cool moments and even goes out of the way to provide a smart plot. Darwyn Cooke earns every clap. He has produced a truly enjoyable Elseworlds series that imagines a more coherent DC universe than the rather shoddy looking one that the Crisis retched up.
The book opens with a feast cosmic on the moon. This is the first of many cool images informed by the Silver Age. You always knew that the Phantom Stranger would be a classy host, and Cooke remembers the character being a more proactive mystery man than the sort of do-nothing harbinger he has become. It seems perfectly natural that Zatanna should be his dinner companion. The choice not only shows her to be magical but powerful. This gal's words alter the physical world. That's power, and even without fishnets, she looks fantastic. Cooke's choice of setting also amuses. The moon of course will serve as the base for Grant Morrison's Justice League.
Segueing to earth, Cooke focuses on Lois Lane trying to maintain her objectivity. Her heartfelt ode to the fallen Kal-El however cannot fail to affect her, and Cooke's depiction of her reaction beautifully expresses her numbing pain of loss. Rocky Davis of the Challengers comes across like a later day Zap Brannigan from Futurama and also exactly how I expect Hal Jordan would react, but Jimmy Olsen regains a lot of his Silver Age steel and luster by admitting to more complex emotions and not being afraid to express them on Lois' behalf.
As you may have inferred from this and countless other reviews, I hate Hal Jordan. He is the super-hero most likely to slap a woman on the ass and tell her to go make coffee. I consider his rebirth a miscarriage of justice, and as far as he is portrayed in New Frontier...well, there should be a limit to the number of times he can mention "Sufferin Suzie!" Either that or have Batman crack him in the mouth every time he utters the phrase. On the whole though, this is a rare Hal portrayal that shows him to be decent and even heroic. I place the Cooke incarnation with the Kurt Busiek version in JLA/Avengers and the quintessentially cool Super-Friends Green Lantern who appeared at least to me to be from a land more exotic than Extremely White America.
The best moment of the book belongs to the Flash:
"Look, uh...Flash--That thing in Central City between us...No hard feelings, hey?"
KRACK!
This is the best hit witnessed in a post-Crisis comic book since Batman with "one punch" took down Guy Gardner--these earth born Green Lanterns just suck, don't they?
The Flash isn't the only one who speeds up the heartbeat. Green Arrow is cool again! Can you believe it? The modern day Robin Hood in Arrow Car and Arrow Plane! This is my Green Arrow. Spare me the one who cheats on one of the hottest DC babes in any universe.
It's only a matter of time when the Atom peeks out from Ivy Town, and the way Cooke employs the consequences of the Atom's powers is pure genius. The brilliance also requires an understanding of continuity, and oh, darn there goes DC's argument for getting rid of continuity.
Apart from the expertise in plotting and the astounding dosage of testosterone in the book, Cooke also brings in some heart in the form of June Robinson, looking like June Lockhart, who cares for the Martian Manhunter throughout the story. You may argue that she fits a traditional womanly role of nurse, but this argument is countered by Wonder Woman who recovers from her bloody wounds from last issue in what amounts to an eyeblink and kicks some serious scaled ass. She is also seen as a creature of beauty because of her abilities. Jimmy does not resent her for rescuing him. He expresses only appreciation.
Cooke also imbues some subtlety to the plot. The anti-Gamera should be doing more damage, but nature itself seems be holding it back and contributing to the rescue of fallen flyboys. Can this be foreshadowing of an aquatic rescue? It certainly can. Cooke knows the reader is smart enough to figure out what occurs, and he perfectly times the mentions of the oddness. This leads to a stunning pay off that completes the team.
The book concludes with a timely tie in to reality, and as the speech unfolds readers see that more coherent universe stretch into the future. Super Girl--Kara, thank you very much--and the second Black Canary, bright and smiling, for instance join the Teen Titans. This little throwaway addition makes so more sense and adds greater texture to The New Frontier.
Wouldn't it have been nice if DC had started this way after the Crisis? Rather than just throw darts sporting each hero's picture at a timeline; rather than regurgitate and remove entire characters from a hero's history; rather than picking a name out of a hat and giving that person a venerable costumed identity; rather than promoting all of these ham-fisted, lack-witted attempts at writing, DC could have started with The New Frontier and thoroughly recreated a more meaningful yet ever more comprehensible universe that would have generated as much passion from the fans as did the multiverse.
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