DC: The New Frontier - VOL 02 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Cooke's revisions of DC Comics' "Silver Age" superheroes, the first collection of which appeared earlier this year, continue with the talented writer-artist taking second looks through contemporary eyes at some classic characters' early exploits. Cooke relegates DC's big guns--Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman--largely to the background, instead spotlighting heroes who came on the scene in the late 1950s and early '60s, particularly Green Lantern, portrayed, before he gets his ring of power, as a hotshot test pilot a la Chuck Yeager, and the Martian Manhunter, incarcerated by the government, in a display of cold war-era xenophobic paranoia, as the ultimate enemy alien. The heroes eventually join forces against an intergalactic threat. Some may think the climax here is rather a letdown after the more quietly compelling, character-driven passages that precede it. Cooke's cartoony, neotraditionalist art style, deceptively simple, possesses a quiet sophistication that far outshines his flashier peers. Together the two New Frontier volumes constitute one of the most ambitious and satisfying superhero tales of recent years. Gordon Flagg
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Grade 8 Up–A '50s-style comic with modern-day sensibilities. A group of astronauts, most of whom know each other from World War II or Korea, make tentative steps into outer space. In a secondary story line, a black man takes revenge on the KKK, which killed his family, but then is himself murdered. As the scientists explore, a huge alien army waits in orbit to invade Earth. One alien falls to Earth and watches TV reports, trying to grasp American culture. Soon enough, humans and aliens collide, and the Justice League is there to save everything. The social-commentary subplots, of late-'50s civil rights and of Cold War paranoia, are the most powerful elements here. However, too often the most interesting story line is left undeveloped: Green Lantern, lost in the desert for four years, the black man avenging his family, war veterans visiting the graves of their comrades–all these threads are overshadowed by yammering astronauts and their love triangles. Buy this one only if the first volume is popular.–John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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