DC: The New Frontier #1

January 18, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Our Fighting Forces

In the 1950s, the DC Universe begins to change.

Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Letters: Dave Stewart
Editor: Mark Chiarello
Cover Art: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: DC Comics

This is not an easy comic book to categorize. It’s been suggested that it’s a thematic sequel to James Robinson’s The Golden Age. It’s called a new beginning for the DCU. The only thing I can say for sure is that it’s a few interesting Silver Age stories set in the DCU, and we’ve yet to see how they link together.

In the first chapter, the group of American warriors called the Losers (the original group, not the ones running around the Vertigo imprint), are sent to rescue Rick Flagg, commander of the first Suicide Squad, from an island populated with dinosaurs. Chapter two reveals the final fate of the golden age heroes, focusing mainly on Hourman, and chapter three focuses on a young Korean War fighter pilot named Hal Jordan.

Cooke, both in writing and artwork, displays a real love for the silver age characters and style. Jack Kirby would be proud of how it looks, and the climax of chapter one is absolutely spellbinding. I can honestly say it’s the best Losers story I’ve ever read.

The problem is that the book seems disjointed. You get the sense that everything you’re reading is supposed to come together, to link, to mean something, but it doesn’t. Cooke is a good enough storyteller that it will almost certainly come together in future issues, but that does weaken this debut. As so many comic books these days go, it will probably read much better in a collected edition.

The other problem is the Cold War setting. Cooke uses it well, but the parallels to McCarthyism have been done and done and done again, and if he doesn’t find a new way to tell the story, this entire series runs a very high risk of being clichéd and boring.

Still, I love old-school superheroes, and Cooke has tapped into one of my favorite eras of the DC Universe, so I’m pre-inclined to be forgiving of bumps in the road. He uses the pre-Green Lantern Hal Jordan well, has a great scene with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, and as I said, the climax to chapter one was fantastic. This is a title that, when all is said and done, could go either way – it may be another classic, or it may be another footnote. Let’s hope for the former.

Rating: 7/10