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

Superman Secret Files 2004

June 29, 2004

Quick Rating: Necessary
Title: Suicide Watch & BiPolar Disorder

How to piece together the Superman universe.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Jeremy Johns, Greg Rucka & Mike McAvennie
Pencils: Jim Fern & Jon Bogdanove (plus several others on profile pages)
Inks: Lary Stucker & Jon Bogdanove (plus several others on profile pages)
Colors: Sno-Cone, Dave McCaig (plus others on profile pages)
Letters: K.L. Fletcher & Jared Fletcher
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Ivan Cohen
Cover Art: Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines & Dave Stewart
Publisher: DC Comics

The best installments of DC’s “Secret Files” series are those books that fill in the blanks of a title, giving you greater understanding and appreciation of the book as a whole. The worst are completely superfluous and give you absolutely nothing to sink your teeth into. This is a first, though, this is the first time I’ve read a “Secret Files” that feels absolutely essential to understand the goings-on of the four regular Superman titles (Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics and Superman/Batman).

The bulk of the work is done by Geoff Johns and Jeremy Johns in a story that wraps up the loose ends of the Lex Luthor presidency and includes a nice little throwdown with the Suicide Squad, now targeting their former boss, Amanda Waller. We are finally given an explanation as to why Pete Ross agreed to be Luthor’s vice-president in the first place in a very nice sequence that ties into the new version of Superman’s origins as detailed in Superman: Birthright (which, in turn, feels more and more like it’s trying to be a bridge to Smallville every day, especially with stories like this). The artwork, by Fern and Stucker, isn’t quite as strong. The best sequence is the flashback scene, where they’re trying so hard to make the characters look like the actors from the TV show that it’s almost painful. They do a good Tom Welling in Clark, but the rendition of Lana Lang looks terribly forced. Credit where credit is due – their Superman does look like a grown-up version of Welling in tights, but he’s almost too youthful, too blocky.

Rucka and Bogdanove serve up the second story in this book, “BiPolar Disorder,” a wonderfully silly tale that tries to reconcile the various incarnations of Mr. Mxyzptlk. I really don’t understand the venom Mxyzptlk gets in some circles of fandom – I’ve always found him to be a delightfully silly character that brings some much-needed comic relief once in a while, and I always love seeing Bogdanove’s pencils – if ever there was an underrated Superman artist, it was him. This issue doesn’t illuminate the regular titles that much, but does serve as something of a “secret files” for Mxyzptlk himself.

Then there are the profile pages – Gog, The Shack, Replikon, Lt. Lupe Teresa Leocadio-Escudero, Father Daniel Leone, Eradicator, Preus, Mr. Majestic and Supergirl (drawn by Michael Turner, for you completists out there). In short, every character that’s been introduced or revamped since the “Godfall” storyline earlier this year. These, along with the Johns story, make the book a necessity – it fills you in on everything, gives a more logical angle to Clark Kent’s demotion at the Daily Planet and even puts to rest the burning question of whether or not Superman should actually remember having fought Gog before over in Action Comics (he should, damn it).

Typically, I wouldn’t recommend a “Secret Files” unless I found it particularly enjoyable or enlightening. This is the first time I would say you need a “Secret Files” issue just to keep up, and that says a lot more about the current state of the Superman titles than it does about this issue itself.

Rating: 8/10