Highway 62

Issue One opens up with The Losers stranded on a dinosaur-infested chunk of Pacific real estate. What do The Losers have to do with the story at large? I have no idea. And I don’t really care, so long as I get to see Darwyn Cooke drawing stuff like this:

DINO SPLASH PAGE HERE

Yeah, I guess I’m a fanboy. I can live with that.

For The Losers, things quickly go from bad to worse to nobody’s going home. Yeah, I told you there were spoilers, right? And yes, some of it seems a tad forced, but as someone else pointed out, they’re not called “The Losers” without good reason. But every turn of the story is driven by Mr. Cooke’s expressive linework and lighting. The sequence illustrating Sarge’s glowering, rage-driven mourning of a team member is outstanding here, even in a book where literally every page is a work of art.

The Losers’ story ends much as you’d expect it, but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying.

Between the story vignettes, we’re served some text pieces, which function much like those in Watchmen. I’m of two minds on these. Most of the time, they’re inserted into comics in an effort to give the proceedings an air of literary authority. Most of the time, they read just like that, too. While I’m not wild about them in general, they function quite well in the confines of New Frontier, plus Mr. Cooke keeps great art paired with the text.

The last story deals with Hal Jordan, far before the days of Green Lantern, from meeting his childhood idol Chuck Yeager to his days in MIG Alley in Korea. A lot of people criticized the portrayal of Hal Jordan being a US airman who’d refuse to kill, but had no compunction against setting up enemy pilots to die in the crosshairs of his wingman. Historically, sure, that wouldn’t have happened. But we’re talking about a comic world where men fly. I’m willing to suspend disbelief to that degree. Additionally, I’m not in a position to second guess Mr. Cooke’s story. However, this set-up is essential to Hal Jordan’s character.

At the end of this chapter, Hal Jordan is shot down behind enemy lines, sometime just after the cease-fire ending the war is enacted. There in the trenches, and man to man, he is forced to choose between his credo against killing or to survive. Like most other humans, Hal Jordan chooses survival, and that choice will go on to haunt him, defining him as much as any green leotard or ring ever would.

And oh yeah, the back cover is absolutely astounding.

Issue Two gives us a few more characters to work with, including a great rendition of the Martian Manhunter, which manages to add in elements of more modern reworkings as well as staying true to the silver-age rendition of the character. His adventures as a human detective (joined by the immortal Slam Bradley and a frightening Batman) hint at a larger narrative as well, but it remains maddeningly in the background.

A brief note here. Some folks think that all New Frontier is nothing more than a retro love letter to all the silver age. That’s not entirely true. When you read how the Manhunter/Bradley/Batman chapter ends, you’ll see that New Frontier is far from a fawning “old heroes good, new heroes bad” diatribe. Mr. Cooke has certainly taken an iconic route in his presentation, but there is a surprising chilling undercurrent in some of his heroes. Batman’s mask and manner end up alienating him from the very child he’s risked his life to save. What Mr. Cooke does with Wonder Woman needs to be read to be believed. And maybe even then you won’t.

The rest of issue two deals with a variety of plots, all of which tie into a Las Vegas boxing match between Ted Grant (aka The Wildcat, of I guess the JSA, help me out here) and Cassius Clay (who sadly, is identified by name only; certainly couldn’t do it by sight). The fight scenes are as dynamic as anything you’re going to see this year, and yet Darwyn Cooke pulls it all off on a three panel grid that has set the tone for the book so far. Even when working within the limitations of that grid, Mr. Cooke brings vitality that leaps off the page.

His rendition of the Flash blazes across the page like no other. And here, Mr. Cooke takes the opportunity to break from the three-landscape-panel that’s defined his pages to show just how fast he Flash really is. It’s a subtle thing, but highly effective, breaking time from the moments that we’ve been accustomed to down to instant slices. Sure, on the surface, it’s just another Flash/Captain Cold encounter. But here, it’s epic.

One of the things that I really love about New Frontier is the historical detail, from the romantic revisiting of the Right Stuff-era test aircraft to the furnishings in Barry Allen’s apartment to the fashions (particularly on Mr. Cooke’s women) all reinforce the time and place of the setting. Normally I don’t make a big deal about this, but it’s not often that period pieces feel right. New Frontier pulls it off flawlessly (though I’m sure that there was a lot of sweat and research behind the scenes.)

The lettering and the coloring also go a long way towards effectively evoking the spirit of the period of New Frontier. Jared Fletcher’s lettering really help capture the feel of a silver age (though his lettering is much more open and spacious than could be managed in the over dialogued balloons of yore.) The type design and layout are also spot-on. Dave Stewart’s colors have enough dimension to accent Mr. Cooke’s graphic style without being overdone. They’re just a step above completely flat color, but really the book doesn’t demand more than that. Giving New Frontier a modern coloring job would have been utterly jarring and inappropriate. Mr. Stewart’s palette and texture go a long way towards making the book look as good as it does.

In case you haven’t guessed, I wasn’t put off by the $6.95 cover price. I know a few people who were, or folks who were expecting the book to be in a prestige format for that price. Frankly, I’m glad it isn’t. The prestige format looks nice, but can be awful hard to read (particularly splash pages). And if I were totally bonkers about it, I’d say that saddle-stitched is the only way to go with a book like this. It lays flat for easy reading. Now if only the pages weren’t so darn glossy.

But for that price, you’re getting sixty-four pages, no ads. Forty-four pages of any other comic will likely cost you six bucks these days. Sixty-four pages at that price is a bargain, and you don’t get any damned WWE or toy ads breaking up the art and story.

Realistically, this was a risky project for DC and the artists involved. The whole thing is going to come out to nearly four hundred pages of art (and who knows how much time) on what most folks are going to treat as an “imaginary” story by an artist who’s pretty far from a household name (even with his past successes on Batman: Ego, Catwoman and Selina’s Big Score, in addition to some other work for Marvel and Top Cow.) But I, for one, am damn glad that the risk was taken. It’s a fine, fine book this far in. Can’t wait for the next issue to come out.