AMBFAD (Comic) Book Club

As I stated last week, I received a couple of books for Father's Day and one of them fits nicely w/ this week's 'all-comic' theme. I had been lusting over the Darwyn Cooke's 'The New Frontier: Absolute Edition' for almost a full year prior to my full-fledged return to comic book geekdom. I happened to see it at Borders and was absolutely blown away by the actual art and the unbelievably beautiful presentation it was contained within. It's hefty price tag and moderate level of fandom at that point, kept me from ever picking it up.

The limited series was actually published by DC Comics from 2003 to 2004, collected in two trade paperback volumes in 2004 and 2005 and the mind-numbing Absolute Edition i'm reviewing here in 2006. In fact, the timing of the gift of what looked to be the last copy at our local Borders couldn't have been more appropriate, as it seems to be out of print and going for almost double it's actual price online. That said, it's worth every dime.

The brilliantly thorough story takes place in the mid/late-1950's at the finish of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War...an Atomic Age where the notion of the 'superhero' in decline. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, the few standouts who survived the anti-hero sentiment of the Cold War, are joined by newly-minted heroes in fighter pilot Hal Jordan (The Green Lantern), scientists Barry Allen (The Atom) and Ray Palmer (The Flash) to battle the mounting threat of an alien presence on Earth.

These DC mainstays that would eventually become the initial formation of the Justice League of America are wonderfully interwoven w/ the real life issues present at the time, in the threat of atomic warfare, McCarthyism, racism and even the race to be the first country to achieve manned space travel. Additional authenticity and retro-flavoring is provided by the dozens of others characters from the '40s, '50s and '60s eras of DC Comics ranging from forgotten war-comic veterans The Losers to the professional adventurers in The Challengers of the Unknown, just to name a few.

The art that accompanies the story is equally as spectacular and has a retro aesthetic that ends up being a perfect match to the era serving as it's backdrop. Cooke's art style is influenced by Jack Kirby's squared fingers/muscles/jaws; the simple clean lines of Golden Age-era comics and the more modern deco-aesthetics of the recent Superman and Batman animated series (in which Cooke previously worked on as an artist prior to going into printed work). To note, however, the retro feel of the art still ends up coming off as fresh and definitely established Cooke as his own entity.

Finally, the treatment provided to the body of work in the 'Absolute Edition' is utterly phenomenal. A bound, hardcover, slipcased edition with cloth bookmark that houses the restored, corrected and recolored versions of the original work, reprinted at 8 inches by 12 inches. Additional frames cut from the original prints are added back in to achieve an even fuller story and followed up by supplemental materials regarding the creation of the work, including sketches, cover gallery, action-figure diagrams, etc. The crown jewel though, is the page by page annotation section at the end that serves as an excellent companion to the more subtle (but equally as a cool) things going on within the story.

Bottom line, 'The New Frontier: Absolute Edition' is just that...an absolutely perfect way to add this watershed example of how comic books can be true works of art to your bookcase. No blog post can do it justice and if you get the chance, thumb through a copy.