Written by Darwyn Cooke Art and cover by Cooke Reoffered to coincide with BATMAN: EGO AND OTHER TAILS, this volume collects Darwyn Cooke's acclaimed journey from the end of the Golden Age to the genesis of a bold new heroic era in the late 1950s! Volume 1 collects DC: THE NEW FRONTIER #1-3 plus the three extra pages originally seen only in Wizard Magazine! On sale May 2 - 240 pg, FC, $49.99 US - Relist
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
New Frontier reenvisions the superheroes DC Comics launched in the late 1950s by placing them firmly in the Cold War milieu that seldom surfaced in the original stories. The results could be ponderous but aren't, thanks to author-artist Cooke, who freshly reimagines the earliest exploits of such hoary heroes as the Flash and Green Lantern, and offers compellingly unorthodox versions of some venerable superstars: he portrays Superman, for instance, as a smug government lapdog. Cooke's intelligently retro art style is perfectly suited to the task at hand. Its cartoonish simplicity, though unfashionable among today's detail-obsessed comics fans, possesses nearly matchless elegance and dynamism. Especially effective is his reliance on rectilinear panels that convey the sweep of 1950s widescreen movies. Despite its decades-old setting, New Frontier is the most exciting recent superhero comic, and testimony to the enduring power of DC's iconic heroes. It's complex enough to captivate current comics fans yet compelling for nostalgic boomers who grew up with these characters. This book's story will be concluded in volume 2. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
81 of 95 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very well done story. Particularly John Jones adapting to his new world and Hal Jordan's post war dealings.
There were a few reasons this didn't get a 5 star rating and none of them relate to story.
This could all have been collected in ONE book! You heard me DC. ONE BOOK! Crisis, The Return of Superman, Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory were all as long or longer stories and they were collected under ONE COVER. $20.00 for each volume?!
I notice DC has been doing this lately with Batman: Hush and Superman: For Tomorrow. Only it's worse with those volumes! First they come out in 2 hardcovers then 2 tpbs! ONE VOLUME DC! ONE!!!!!!!!!!
If you wanted to milk us on this series you should have released all the parts in ONE hardcover then ONE trade paperback. ONE! Get it DC?! It was that worthy of a story. Not worthy of being broken up cheaply. ONE!!!!!!
There were a few reasons this didn't get a 5 star rating and none of them relate to story.
This could all have been collected in ONE book! You heard me DC. ONE BOOK! Crisis, The Return of Superman, Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory were all as long or longer stories and they were collected under ONE COVER. $20.00 for each volume?!
I notice DC has been doing this lately with Batman: Hush and Superman: For Tomorrow. Only it's worse with those volumes! First they come out in 2 hardcovers then 2 tpbs! ONE VOLUME DC! ONE!!!!!!!!!!
If you wanted to milk us on this series you should have released all the parts in ONE hardcover then ONE trade paperback. ONE! Get it DC?! It was that worthy of a story. Not worthy of being broken up cheaply. ONE!!!!!!
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is another high quality effort from Darwyn Cooke. It reminds me of the intelligent and mature tone of his previous effort, "Catwoman: Selina's Big Score" (which is also highly recommended by me).
"The New Frontier" is not as intense as "Selina's Big Score," but Frontier has a much larger all-encompassing story scope to cover.
Like "Selina's Big Score," Frontier is heavy on engrossing storyline, but light on costumed heroics, (Big Score had zero costumes, but cool street clothes). Frontier can go dozens and dozens of pages inbetween having conventional superhero scenes, in costumes. When the costume scenes do happen, (most notably in a great piece with the Flash!), then it is very entertaining.
Batman does some interesting sleuthing detective work, and though Wonder Woman and Superman are low on action, they are high on good character chemistry and tension. I especially enjoy the Darwyn Cooke version of an AMAZON-sized Wonder Woman who is taller than Superman.
What this book lacks in costumed action, it more than makes up for with heartfelt and sincere character development and motivation. There IS action in this book, but mostly involving characters in real world clothing and uniforms, not costumes.
This book is great for adult fans of the DC universe, who will enjoy all of the insider references, but young comic book readers may not comprehend the more subtle aspects of Darwyn Cooke's comic book writing for grownups, which occupies most of this book.
Me being more of a Marvel fan since childhood, I learned a few things about a few characters that I had not known about before, though, I think that is the whole point of this overall storyline, to fill in unknown gaps of what these superheroes were up to during the 1950's, before the Silver Age of comics began in the early 1960's.
"The New Frontier" is not as intense as "Selina's Big Score," but Frontier has a much larger all-encompassing story scope to cover.
Like "Selina's Big Score," Frontier is heavy on engrossing storyline, but light on costumed heroics, (Big Score had zero costumes, but cool street clothes). Frontier can go dozens and dozens of pages inbetween having conventional superhero scenes, in costumes. When the costume scenes do happen, (most notably in a great piece with the Flash!), then it is very entertaining.
Batman does some interesting sleuthing detective work, and though Wonder Woman and Superman are low on action, they are high on good character chemistry and tension. I especially enjoy the Darwyn Cooke version of an AMAZON-sized Wonder Woman who is taller than Superman.
What this book lacks in costumed action, it more than makes up for with heartfelt and sincere character development and motivation. There IS action in this book, but mostly involving characters in real world clothing and uniforms, not costumes.
This book is great for adult fans of the DC universe, who will enjoy all of the insider references, but young comic book readers may not comprehend the more subtle aspects of Darwyn Cooke's comic book writing for grownups, which occupies most of this book.
Me being more of a Marvel fan since childhood, I learned a few things about a few characters that I had not known about before, though, I think that is the whole point of this overall storyline, to fill in unknown gaps of what these superheroes were up to during the 1950's, before the Silver Age of comics began in the early 1960's.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Cooke's wonderful distillation of the Silver Age heroes, with a nod to the Golden Age and timely references about empty-headed patriotism deserves either the big screen treatment, or even better, a mini-series on one of the better cable stations.
The heroes here -- Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. -- have a darkness that owes a lot to Frank Miller's seminal Dark Knight Returns series, but also to the tortured navel-gazing of Marvel's mutant heroes. Cooke's Dick Tracy-esque art style is warm and inviting, like a Norman Rockwell painting that captures a long forgotten America that probably didn't exist but we seem to miss anyway.
That said, his attempt to juggle so many characters means we lose out on a lot of well-needed character development, which stunts some of the story arcs. The proto-feminist Wonder Woman who encourages Vietnamese women to take revenge on their male captors is sent to the sidelines early on in the story; we are introduced to Aquaman with a great spread, but then he does nothing until the last few pages.
Ultimately, this is the story of three characters, Hal Jordan, The Flash and the Martian Manhunter, but in attempting to tell a giant story that encompasses the whole DC Universe, they too get short shrift.
By all means purchase both volumes, read them, put them in your library and, if possible, buy them repeatedly as gifts for the children of friends and relatives who read comics.
The heroes here -- Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc. -- have a darkness that owes a lot to Frank Miller's seminal Dark Knight Returns series, but also to the tortured navel-gazing of Marvel's mutant heroes. Cooke's Dick Tracy-esque art style is warm and inviting, like a Norman Rockwell painting that captures a long forgotten America that probably didn't exist but we seem to miss anyway.
That said, his attempt to juggle so many characters means we lose out on a lot of well-needed character development, which stunts some of the story arcs. The proto-feminist Wonder Woman who encourages Vietnamese women to take revenge on their male captors is sent to the sidelines early on in the story; we are introduced to Aquaman with a great spread, but then he does nothing until the last few pages.
Ultimately, this is the story of three characters, Hal Jordan, The Flash and the Martian Manhunter, but in attempting to tell a giant story that encompasses the whole DC Universe, they too get short shrift.
By all means purchase both volumes, read them, put them in your library and, if possible, buy them repeatedly as gifts for the children of friends and relatives who read comics.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it
Bought this book for a Christmas gift for my significant other. He loved it and and wants to read the second one.
Published 2 months ago by emigirl86
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect condition.
Book is in perfect condition, absolutely nothing wrong with it. Inside, the art is nice and amazing and there is plenty of bonus art in the end.
Published 3 months ago by Rajinder
4.0 out of 5 stars
surprisingly good
This was the first comic book I had ever really read. I only bought it for a class, but I found myself captivated by the wonderful give and take between the art and the captions. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Emilee
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Frontier Vol. 1
"I confess that my education regarding prehistoric times was lacking, but even I could see this was a place of great magic," sez John Cloud of The Losers in the first chapter of... Read more
Published 12 months ago by jonathan briggs
5.0 out of 5 stars
If only they would keep going with this and write more volumes...
Cooke's run on DC is just fantastic. The dialogue is phenomenal and is well-researched, by which I mean Cooke is keenly aware of the Cold War history in which he has placed his... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Bismarck
5.0 out of 5 stars
If this isn't art nothing is worth the name of art
If this isn't art nothing is worth the name of art. If this isn't art nothing is worth the name of art. If this isn't art nothing is worth the name of art. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Danny C. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything a comic should be
Masterful. Darwyn Cooke is amazing. Set in the heyday of the Silver Age, Cooke begins a story that is at once nostalgically heroic and reminiscent of a simpler time, and profoundly... Read more
Published 22 months ago by N. Kunka
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bold and Beautiful: The New Frontier
DC: The New Frontier Vol. 1 contains a fun story that is highlighted by Darwyn Cooke's bold, colorful art. Read more
Published on January 11, 2011 by goldenrulecomics
3.0 out of 5 stars
A new view of the DCU
Never before has there been a more perfect blend of story and art. Darwyn Cooke is able to take all, I mean all, the charaters of the DC Universe and put them in the '40s and '50s... Read more
Published on August 19, 2010 by S. Penrose
2.0 out of 5 stars
Little involvement by the big three, flippin' stupid villain, good...
Good for purposes of nostalgia, I suppose, especially the art; but story is ultimately the only reason to pick up a book again and again, which is why this is as overrated as... Read more
Published on August 3, 2010 by truereviewer
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
