Justice League: The New Frontier Special

Well this was a treat from start to finish. Furthermore, it goes so nicely with my recent acquisition of the DVD. Why YES, I DID get the one with the cute little figure of Hal in it. But you probably knew that.

Frankly, I was hooked from the very first page, with Mr. Cooke's VERY droll representation of Rip Hunter and his explanation of the multiverse AND hunting of aluminum siding salesmen.

There are three stories, all written by Darwyn Cooke, although he only does the art on the first one, with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. The second story has art by David Bullock, who mimics Cooke's look VERY well, while the final story has art by J. Bone. It doesn't matter, because all three are amazingly fun to read.

The first has Superman being sent after Batman by the President no less. Superman has his doubts, but he's still a good government boy. Batman of course manages to set up all kinds of traps to actually make the fight a fair one. Wonder Woman comes back in the end and defuses the situation, by being the voice of reason. There was a certain amount of grumbling amongst a number of reviewers that it was the "same old hash" with Batman being able to defeat a much mroe powerful Superman. You know what? I don't CARE! I'm not really that much of a Bat or Super fan, so it was all new and fun to me! And the look on their faces when Bats pulls his mask off and stands revealed as Bruce Wayne is wonderful.

The second story has Robin and Wally West teaming up to go after evil Street Rodders! Oh the horror. Somehow street racing ties into stolen munitions and a plot against the President, which makes it all the more delightful. Both Dick and Wally are a bit full of themselves, but come to realize that teaming up isn't really a bad thing. Oh, they also write "Uncool" in fiery letters on the landing strip, thus saving President Kennedy. When was the last time they did something like THAT?

The final story frankly, is my favorite. It has Wonder Woman teaming up with Black Canary, so that Diana can spread her message of love and acceptance throughout the Male Patriarchy. Diana finds that young women dressing up as rabbits in clubs may actually be demeaning. She and Dinah march into a Playboy club and discover Bruce Wayne, who is thrilled right down to his toes. That is until Diana shows up, glowering over his shoulder and the Big Bad Batman pretends that he's just following a bad guy and runs out the door. Haw! Then Diana hauls Jayne Mansfield out of the cake, and jumps out of it herself, exhorting the men on the floor to raise their glasses in honor of treating women with respect! It doens't end well of course, and she ends up beating them all up. The best part is the burning breastplate, which she rips off, and then can't understand why all the guys on the floor are still smiling, although Dinah gently tells her maybe she should put her top back on.

Again, not a lot of the guy seemed to like this story, but I thought it was hilarious! A little over the top perhaps, but hilarious. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

There is even a nice bit at the end, with drawings of the art for the movie and such. It's WELL worth the money, and I hope that they continue to do these, perhaps as an annual. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, without being smarmy.