In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans came together, and in an effort to overcome an unequalled despair, it was one of the country's finest hours. Within months, even weeks, though, politics and paranoia gave way to limitations on freedoms and the rejection of other points of view, both within and without.
Allied forces claim victory in the Second World War, ending a critical threat and an overwhelming amount of bloodshed. The world became a safer place, and good triumphed over evil. But that victory gave way to a new kind of war. With the atomic age came the Cold War, which kept the entire world afraid for decades.
A pioneering spirit and a quest for personal freedoms led a legion of settlers from Europe to a New World. Hard work and unimaginable sacrifice offered new opportunities, but in the process, another society was all but decimated by disease and assimilation.
The point is clear here: for every triumph in history, there's tragedy as well, and the struggle we face, moreso today than ever before, is to achieve a balance in society... a balance between security and freedom, between achievement and preservation of ideals, and that's ultimately what Cooke's DC: The New Frontier is about. The source of the title of this limited series is revealed in the script for the closing scene, and it's a surprising and articulate speech.
America's heroes gather together to put a stop to the Centre's destructive advance toward the rocket fuel reserves that will enable it to destroy the Earth and leave it behind. The keys to victory lie with the pilots -- Capt. Nathaniel Adam, Ace Morgan and Hal Jordan -- who volunteer to deliver an atomic payload into the belly of the beast, with the invention of a brilliant young physicist who has put a fragment of white drawf star to an unusual use and with the impossible swiftness of a man who's more accustomed to fighting colorful thieves than nightmarish monsters.
Cooke's art is most often compared to that of Bruce Timm, and that makes sense, since Cooke is known for his work on the animated Batman Beyond show, which boasted a Timm design. But there are so many other influences at play here. The full-plage splash scene depicting Hal Jordan's metamorphosis into a full-fledged Green Lantern drips of Jack Kirby style, and I'm reminded of such other classic Silver Age artists as Ramona Fradon and Mike Sekowsky. But Cooke brings a more mature edge to that classic approach as well. The psychedelic scenes in the middle of the Centre were stunning, and they seem to celebrate the art of Steve Ditko and Jim Steranko. Dave Stewart's colors are brilliant, reinforcing the sense of wonder that's such an integral part of the book's appeal, but they also bring a gritty and alien quality to the action and antagonist.
Cooke manages to cram a multitude of characters in this book, and each one seems to boasts its own little story within this larger context. He pays tribute to their origins from the 1950s and 1960s, but at the same time, he adds a little something new to each one (and in some cases, he transforms them into much different heroic figures).
Hal Jordan has represented the aforementioned balance from the beginning of this series. He began as a pacifist in the middle of a war zone, and the story ends with his destruction of a threat in order to maintain life. Even his powers represent that two-sided motif. The power ring makes his will concrete, allows himto construct anything he imagines, and he uses that power to disintegrate a twisted form of life. Furthermore, Cooke explores the notion that science is a blessing, with it's also a responsibility. There's a wonderfully hopeful tone to the story, but at the same time, it casts off rose-colored glasses.
