Justice League: The New Frontier

To begin, allow me to specify that my review is based upon the two-disc version of the Justice League: The New Frontier DVD.

Justice League, The New Frontier is Darwyn Cooke's homage to DC Comics' Silver Age. This popular graphic novel finally gets the animated treatment in a highly anticipated DC animated feature film that has been recently released on DVD (from Warner Brothers Home Video). Taking place in the early-mid 1950s, The New Frontier drops its viewer into the Korean War through the eyes of fighter pilot, Hal Jordan. At this point in time, the Justice Society has already been disbanded while the United States itself not only fears but fights to contain the spread of communism. Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash are already fighting crime individually (so their back stories are completely omitted in this film save for a bit of retrospective decision making on Wonder Woman's home island).

The backbone of this tale centers on a primordial life form known only as The Center, which poses as an ancient island covered with extinct life forms to feed on. Monitoring the rise of mankind, The Center finally decides that we have become both violent and intelligent-enough (upon discovering nuclear energy) to pose a threat to its existence. It decides to annihilate humanity and begins portraying its cryptic plan by possessing the minds of the weak and evil. Indeed some of these scenes are downright creepy!

While the viewer is technically being carried along the meteoric rise of Hal Jordan's transformation into the Green Lantern, the arrival and foundation of J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter) is also a critical part of the story's development. Interestingly, many of the film's supporting cast actually consists of classic DC comic characters in various phases of their lives.

It appears the most common complaint to the show is its pacing and indeed the final quarter of the film really feels rushed. It is obvious that the show's creative team struggled to compress such an epic story into a 75-minute production. Make no mistake, the flow of the story arc and the details presented are 100% complete, it's just that several leaguers (Green Arrow, Adam Strange, Aqua-man, etc.) appear but do little more than that. It's sad really that such tight time restrictions were placed upon this first-class production as it simply baffles the imagination to envision what this work could have been.

Casting is, for the most part, stellar. Miguel Ferrer as Martian Manhunter, David Boreanaz as Hal Jordan, Neil Patrick Harris as Allen, Kyle MacLachlan as Superman, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, Kyra Sedgwick as Lois Lane, Brooke Shields as Carol Ferris, Vicki Lewis as Iris. I know I'm in the minority on this one, but believe it or not I found Jeremy Sisto's vocal work as Batman to be a bit too deep (picture Vin Diesel). Perhaps I'm just a bit partial to Kevin Conroy's years of beautiful vocal work in the DCAU in my harsh assessment.

The animation is very similar to past and recent DC Animated Universe efforts, which is to say beautifully done with special consideration to separate the vintage Silver Era uniforms from the contemporary outfits.

For a Warner release, this set comes stacked with special features. Disc 1 breaks down with an excellent documentary called Super Heroes United!: The Complete Justice League History, full audio commentary (2 separate tracks) with the show's creative team and the graphic novel's writer Darwyn Cooke. There's also an interesting look at DC's next feature film release: Batman Gotham Knight.

The second disc contains an equal-but-opposite documentary entitled The Legion of Doom: The Pathology of the Super Villain, which in my opinion the two documentaries make the set worth the price of admission by themselves. Additionally, the second disc contains a fun featurette that compares the film directly to the comic book and 3 episodes of the contemporary Justice League (Dark Heart, To Another Shore, and Task Force X).

All in all, this is a very solid interpretation of a spectacular graphic novel. My only complaint is the time restriction that 1 hour & 15 minutes places on the writer's ability to establish the full backstory of the League. The attention to detail is second to none (after all, Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano were involved). This is a must for any DCAU fan, individuals who enjoyed the excellent graphic novel on which the material is based, and anyone who appreciates smart story telling in the animated medium.