Imagine a DC cinematic universe that starts with The New Frontier and ends with Kingdom Come? On a massive, decade-spanning, multi-movie scale? Man, what a dream.

Watching Wonder Woman stand up to Superman, seeing Batman shudder in shame for accidentally scaring innocent children, hearing Superman stand up for the rights of Martian Manhunter, watching the Flash be falsely accused of communism and hunted like a pig; moments like these are what made both the comic and animated film timeless and legendary.

New Frontier really is a masterpiece, for all the reasons you've just described. I adore Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and all the rest of the great gritty deconstructions, but the fact that Cooke was able to still address on a realistic, resonant level the same sociopolitical issues as those comics, while still maintaining the spirit of hope and optimism that defines the genre, is nothing short of genius. Really wish I would have known of his work prior to his death.

I love this art style so much

the fact that Darwyn was able to make something so relevant even today, something so realistic yet still retaining the charm and camp of silver age comics, while also breaking down these beloved characters and setting it all during a 1950s-60s time period is honestly amazing. There are times when heroes that you know and love feel wrong, but you later learn their motivations and/or reasoning. For example, batman and wonder woman. When you see batman threatening J'onn, you feel scared for who has essentially been the main character up until this point. But you see how paranoid and prepared batman is. he tries to save a child from a cult, but the child is scared of him. he changes his costume and takes robin under his wing. Superman is confused as to why wonder woman would let hundreds of men die, and then we learn that these men had taken an entire village of women hostage and... yeah. Wonder woman freed the women and gave them justice. This story understands every character it includes, which is to say, it has *a lot* of characters

I like how this book is a giant middle finger to Garth Ennis's "The Boys" in a sense.

With the focus on Hal, J'onn and Barry, I always felt that it was a transition from the golden age to the silver one.

In my opinion, next to the DCAU, The New Frontier shows what DC Comics really is

Darwyn is the Anti-Alan Moore

Years ago, I made a conference in college about this cómic book and analyzed the ideology of the Cold War. This has become my favorite cómic book.

The New Frontier is one of my favourite comics, and Cooke's artwork in that book is nothing short of amazing. Great video!

I've been reading comics for more than 25 years. The New Frontier is the single best comic series published by DC in this century.

Honestly I love the idea of New Frontier and watchmen being like two sides of the same coin, they both aim to comment on society and the idea of superheroes but they both come to different conclusions (hopeful and cynical)

Ahhh, DC: The New Frontier, or as I like to refer to it - Better Than Watchmen

for me, the new frontier is start of the DC Universe and Final Crisis is the end of it

cooks art style SCREAMS CLASSIC, to me at least

Darwyn Cooke is the kind of once in a generation talent I would read about in Wizard Magazine. Always written in a past tense because he was from a generation before my own; only I lived through his prime and enjoyed his work in his life time. I adore The New Frontier, Cooke manages to create something original and dang beautiful in that story. His art made me want to learn to be a cartoonist. He was the kind of artist that helped to make that word acceptable. If anyone puts you down for wanting to be a cartoonist you show them Darwyn Cooke and they will be left speechless by his talent. This video is awesome.

The New Frontier closes with Kennedy's speech accepting the 1960 Democratic Presidential nomination, in LA (hinted at by the line about "facing west" which accompanies the full-page drawing of Superman and Jonn Jones, who oddly enough, are facing EAST from Cape Canaveral), not the inaugural address, which was given on Jan. 20, 1961.The 1960 speech was called "The New Frontier Speech." Oddly, it's considered one of JFK's more "meh" speeches, particularly compared to the inaugural. I remember seeing the latter on TV with my Mom. She cried.

I believe there is very much a place for stories like Watchmen, The Boys, and Zack Snyder’s DC films-but only if we ALSO have these kinds of heroes. The idealists. The ones who, even if we can’t ever be as pure as them, we want to follow the example of. If we don’t have the hope to counteract the cynicism, we become lost. Cynicism tells how things are, but hope shows us what they could be. And I don’t mean that these heroes shouldn’t be flawed-it’s important that we see ourselves in them. But we need examples to inspire us to get out of bed each day and do our best. One reason I loved WW84-despite everything-is that she represented the spirit of the Reeve-era superhero. And I needed that. So by all means, let’s have more superhero deconstructionist stories. It’s good to question them. But we need people who, unrealistic or no, don’t kill. People who somehow find a way to be heroes without corrupting their soul. No matter whether that’s “realistic” or not, that idealism is important to hold on to.

This art style feels so heroic

the new frontier is in my opinion the best dc comic ever and its my favorite cause i love the art style of darwyn cooke. if he had made a marvel version of the new frontier i would buy it to go along my darwyn cooke collection

Darwyn Cooke was a genius and his art style was retro and looked very 60's. I would have liked to see him do a James Bond graphic novel. He was incredible illustrating the Parker series (by Donald Westlake as Richard Stark). He did a great job here showing the optimism of the 60s before Vietnam and Watergate.

The great animated film, Justice League: The New Frontier, makes me want to read this.

LOVED this mini series. Even liked the movie. And it wasn't just the heroes. Loved the usage of the Losers, Rick Flagg, King Faraday and the Challengers of the Unknown. Wished there was more with John Henry, but what we got was great. I was extremely saddened and upset with Cooke's passing. A shame he'll never finish his adaptation of the 'Parker' series with IDW. Another great series he did.

The "War and Peace" of DC

I fucking love this art style. Im not a huge dc fan but this art work just pops and the 50 and 60 era look is so amazing

This book looks beautiful. Just convinced me to get it.

I am proud to own both the Comic and the Underrated Animated Movie.

Man how the hell does this have only 503 views

I wish comics were like this.

I wonder if Matt reads any of the recent comments here. Just wanted to say the background song, That Dream Again, is etched into my brain.

One of my favorite DC stories. It is honestly Cooke's Magnum opus and highlights his sheer talent

My favorite dc graphic novels Watchmen Kingdom come The Dark knight returns The new frontier Flashpoint

The New Frontier film is a great film, though it was a bit brutal, maybe because it was intended to a much older audience.

the New Frontiers and Marvels are Peak Nostalgic Super Hero Myhtos of Storytelling!

Excellent documentary. I had seen the animated film and found it to be remarkable, it even inspired me to do a couple of images for DeviantArt. It shows this work made an impression for you to put in the research and effort into such an elaborate and well done vid. Fantastic commentary, deserves lots of praise.

Bruh the art here is so damn good. I wish just every comic looked like this.

DC at it's finest.

Now that's how you do super heroes, also like to note the fact that you used *[The Midnight's- Vampires]* for the outro, gives you a thumbs up from me.

Great video man! I watched it before and thanks to you I'm currently reading the mini series!

Would not have heard about this without you. Thanks!

I only just now discovered your channel. You've made a committed fan.

Happy New Year Matt Draper.

I love the art work. I’m gonna have to buy this. Great video.

I bought this comic thanks to your video.. can't wait to read it(once I get off work😑).keep up the great work bro.

Thank You for this video 😀

i remember watching new frontier as a kid and it was so awesome and it still is to this day

This is the best comic book I've read since Kingdom Come came out in 1996. So my love for the comic obviously extends to the DC animated film. However, rewatching it... I do feel a little let down. The problem is that there is just so much to love about The New Frontier, and it should've all been kept in. This was basically the exact opposite of the problem with Superman/Batman Apocalypse, in that they cut stuff out to make a 75 minute film. They did not fit in everything from the comic, and this hurts it if you've read and loved the comic. The original source just looks so much better, and you find the omissions lacking. There are so many changes that it's hard to count, and I won't even attempt it. But the entire Challengers of the Unknown element from the story is excised, they're not anybody in the film. And you lose a lot of the richness, that worldbuilding that made the comic so fresh and interesting and enjoyable. Also, some of the musical choices and odd pauses during dramatic scenes felt off to me. For example, there's a big scene where Barry Allen stops Captain Cold's scheme at a banquet by tying his cold bombs to a balloon. They detonate up in the atmosphere and produce snow, which falls on the people at the banquet. Here's the actual lines of narrative in the comic: "Then something magical happens. Cold's bombs detonate high in the evening sky." "And for a few minutes, it's snowing in the desert. The other folks, they can't see me, but I'm there, vibrating just out of their vision." "I'm there with them, and it's something to see." Now, it's this rather magical and awe-inspiring sight in the comic. We're there with Barry, enjoying this light snowfall in the aftermath of a superhero struggle, and we're meant to savor the moment. It's touching and rather mellow. The Flash is enjoying the spectacle along with everyone else. But in the film, the same scene ends with Barry speeding off while heroic peppy music plays dramatically. It just ruins the whole tone that the comic was going for, IMO. So yeah, these things do bother me. The overall plot with the Center does get covered, but it just feels so bare-boned and perfunctory, rather then majestic and layered. The ending with Kennedy's New Frontier speech is done fairly well, and it is poignant, but then they don't even bother animating the last scene, where the newly formed Justice League arrives to battle Starro, their first official encounter. It's just a static image, and we don't get Jimmy Olsen's excited utterance of "Miss Lane! Here they come now... it's going to be okay!" That exuberant line, denoting newfound confidence and optimism for the future, made the scene for me and to have it missing was a disappointment. Ultimately, that's how DC The New Frontier feels like, a disappointment. The comic is great, and the film adaptation is pretty okay because of that, but it's a shadow of what could've been.

This book is one of the best comics of all time. Me personally I would rank this on the top 10 list alongside Alex Ross's Kingdome Come. I love the art style and blend of real world history with the characters of the DC Universe. If you have not read this book you owe it to yourself to give this a chance.

I just bought this book, solely on your piece here. Amazing. Ok, back to Darecember!

There's just something about this book in how it manages to be historical and political, yet reinforces the nature of superheroes as how they are. That speech by Cooke at 6:00 is just so moving to me. I wish the live-action films were able to do the same instead of embracing the cynicism and deconstruction of Watchmen without recontructing.

Watching it here today on the anniversary of his death. Might reread it today too. Gone, but living on through the great material he left behind.

Just finished reading the omnibus. Thanks for the recommendation!

This book is so wonderful it made me want to read all of Darwyn Cooke's stuff.

This needs to be made a live action movie it’s the quintessential justice league book

That was very interesting thankyou !

This is probably one of the few comics I’m willing to look for myself

Great video!

This movie uses my favorite Superman and Wonder Woman costumes.

thank you

Finally read it and is great

RIP Mr Cooke your art and stories will carry on

This channel is perfect

Great! This look interesting, I watched the animated movie, and now I want to read the book 😃😃😃. Great video!

His art style is truly brilliant, so is his writing.

I would love a continuation of this reality either in comic’s or as an animated tv series,

This story was such a masterpiece and I love the comic so much. The movie was beautiful too, I only wish that DC would create additional scenes to the movie to fill in for subplots they cut, for a story this good it'd be a beautiful opportunity to make it even more polished.

while he will be missed cook will NEVER be forgotten

Woo gonna have see if there available in book form thankyou !

This is how I wanted the movies to be like ever since man of steel came out.Let's hope there moving in a similar direction.

The animated film was great. This book looks to be even better. I better go pick it up.

I bought the absolute version of this epic...definitely worth the buck!!!

Kudos to Darwyn Cooke.

New Frontier is one of those books where I could tell it was a masterpiece but I feel like I didn't... "get it" This video really makes me wanna jump back in and try again

This. This is my dream justice league movie.. Green Lantern as the heart of the movie. And the familliar justice league environment I and many had known and loved. While this new frontier has superman, batman, wonder woman, green lantern, the flash, martian manhunter, aquaman, green arrow, steel and even plastic man in the end. Now that's the justice league i love. But i know damn well this aint happening. Wasted opportunity

The new frontier is one of my all time favorite comic stories of all time. It's classic DC but it's also brilliant social and political commentary

I just finished it and loved it. However, I'm still having trouble with coming to terms with Hal Jordan calling Carol a "rich bitch" to her face as they embrace for a kiss 2 pages later. I was loving his arc all the way until that came out of nowhere. Carol had a right to be angry at him since he literally stole her prototype plane and was about to run off without telling her. Any thoughts on this?

Nice job

Best DC animated movie I have watched.

It would be nice if the DCEU could just make Elseworlds movies with the same cast. It doesn't matter if audiences are confused, just have them accept it's a different universe. If Zack Snyder adapted Watchmen into a coherent film, I think that someone could definitely do the same with A New Frontier movie.

i never read the book but the movie is probably the best JL movie ever made.

I would love to see the DCEU do something like this

you need more subscribers

Such a Beautiful art style and a complex story as well.. Where can i get these Books? I want to read them, and don't take that lightly when I say "I wanna Read."

I wouldn't say Darwyn Cooke captures the look of old school comics, back then the color pallet was more saturated and, Darwyn Cooke.art style is more simplified than 50s comics.

I remember watching the adaptation and laughed when one of the soldiers said:"Son of a bitch."

I’ve always wanted to read this but I’ve had trouble finding back issues. Guess I need to start searching again.

the New frontier was the Kennedy administration of the early 1960s

Is John Henry Steel? I know that it’s Henry Irons in the comics

If you don't mind me saying so, this is probably my most favorite graphic novel of all time to page through....whenever I'm on the crapper.

One of the best scenes was heroes and Non-powered humans(like US military forces) were united against a common threat(aliens).

You should do Kingdom Come and The NAIL

He could have led comics back a new golden age

Marvel is better in the cinemas for sure but DC smokes them everywhere else. So many great DC comics/story archs

Lore of The New Frontier - DC Comics at Its Finest momentum 100

Should do a cartoon of that area justice league would be awesome

Imagine the story of The New Frontier but for Marvel or any superhero universe. Like hot damn, only my imagination can dream.

Have you seen the animated film adaptation? If so, is it worth a watch? I haven't seen it yet and I've been thinking about it for a while.

I wish a live action movie was possible.

I wish the DCEU was based on this.