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So I have a massively long Escapade report that I hope to finish and post sometime in the near future, but right now I want to talk about what I read on the plane: D.C.: The New Frontier. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
literaryll was kind enough to loan me some comics a while back (a long while back, actually--I've been very slow in making my way through them), and she seems to be an absolute genius in picking out things I will love, because I think this may be my all-time favorite comic series.
So New Frontier is set in the Silver Age--not that I really know anything about the Silver Age--but I take it that it is innovative in actually dealing with the politics of the 1940s and 1950s, specifically racism and McCarthyism and the impact social forces would have on the way superheroes were perceived. A major part of the storyline had to do with suspicions about superheroes, and most of them (with the exception of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman) quit the field rather than report to the government. Book I of the compilation volume makes it look like Superman (who is working with the U.S. government) is at odds with "vigilante" Batman, but of course that turns out to be a cover-up they planned together. And Diana is the other superhero who agrees to work with the U/S. government, but she retires/ is forced into retirement when she starts challenging U.S. policy in the Korean war. I have to say, I love this whole storyline LIKE CAKE. I love complicated political stuff, at least when it is done well.
And my god, I adore the art in this series. I have a real thing for retro-50s looks anyway--which this is definitely an example of--but in addition to the pretty (I just love the CLOTHES!) and the mastery in capturing the 50s futuristic look, which is so distinctive, I adore how the women are drawn in this. They're so round! They have curves! They are still, of course, skinnier on the whole than women in RL, but still, they're curvy and have really cute 50s haircuts and I love the clothes and just the overall look of them.
Book II of the compilation volume was even better, I thought--partly because I lacked familiarity with some of the main characters in Book I (which spends a lot of time with Hal Jordan and some other superheroes I was unfamiliar with), and partly because I loved where they went with some of the storylines (e.g. J'onn J'onzz realizing that if America can't treat its African-American citizens equally, it's going to have real problems with Martians). And I have to say, I am a COMPLETE sucker for "former opponents have to unite to defeat a common enemy" storylines, so the climax where the U.S. government and military have to accept the superheroes to defeat that Cthulhu-like giant island thingy, um, may have actually made me cry. Even though the ending of the book, with long excerpts from a JFK speech, struck me as a little too over-the-top jingoistic American. I was wondering if any of the non-Americans on my flist had read this series, and what their take on it was.
literaryll was kind enough to loan me some comics a while back (a long while back, actually--I've been very slow in making my way through them), and she seems to be an absolute genius in picking out things I will love, because I think this may be my all-time favorite comic series.So New Frontier is set in the Silver Age--not that I really know anything about the Silver Age--but I take it that it is innovative in actually dealing with the politics of the 1940s and 1950s, specifically racism and McCarthyism and the impact social forces would have on the way superheroes were perceived. A major part of the storyline had to do with suspicions about superheroes, and most of them (with the exception of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman) quit the field rather than report to the government. Book I of the compilation volume makes it look like Superman (who is working with the U.S. government) is at odds with "vigilante" Batman, but of course that turns out to be a cover-up they planned together. And Diana is the other superhero who agrees to work with the U/S. government, but she retires/ is forced into retirement when she starts challenging U.S. policy in the Korean war. I have to say, I love this whole storyline LIKE CAKE. I love complicated political stuff, at least when it is done well.
And my god, I adore the art in this series. I have a real thing for retro-50s looks anyway--which this is definitely an example of--but in addition to the pretty (I just love the CLOTHES!) and the mastery in capturing the 50s futuristic look, which is so distinctive, I adore how the women are drawn in this. They're so round! They have curves! They are still, of course, skinnier on the whole than women in RL, but still, they're curvy and have really cute 50s haircuts and I love the clothes and just the overall look of them.
Book II of the compilation volume was even better, I thought--partly because I lacked familiarity with some of the main characters in Book I (which spends a lot of time with Hal Jordan and some other superheroes I was unfamiliar with), and partly because I loved where they went with some of the storylines (e.g. J'onn J'onzz realizing that if America can't treat its African-American citizens equally, it's going to have real problems with Martians). And I have to say, I am a COMPLETE sucker for "former opponents have to unite to defeat a common enemy" storylines, so the climax where the U.S. government and military have to accept the superheroes to defeat that Cthulhu-like giant island thingy, um, may have actually made me cry. Even though the ending of the book, with long excerpts from a JFK speech, struck me as a little too over-the-top jingoistic American. I was wondering if any of the non-Americans on my flist had read this series, and what their take on it was.