I don’t think I’d be out of line for suggesting that Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier is one of, if not the, greatest superhero story of the last decade.
Cooke took everything that people love about superheroes – the powers, the bravery, the action, adventure, and soap-opera romance, and big, crazy ideas – unspooled it from DC’s continuity, and mixed in some brilliant art to tell an epic story full of great icons and little heroes. One of the things I love about it is how Cooke mixed in nearly everyone, from the Challengers of the Unknown and Adam Strange to Superman and Wonder Woman, and gave everyone a strong identity and motivation. Hal Jordan’s story may have been more personal, but Cooke also hit all the right notes in making the Big Guns like Superman the icons they deserve to be.
The news that there was to be an animated, direct-to-DVD adaptation of New Frontier filled me with some trepidation; it’s a big, sprawling story that does some of its best work with the lesser lights of the DCU, and “direct-to-DVD” isn’t exactly a phrase that inspires confidence. But then some of the details started popping up: Bruce Timm was going to be producing it. It attracted some fairly big-name voice talent. And, perhaps most impressively, Darwyn Cooke himself was going to be involved. (He’s listed as a Creative Consultant, fairly prominently in the opening credits)
So maybe it didn’t have to suck. It might not be great, but getting Cooke’s stamp of approval surely meant some sort of guarantee of quality. And the good news is that no, it definitely doesn’t suck. But it doesn’t exactly inspire, either.
First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: It’s a 75 minute movie, so there are substantial cuts. The Losers, Suicide Squad, and Challengers of the Unknown are toast, relegated to the corners of group shots. John Henry’s storyline is excised. But you knew that already, unless you live in an even richer fantasy world than me. (and I’m still holding out for Absolute Shade the Changing Man and All-Star Challengers of the Unknown by Cooke and Grant Morrison)
Other character arcs remain more or less intact: Hal Jordan is probably the closest thing to a main character, and Martian Manhunter’s story is almost verbatim, including tidbits of his friendship with King Faraday. Batman’s role is beefed up a little, joining Superman and Wonder Woman as nominal stars of the film without dominating it. And the basic story remains the same: Something mysterious and sinister is happening, and the superheroes have to put aside their differences to stop it. Aside from the obvious cuts in the name of brevity, New Frontier is still distinctly Cooke’s work.
But while it has Cooke’s ideas, characters, and stories, it lacks his execution. I’m not entirely sure who this film was made for: It’s been edited down to a family-friendly length, and the plot and cast streamlined. But it’s not particularly family friendly, opening as it does with Doctor Seuss committing suicide and then cutting to Hal Jordan blowing a Korean soldier’s brains out. The film maintains most of the dark elements of the book, but manages to feel more adult and less mature at the same time. It seems to crave an adult sensibility, but doesn’t give the audience a whole lot of credit.
It doesn’t help that there’s not exactly a lot of subtlety in the script: it seemed important to screenwriter Stan Berkowitz that someone remind the audience that “The Centre” is the mysterious bad thing every five minutes or so. And the length restriction means the plot can’t flow quite as organically as it should – characters show up out of nowhere, do their thing, and wander off abruptly; Aquaman’s appearance in particular seems rather spontaneous.
It seems as though the producers wanted to go in too many directions: They try to be faithful to Cooke’s story, but can’t quite get past the fact the fact that the original thrived on its depth and breadth – it unfolded slowly as threads were gathered from different stories. Cooke’s New Frontier was about an entire cultural movement, of society changing the way it looked at heroes, and heroes changing the way they acted; it didn’t seem at all out of place that Green Arrow would just show up, or Ray Palmer showed up in the nick of time with his amazing shrinking ray, because Cooke showed that these things were just happening all over the place.
The film needed to be either a half-hour longer, or the script needed to be restructured in a way that let it develop more organically. I’m sure there’s some sort of marketing formula that dictates the length, but there really shouldn’t be a problem adding another 30 minutes if Pixar can win the Best Animated Feature Oscar – to say nothing of make piles of cash – with a 106-minute film. New Frontier is an ambitious project, and it’s disappointing to see it fall short of its aims due to a (relatively) artificial limitation.
The big-name voice talent is something of a mixed bag. While most of the actors generally fit well with their characters, one must unfortunately accept that there was a reason why most of these people were available for a direct-to-DVD animated film: They’re not great.
Don’t get me wrong: I love David Boreanz. Angel? Yes. He’s awesome. But while he can pull off swashbuckling, flirty, and cocky – all important attributes for Hal Jordan – he has the emotional range of a small square of plywood. The same can be said of most of the cast – Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman and Kyle McLachlan as Superman are entertaining enough when they’re being heroic or advancing the plot, but tend to fall into a confused hole when called upon for inspiration or emotion; Superman’s motivational speech to the gathered heroes is downright painful.
Neil Patrick Harris turns in a decent Flash, largely because the character doesn’t really call for a lot of range. Jeremy Sisto’s Batman is appropriately gravelly and grim. (Amusingly, Sisto has now played Batman, Jesus, and Caesar. That’s kind of awesome.)
The animation has its highs and lows. Cooke’s visual style is obvious from the opening credits, and the film captures a lot of the hell yeah! moments Cooke did so well. (Including a surprising reinterpretation of a scene you probably didn’t expect to see.) Everything and everyone certainly looks the way you’d want them to. But the action scenes are kind of hit-and-miss – is it odd that Cooke did a better job showing off the Flash in a series of static images than the film could? The rocket sequence seems poorly constructed, although perhaps they were saving their budget for the climactic battle against hordes of monsters, which works quite well.
New Frontier certainly isn’t the disaster it could have been, but while it won’t have fans shaking their heads in disappointment, it probably won’t light up too many smiles the way the book did, either. It looks like New Frontier, and acts like New Frontier, but it doesn’t have the same magic. Ultimately, it feels like a very skilled recreation that got all the pieces together in the right places, but didn’t quite understand why the original worked so well. Which is a hell of a step forward for superhero adaptations, but not quite good enough for New Frontier.